Blood’s A Rover: A Novel
James Ellroy
(Random House, 2009)
Hard-boiled crime fiction is at its boiling point in 2009. Chef Ellroy has finished his fine hot meal with his new novel, Blood’s A Rover, as a cowboy steak for his main course. American Tabloid (1995) was the appetizer, followed by the salad, Cold Six Thousand (2001). With dinner now served, this meal is like no other in literary crime fiction. Ellroy is extending this grand genre with Blood’s literary accomplishment.
Reading Ellroy, you enter the writer’s mind as he expresses himself through a multitude of
complex, believable characters. This fine author challenges the reader while being touched with the full gambit of internal emotions, feeling these characters experiences not just reading them. Plots too complex to summarize, characters too many to name, adjectives too many to start using in description.
I consider Ellroy to be totally courteous to the reader: not giving away too much, not letting this meal be chewed too fast, a dinner served to last awhile and savor with dessert being the last page.
P.S.: While reading Blood’s A Rover, don’t be surprised if you find yourself cussing more in your day-to-day conversation.
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