Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An extremely exciting lead up to Underworld USA, 28 Nov 2002
The first in the series, "The Big Nowhere", follows on very loosely from "The Black Dhalia" and follows its style closely. It is a chilling study of corruption as are all of Ellroy's works. By the close of this book we know Dudley Smith is a bad, bad man. But so are all of the other characters. Smith just happens to be much badder. As we move on into the brilliant "LA Confidential" we are guided by a man who could be even badder, but his work with Dudley turns him into a better person. Ellroy skillfully opens up the narrative threads, allowing his protagonists their full voice and giving us clearsight into their actions. If you've seen the film of this book pretend it's a film of a different book. The protagonists are even badder again but by now you are so desensitised to the pervasive baddness of LA in general that you root for them all the same.
I love Ellroy's work. The Dudley Smith trio allows him to segue from almost pure crime writing to historical fiction and sets the stage perfectly for his as yet infinished "Underworld USA" trilogy that begins with "American Tabloid". "American Tabloid" was the first James Ellroy novel I ever read, followed by "The Cold 6 Thousand", so when the character Pete Bondurant turned up in "White Jazz", my pulse raced. I can't remember the last book I read that has an actual physiological effect on me. I was so excited because, having read the later books, I knew where he was going, and it was great to see how he was going to get there.
One of the brilliant things about the Dudley Smith trio as whole is that we never see the world from Smith's perspective. He is just there, a lurking evil. Rather we get to know him though his interactions with Ellroy's detailed, troubled protagonists. We are given the chance to know what the characters do not know, only because of the different perspectives of the characters themselves. But we never really know what Smith is up to, until exactly the right moment.
Ellroy is one of the few novelists whose work I just can't put down. I read most of his books in two or three sittings because I just couldn't stand not knowing what was about to be revealed next. The only reason I didn't give this collection 5 stars is that his later works of historical fiction are just that much better again. Ellroy improves with age and I have great hopes for the next in the Underworld USA series.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great introduction to the works of James Ellroy, 24 Jan 2000
By A Customer
This trilogy comprises The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential and White Jazz, which along with The Black Dahlia make up James Ellroy's L.A. Quartet. Taken together, these blood-soaked crime thrillers are nothing less than a history of that quintessential post-war American town, Los Angeles, as told from the viewpoint of rogue cops, killers, prostitutes, junkies, movie starlets, Mafia strongmen, Cold War crusaders, politicians, lawyers and other such lowlifes. The Dudley Smith Trio is a great introduction to the unique work of James Ellroy and a must for fans of crime fiction.
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Grand Read Lad!, 6 Feb 2001
Dudley Smith is a cop's cop. He makes no compromises in his dealings with either the criminal fraternity or his fellow police officers. He uses and abuses both with equal disregard. On the surface he is a God-fearing family man who puts family values above all else. But his alter-ego shows a vicious, sadistic man. A man on the take. A man who would use every means at his disposal to further his own criminal ends. Make no mistake, anyone who crosses Dudley Smith must have a death wish. He has his finger in more crooked deals than you could imagine. He will tramp over the reputations if not the bodies of his fellow police officers in his quest to climb the promotion ladder. A move designed to give him unparalled power within the LAPD and in his nefarious illegal activities. Each of the books in the trilogy reveals further sordid facets of Dudley Smith's checkered career. The culmination of his way of life had to be explosive, and in the final part, Dudley Smith faces his nemisis in true DS style. Death would have been too good for him, given the grief which he had visited on others both in the line of duty and in the furtherance of his criminal goals. As DS would so easily say in his soft Irish brogue, "Ah, grand lad, grand!" I have read and reread this trilogy and I can always manage to come up with some new perspective on DS.
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