Jean-Paul Gratias Knihy

A young Las Vegas cop named Wayne Tedrow, Jr. travels through the 1960s, from JFK's assassination to Vietnam, unaware that J. Edgar Hoover is the one pulling the strings.

Krimi. A political noir tale set during the summer of 1968 in which the lives of three men collide in the pursuit of the leftist shadow figure known as the Red Goddess Joan

It is December 6, 1941. America stands at the brink of World War II. Last hopes for peace are shattered when Japanese squadrons bomb Pearl Harbor. Los Angeles has been a haven for loyal Japanese-Americansbut now, war fever and race hate grip the city and the Japanese internment begins.

From “one of the great American writers of our time” (Los Angeles Times Book Review): a raw, explicit memoir as high-intensity and riveting as any of his novels.The year was 1958. James Ellroy was ten years old. His mother, Jean Hilliker, had divorced her fast-buck hustler husband. She gave her son a choice: live with his father or her. He chose his father, and Jean—“half gassed”—attacked him. He wished her dead. Three months later, she was murdered.Ellroy writes, “I owe her for every true thing that I am. I must remove the malediction I have placed on her and on myself,” and in The Hilliker Curse, he narrates his quest for “atonement in women.” He unsparingly describes his shattered childhood, his delinquent teens, his writing life, his love affairs and marriages, a nervous breakdown and the beginning of a relationship with an extraordinary woman who may just be the long-sought Her. It is a layered narrative of time and place, emotion and insight, sexuality and spiritual quest. And all of it is reported with gut-wrenching and heart-rending candor.A brilliant and soul-baring revelation of self—and unlike any memoir you have ever read.

With considerable, if uneven, success, the four novellas in this volume trace the intersecting paths of characters from Gifford's previous work. In the standout tale, "59 and Raining: The Story of Perdita Durango," Gifford weaves real-life incidents into a narrative featuring a "weird and dangerous" heroine with "8-ball black eyes" and a Caribbean-born, drug-dealing santeria priest. Together, they kidnap two American teenagers in Mexico, embarking on a crime spree across Texas and California. This leads back to Louisiana, where Lula's mother, Marietta Fortune, ominously declares, "There's a Devil and he don't never quit," echoing the violence that permeates these stories. Amid the often fatal exploits of crime lords and small-time losers, Sailor and Lula Ripley thrive in love and fortune. In the final story, they take pride in their son, Pace, who, after a troubled past, now leads trekking expeditions in Nepal. Gifford's sharp characterizations, featuring names like Coot Veal and the Rev. Goodin Plenty, are generally supported by engaging dialogue. However, Sailor and Lula, still sounding like adolescent runaways in their 50s, present an unconvincing anchor amid the chaos surrounding them. This volume is part of a series promoting fiction that vividly brings settings to life.