James Ellroy

Reviews of the Series: “The McFarland Companion series...has been consistently excellent, both in its choice of subjects and its quality of scholarship and writing”—Mystery Scene; “wonderfully detailed”—theguardian.com; “From Brown’s Requiem to Blood’s A Rover and beyond, Jim Mancall’s encyclopedic companion to all things Ellroy achieves something I thought impossible. It provides a clear, comprehensive guide to the Demon Dog’s dark, complex literary world. With its summaries of all of the author’s works, from novels and book-length nonfiction to articles (in GQ magazine and elsewhere), descriptions of main characters and their recurring appearances, objective presentations of themes and motifs, as well as biographical material, this generous volume is the equivalent of a James Ellroy master class. And it is not without its intriguing bits of Ellroy esoterica. Who knew, for example, that the character Donna Donahue in three “Rhino” Rick Jenson novellas is based on the actress Dana Delany? Or that, in his introduction to the Everyman’s Library edition of Dashiell Hammett’s The Dain Curse, The Glass Key, and Select Stories, Ellroy trashes The Dain Curse”—Dick Lochte, critic and Shamus-nominated author of Blues in the Night.