Lee Earle "James" Ellroy is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a telegrammatic prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, staccato sentences, and in particular for the novels The Black Dahlia (1987), The Big Nowhere (1988), L.A. Confidential (1990), White Jazz (1992), American Tabloid (1995), The Cold Six Thousand (2001), and Blood's a Rover (2009).
The Black Dahlia (1987) is a crime fiction novel by American author James Ellroy. Its subject is the 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short in Los Angeles, California, which received wide attention because her corpse was horrifically mutilated and discarded in an empty residential lot. The investigation ultimately led to a broad police corruption scandal. While rooted in the facts of the Short murder and featuring many real-life people, places and events, Ellroy's novel blends facts and fiction, notably in solving Short's crime when in reality her murder was unsolved. James Ellroy dedicated The Black Dahlia, "To Geneva Hilliker Ellroy 1915-1958 Mother: Twenty-nine Years Later, This Valediction in Blood." The epigraph for The Black Dahlia is "Now I fold you down, my drunkard, my navigator, My first lost keeper, to love and look at later. -Anne Sexton."
Judith Rossner was an American novelist, best known for her acclaimed best sellers Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1975) and August (1983).
Mr. Goodbar is a candy bar containing peanuts and chocolate, whose packaging is identifiable by its yellow background and red text. It is manufactured by The Hershey Company and was introduced in 1925. Although the Hershey Milk Chocolate Bar with Almonds had been produced since 1908, Milton Hershey initially did not want the Hershey brand name associated with a chocolate bar that contained peanuts, so it was introduced as being produced by the "Chocolate Sales Corporation". It is currently available both as an individual product and as one of the varieties of Hershey's Miniatures.
Looking for Mr. Goodbar is a novel by American writer Judith Rossner. Published in 1975, the book—a "stunning psychological study of a woman's passive complicity in her own death" —won critical acclaim and was a #1 New York Times best seller.
Joseph Aaron Carnahan is an American independent film director, screenwriter, producer and actor best known for his films Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane, Narc, Smokin' Aces, The A-Team, and The Grey. He also writes and directed some episodes for the NBC television series The Blacklist. He is the brother of screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan and producer Leah Carnahan.
The Black Dahlia is a nickname given to 1940s murder victim Elizabeth Short.
The Big Nowhere is a 1988 crime fiction novel by James Ellroy, the second of the L.A. Quartet, a series of novels set in 1940s and 1950s Los Angeles. James Ellroy dedicated The Big Nowhere "To Glenda Revelle". The epigraph for The Big Nowhere is a passage from a novel; "It was written that I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice. Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness".
White Jazz is a 1992 crime fiction novel by James Ellroy. It is the fourth in his L.A. Quartet, preceded by The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, and L.A. Confidential. James Ellroy dedicated White Jazz "TO Helen Knode." The epigraph for White Jazz is "'In the end I possess my birthplace and I am possessed by its language.' -Ross MacDonald."
Brown's Requiem is a 1998 film written and directed by Jason Freeland. Brown's Requiem was the first novel by noted crime author James Ellroy, and his third to be adapted to film following L.A. Confidential in 1997, and Blood on the Moon in 1987.
The L.A. Quartet is a sequence of four crime fiction novels by James Ellroy set in the late 1940s through the late 1950s in Los Angeles. They are:
The Lloyd Hopkins Trilogy consists of the three crime fiction novels written by James Ellroy: Blood on the Moon (1984), Because the Night (1984) and Suicide Hill (1985).
L.A. Confidential (1990) is a neo-noir novel by James Ellroy, and the third of his L.A. Quartet series. James Ellroy dedicated L.A. Confidential "to Mary Doherty Ellroy". The epigraph is "A glory that costs everything and means nothing—Steve Erickson."
Blood's a Rover is a 2009 crime fiction novel by American author James Ellroy. It follows American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand as the final volume of Ellroy's Underworld USA Trilogy. A 10,000-word excerpt was published in the December 2008 issue of Playboy. The book was released on September 22, 2009. James Ellroy dedicated Blood's a Rover "To J.M. Comrade: For Everything You Gave Me."
Looking for Mr. Goodbar is a 1977 American crime drama film, based on Judith Rossner's best-selling novel of the same name, which was inspired by the 1973 murder of New York City schoolteacher Roseann Quinn, who led something of a double life. The film was written and directed by Richard Brooks, and stars Diane Keaton, Tuesday Weld, William Atherton and Richard Gere.
Suicide Hill is a crime fiction novel written by James Ellroy.
Released in 1986, it is the third and final installment of the Lloyd Hopkins Trilogy.
Brenda Allen was a madam based in Los Angeles, California, whose arrest in 1948 triggered a scandal that led to the attempted reform of the Los Angeles Police Department (L.A.P.D.). Allen received police protection due to her relationship with Sergeant Elmer V. Jackson of the L.A.P.D.'s administrative vice squad, who reportedly was her lover.
