Red Sheet – James Ellroy’s New Novel: Title Reveal, Synopsis and Publication Date
According to Amazon, the tile of James Ellroy’s new novel is Red Sheet. The publication date is set for June 9, 2026. Amazon also has a full synopsis:
Turn to the first page and disavow what you think you know. This is 1960s Los Angeles like you’ve never seen it before, in a daring work of historical fiction from bestselling author of The Enchanters and Widespread Panic.
It’s late October 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis has just concluded. The U.S. prevailed. Attorney General Robert Kennedy fears reprisals from domestic Communist Party members embedded in L.A. He orders a red probe and puts the LAPD on the job.
Freddy Otash is named lead investigator. He encounters commie malfeasance at every turn. He homes in on a red-front trade union. There’s a murder on Halloween night. It links to ex-VP and gubernatorial candidate Richard Nixon and possibly two homicides eight years back. Now Freddy is working double duty: he’s commanding the probe and is hired to keep Nixon out of trouble. Meanwhile, integrationist fever is sweeping L.A. and the police department comes under its fire. Ex-cop/lawyer Tom Bradley is running for city council and pushing the Rumford Fair Housing Act. Playboy kingpin Hugh Hefner is along for the ride. And the long-forgotten but still-stunning folk singer Judy Henske is on a collision course with the love of her life, the freewheeling Freddy O.
The stage is set for chaos and Freddy thrives on chaos. Red Sheet is a work of subversive art. It embodies “indigenous American berserk” with a uniquely crazed and brilliant passion.
This is an exciting development for Ellroy fans. However, I would take the publication date with a pinch of salt. These dates tend to be provisional and are often too optimistic. I would even say the title might change with time. As I document in Love Me Fierce in Danger: The Life of James Ellroy, Ellroy has been left furious when incorrect titles to his novels have leaked online before. He even sacked his long-term agent Nat Sobel when the title This Storm appeared on Sobel’s website prematurely. Nevertheless, the synopsis is fairly detailed and gives the reader a tantalising glimpse of Freddy Otash’s next misadventure.
The Demon Dog is back!
The Venetian Vase 
Judy Henske – now that’s a surprise appearance.
Andrew Vachss once said, “If Linda Ronstadt’s a torch singer, Henske’s a flame thrower.”
Very true – the lady could really belt it out.
jeez, maybe I need a new laptop. here’s an old CSPAN video you may enjoy. was reminded of this after watching your Philip Roth biography vid. Bill The Life and Work of Philip Roth | Video | C-SPAN.org
Bill, what a wonderful find! Thank you.
Looking forward to this but I have a question. Do you think this will be the 3rd novel in Ellroy’s L.A. Quintet series, or another Fred Otash standalone?
This is the fourth novel in the LA Quintet – Perfidia, This Storm and The Enchanters being the first three. Widespread Panic was a standalone Otash novel.
Ah, thanks for telling me this Steve. Wikipedia has it wrong (as unreliable as usual). It states Perfidia & This Storm as LA Quintet, and Widespread Panic & The Enchanters as Fred Otash.
Admittedly, Ellroy created some of the confusion himself. Perfidia and This Storm were originally part of the Second LA Quartet, but Ellroy got bored with the wartime setting and prequels and after writing Widespread Panic (a standalone) he decided to wrap Perfidia and This Storm into a wider LA Quintet which jumps forward twenty years with Freddy Otash in The Enchanters. He plans to do Red Sheet and one more in this series. Crystal clear!
I’ll be cautiously optimistic on the date since we at least have an official synopsis and The Enchanters was on schedule. Pleasant surprise if accurate- the book is also listed at 608 pages. Even with the inevitable cast list in the back and other miscellaneous pages, that is a decent sized Ellroy book!
It’s certainly good news and if he can hit that date, or even just a month or two out, then we don’t have that long to wait. Ellroy is predisposed to write epics these days, with the exception of Widespread Panic. There are times though when I wish he’d go back to the concise raw power of White Jazz.
From a narrative standpoint I’m kind of glad for the epics at this point. His revised quintet plan now means tying together at least some of The Enchanters along with the two prequels, not to mention any connections to the quartet and Underworld USA. With the new synopsis I’m hoping to see Claire De Haven in a prominent role with the red cells, perhaps giving a conclusion to one significant character.
All of that would be great if it’s on his agenda. I hope as well, Red Sheet is written in an engaging style, in which he tones down the alliteration and man camera narration.
Totally agree on the alliteration. We may see more of the man camera though- can’t remember the name but the fictional inventor of the man camera is name checked in the previous Otash books and even by Hideo on This Storm. He even gets an entry in the character list of The Enchanters as a Brownshirt- felt like it was leading to something.
Dr Hans Maslick – yes, I wouldn’t be surprised if he reappears.
White Jazz was originally 900 or so pages, and then had words removed? Read it last week. Top book.
have you read the original manuscript?
Also, you knowvif JE needed to retool Enchanters much to make it go from a sequel to Widespread panic to become a stand alone LA quintet book? 🙂
At first it was heavily edited, but then Sonny Mehta felt that too much had been cut out and it was difficult to read, so Ellroy had to reinsert many words. Ellroy used to cut out words, not pages or sections. This way the novel would always come out plotwise the way he intended. Full story in my Ellroy bio. No, The Enchanters didn’t need to be rewritten as Ellroy envisaged it as a definite break from the wartime setting of Perfidia and This Storm which he was struggling to handle.
Yeah, I remember it was covered in Love me fierce in danger. Wish I could grace my shelf with a hardback 😉
But the much longer White Jazz manuscript, is that available at the archive? Can it be read? Have you read it? In that case how does it compare?
Regarding The Enchanters. Do you know if it for example at some point continue Widespread panic’s “Otash writing himself out of hell” , or was it written right away as less satirical and without purgatory? 🙂
The purgatory stuff felt like it somewhat dropped half way through Widespread panic anyway. I kinda enjoy the book as a short story collection, bit like Hollywood Nocturnes.
Thank you for the kind words. Love Me Fierce went straight to paperback, ebook and audiobook as my previous academic books were all hardbacks but so expensive it was deemed to have damaged sales. I’m pleased LMFID is a paperback at a reasonable price anyone can pick up. The original WJ manuscript is not at South Carolina as I recall. Ellroy’s numerous script versions are there and are interesting to read. The purgatory stuff was slowly dropped as Ellroy’s editor, Edward Kastermeier, didn’t like it. It was never part of The Enchanters as E wanted to write a more serious book by then.
Makes sense! Still, fingers crossed 😉
Thank you the info regarding the purgatory stuff. Interesting it was left in at all. Didn’t drive the story like -I want to remember- it did in the original Shakedown novella.
Tvanks for posting Steven!
Wonder if Hugh Hefner is there he bought a crypt next to Monroe in 92.
Tom Bradley had history with both William H Parker and Daryl Gates. Cpuld get interesting 🙂
Hefner seems like the perfect Ellroy character. Bradley is also very intriguing.
I loved your biography of Ellroy!
Thank you Casey. You have impeccable taste!