Hollywood Nocturnes

Mysterious Press - HighBridge Audio Classics

By: James Ellroy

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Nobody plays accordion like Dick Contino. His skilled fingers can find beauty in even the schmaltziest Borscht Belt favorites, and with his matinee-idol looks he could be a real star. Right now, though, he’s slumming it as the headliner in a Grade Z teenybopper picture called Daddy-O. He’s too good for this movie, and finishing it is going to take him to a very dark place.

Daddy-O and Dick Contino are both real, their stories dredged out of the past by James Ellroy, a master of historical crime fiction. In Dick Contino's Blues he takes us to B-List Hollywood in 1957 - a time when movies were cheerful and dirty secrets lurked just off camera. Included along with the novella are five short stories, all in the author’s inimitable tough-bitten style.

Includes:

• "Dick Contino's Blues"
• "High Darktown"
• "Dial Axminster 6-400"
• "Since I Don't Have You"
• "Gravy Train"
• "Torch Number"

©1994 James Ellroy. Recorded by arrangement with Mysterious Press.com, LLC. (P)2013 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"Black-and-blue in tone and garishly colored in content and style." ( New York Times Book Review)

"Required reading for those who take their crime fiction gritty, dark and a few degrees below boiling." ( Publishers Weekly)

"A must for Ellroy fans." ( San Francisco Chronicle)

Watch the Ellroy's LA Noir in foetus form

The great thing about reading this 1994 collection of short-stories by Ellroy is how many of the characters appear in later novels. Definitely feels like unreleased tracks from the still unfinished The L.A. Quintet and the Underworld USA Trilogy. These stories feel like scenes from one novel or another. Like the foetuses of future characters swimming in this pulp womb until they emerge in one or another of Ellory's later novels. Stand alone, it's ok. But for the big fan, it is nice to see the sausage being made, broken and burned.

Stories included:

"Out of the Past"
"Dick Contino's Blues"
"High Darktown"
"Dial Axminster 6-400"
"Since I Don't Have You"
"Gravy Train"
"Torch Number"