My Dark Places

My Dark Places, by James Ellroy

James Ellroy's mother was brutally murdered in 1958 in a run-down honky tonk town in the suburbs of L.A.  (For those of you who don't know, Ellroy wrote L.A. Confidential, the book that begat the movie.)

Her killer was never found.  The case got shoved onto the back shelf with the rest of  the unsolved crimes and went largely forgotten by everyone except her son.

This book details El Monte, California in that time frame and the effect his mother's murder had on Mr. Ellroy and his life.

Dark places, indeed.

Mr. Ellroy teamed up with a homicide detective to see what they could find out about Mr. Ellroy's mother.  She had a lot of secrets, to begin with.  There were a lot of leads that led nowhere.  There was a lot of mystery all the way around.

It's a mystery and an autobiography as well and it's a pretty grim read.  Wonderfully written in an old fashioned, hard boiled hepcat jive sort of prose throughout parts.

I felt such sadness for everyone who passed through this story.  So many losses of so much, dreams and hopes and families.

It's definitely worth the read.

Comments

[milk and cake]

i've seen ellroy on various talk shows, and hearing him talk about his mother's death and the effect it had on him is always sad. also sometimes funny in a macabre way. i'll have to check this book out!