Los Angeles, 1956. Glamorous. Prosperous. The place to see and
be seen. But beneath the shiny exterior beats a dark heart. For
when the sun goes down, L.A. becomes the noir city of James
Ellroy's "L.A. Confidential "or Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins
novels. Segregation is the unwritten law of the land. The growing
black population is expected to keep to South Central. The white
cops are encouraged to deal out harsh street justice. In "L.A.
'56," Joel Engel paints a tense, moody portrait of the city as a
devil weaves his way through the shadows.
While R&B and hot jazz spill out of record shops and clubs and
all-night burger stands, Willie Fields cruises past in his dark
green DeSoto, looking for a woman on whom he can bestow the gift of
his company. His brilliant idea: Buy a tin badge in the
five-and-ten to go along with his big flashlight and Luger and
pretend to be an undercover vice cop. The young white girls doing
it with their boyfriends in the lovers' lanes dotting the L.A.
hills would never say no to a cop. Into the car they go for a ride
downtown on a "morals charge," before he kicks out the young man in
the middle of nowhere and takes the girl for a ride she'll spend a
lifetime trying to forget.
There's a bad guy on the loose in the City of Angels.
Enter Detective Danny Galindo--he'd worked the Black Dahlia case
back in '47 as a rookie. The suave Latino--one of the few in the
department--is able to move easily among the white detectives.
Maybe it's all those stories he's sold to Jack Webb for "Dragnet."
When Todd Roark, a black ex-cop, is arrested, Galindo knows he's
innocent. But there's no sympathy for Roark among the white cops on
the LAPD; Galindo will have to go it alone.
There's only one problem: The victims aren't coming forward. The
white press ignores the story, too, making Galindo's job that much
more difficult. And now he's fallen in love with one of the
rapist's first victims. If he's ever found out, he can kiss his
badge good-bye.
With his back up against a wall, Galindo realizes that it will take
some good old-fashioned Hollywood magic to take down a devil in the
City of Angels.
General
Imprint: |
Thomas Dunne Books
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
April 2012 |
First published: |
April 2012 |
Authors: |
Joel Engel
|
Dimensions: |
241 x 164 x 27mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover - Unsewn / adhesive bound / Paper over boards / With dust jacket
|
Pages: |
320 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-312-59194-6 |
Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
True stories >
Crime
|
LSN: |
0-312-59194-2 |
Barcode: |
9780312591946 |
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