SUMMARY:The second volume of "The L.A. Quartet," — Ellroy's fictional alternative history of the City of Angels circa the 1940s and '50s. Volume 2 is centered around the Hollywood Red Scare of the 1950s and a gruesome mutilation murder committed by a killer fitted with wolverine teeth. Key characters include Mal Considine, Turner "Buzz" Meeks and and L.A. Deputy Sheriff Danny Upshaw. Dudley Liam Smith also makes his first appearance since Ellroy's second novel, "Clandestine."
PUBLISHER'S TEASER:"Los Angeles, 1950. Red crosscurrents: the Commie Scare and a string of brutal mutilation killings. Movieland leftists on a collision course with a grand jury investigation team. A young homicide detective obsessed with capturing a murderer of unparalleled viciousness — even though the price may be horrific self-revelation. Gangsters and cops and fixers and Hollywood grotesques in a noir novel of epic scope and depth.
"The Big Nowhere is the story of three men caught up in massive web of ambition, perversion and deceit. Danny Upshaw is a Sheriff's deputy stuck with a bunch of snuffs nobody cares about; they're his chance to make his name as a cop — and to sate his darkest curiosities. Mal Considine is D.A.'s Bureau brass, climbing on the Red Scare bandwagon to advance his career and to gain custody of his adopted son — a child he saved from the horror of postwar Europe. Buzz Meeks — bagman, ex-Narco goon and pimp for Howard Hughes — is fighting Communism for the money. All three have purchased tickets to a nightmare.
"The Big Nowhere is dark, brutal, tender and powerful; it is a remarkably vivid portrait of a remarkable time and place. With his best-selling The Black Dahlia, James Ellroy established himself as the modern master of noir fiction; The Big Nowhere establishes him as a major American novelist."
—© Mysterious Press
POINTS:The novel was first published by Mysterious Press in the U.S. (ISBN: 0-89296-283-6) on Sept. 12, 1988 and totals 406 pages. Ellroy dedicated the book to Glenda Revelle. A limited edition in blue cloth with matching blue slipcase was produced by Ultramarine Press.
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