Ellroy, James. L.A. confidential, London : Mysterious Press, 1990.

No doubt the screenwriters who adapted this novel for the screen (the smash 2001 film) were grateful for the raw material they were dealing with.

L.A. Confidential maintains Ellroy's reputation as a great writer.  His prose has an authentic ring of truth as he delves back into the corrupt Hollywood of so-called Golden Age.  

The language is profane, the characters hard-boiled, the plot gripping, and the whole novel is a page turner.

Ellroy is a master of the crime genre 

Dunne, John Gregory. True confessions, New York : Thunder's Mouth Press, 2006.

This gritty crime novel, set in the 1940s  is remembered as Dunne's finest achievement.  A prolific writer, journalist and screenwriter, he was the brother of Dominic Dunne novelist and social commentator (Vanity Fair columnist); and had an enduring marriage with Joan Didion whose novel Play It As It Lays also features in this blog.

First published in 1977, Dunne is able to indulge in a prose style which is expletive-laden.  In fact the book reads like a Tarrantino script - before Tarrantino had started making movies!  The core of the plot revolves around the famous still unsolved "Blue Dahlia" case and police corruption.  And two brothers, one a cop the other a priest.

True confessions  was adapted by Dunne for the movies.  With Robert de Niro and Robert Duvall in the leads, the film was a great success.