Ellroy Reads – The Onion Field by Joseph Wambaugh
Before I introduce the latest episode of Ellroy Reads I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who responded to my request to review Love Me Fierce in Danger: The Life of James Ellroy on Amazon and/or Goodreads. You have tilted the review average away from the trolls who were leaving one-star reviews after my online dust-up with them. There’s still time to review the book if you haven’t already. Every honest review helps.
In this week’s episode, I discuss Joseph Wambaugh’s non-fiction classic The Onion Field, which concerns the kidnapping of LAPD officers Ian Campbell and Karl Hettinger, and the subsequent murder of Campbell. James Ellroy always loved the book and spoke at a memorial to Ian Campbell in 2012. Watch till the end of the episode. I give an update on how I came to be the target of online trolls, for those of you who are interested.
Ellroy Reads – Gideon’s Day by John Creasey
Ellroy Reads is back with a look at Gideon’s Day by John Creasey. Often considered the father of the police procedural novel, Creasey was phenomenally prolific and successful as an author and Gideon’s Day is the novel that launched his Superintendent/Commander Gideon of Scotland Yard series.
I also give a brief update at the end of the episode about events I alluded to in my previous post on this website. Thanks for watching everyone and do remember to subscribe for more great episodes delivered straight to your inbox.
Summer Plans
For the past few months I’ve been using this website to post videos from my YouTube show Ellroy Reads. I’ve been having a blast recording the show and have more episodes planned. Thank you to everyone who has been watching, and do subscribe if you haven’t already. However, I feel that this website should have more diversity and Summer is the time I usually spending writing some long-form essays, so over the next few months I’m going to be posting articles about real-life crimes I was involved in, or perhaps I should say I had ringside seat to these crimes before anyone misreads my motivations. Stay tuned. I think you’ll enjoy them.
On another subject, I seem to have inadvertantly incurred the wrath of some Michael Jackson fans. My crime was to make the following tweet or post on X:
Within minutes I was bombarded by angry responses from an army of Jackson fans accusing me of every form of prejudice under the sun. It went on for days and got quite unpleasant. Although the conversations became more positive as they went on. Some people came to my support and colleagues approached me at work with warm words. Was my tweet justified? From a freedom of speech point of view, I had every right to say what I did. Regarding the other issues at stake, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment thread. Hopefully, we can keep it more civilised here than it was on X.
One of the tactics the Jackson trolls employed to try and make me take down the tweet was to leave one-star reviews of my biography, Love Me Fierce in Danger: The Life of James Ellroy on GoodReads. This is blatantly unfair as they haven’t read it. The book has already been nominated for and won several awards and made critics year-end lists, so there’s little they can do to tarnish its reputation. However, the effrontery of it rankles me.
If you have read Love Me Fierce in Danger and liked it, or even if you didn’t like it, please go to GoodReads and Amazon and leave an honest review. Hopefully, this will prove to the MJ trolls that they can’t intimidate an author by dragging his name through the dirt.
Aside from that, I am currently writing another book and editing a special James Ellroy themed issue for a prominent journal. It’s going to a be a busy Summer! Thank you all for your continued support.
For the latest episode of Ellroy Reads, I’ve shaken up the formula once again and decided to talk about The Big Somewhere: Essays on James Ellroy’s Noir World. Named after my favourite Ellroy novel, this was the most difficult but rewarding project I ever worked on, and I thought viewers might be interested in the book’s tortuous journey into print. Without this book, I never would have landed the role of Ellroy’s biographer.
Thanks for watching. Extra thanks to all of you who like and subscribe to the channel. More content is coming your way soon.
For the latest episode of Ellroy Reads, I look at Jean-Patrick Manchette’s neo-polar classic The Mad and the Bad. Manchette had a role in making Ellroy a cultural phenomenon in France, and I give some insight into the Demon Dog’s decades long love affair with the country.
Enjoy the episode, and remember to hit those Like and Subscribe buttons. They won’t electrocute you, but they will send killer content straight into your inbox the moment it’s published. It’s a little thank you from me for supporting the show.
Ellroy Reads – The Son by Jo Nesbø
For the latest episode of Ellroy Reads, I delve deep in to Scandi-Noir with a look at Jo Nesbø’s modern classic The Son.
I talk about the connections between Ellroy and Nesbø. I also share some insights into Nesbø’s appearance at Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate in 2012, in which Nesbø spoke at length about his father’s service in the German Army during World War Two. Nesbø was shocked to discover this hidden side of his father’s past, and it has had an enormous impact on his writing ever since.
Enjoy the episode and do remember to subscribe and spread the word, as this keeps the show going.
Ellroy Reads – 1980 by David Peace
For the latest episode of Ellroy Reads, I look at David Peace’s novel 1980. The third novel in Peace’s Red Riding Quartet series, 1980 is set against the backdrop of the Yorkshire Ripper murders and is one of Peace’s most powerful novels. I discuss some of the parallels between Peace and Ellroy’s work.
I hope you enjoy the episode, and please remember to subscribe, comment, share and like as this helps with YouTube’s algorithm.
Ellroy Reads – Conversations with James Ellroy
For the latest episode of Ellroy Reads I’ve shaken up the format a little. I discuss the process of getting my first book, Conversations with James Ellroy, into print. Your first book is a steeping learning curve and I talk about what I learned about Ellroy, publishing and the writing life along the way.
I hope you enjoy the episode. Remember to like, subscribe, share and comment as this helps to keep the channel going.
Highbrow Lowbrow – Volker Schlöndorff Special
We’ve had a break and now Dan Slattery and I are back with a new episode of our Highbrow Lowbrow podcast. In this episode we look at two films directed by acclaimed German director Volker Schlöndorff.
Dan’s choice is Schlöndorff’s unfairly maligned adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale. The novel and the recent television adaptation have been justly garlanded, but the film is also well worth a look. My pick is a film that barely received a theatrical release. The Ogre is a World War Two epic that few people have seen, and yet it features one of John Malkovich’s finest performances.
Enjoy the show and let us know your thoughts. You can listen to the episode here.
One of the finest and most overlooked war movies – The Ogre.
Ellroy Reads – The Ticket Out by Helen Knode
I got the urge to film an Ellroy Reads about an hour ago, and this episode was shot in the fading evening sun. The book for this week is Helen Knode’s stunning debut novel The Ticket Out, a Hollywood mystery with a difference. I talk a little about Helen’s background, her relationship with Ellroy and my friendship with the two of them.
This episode also features some Hollywood gossip I had some difficulty getting past the lawyers. Enjoy!
