Perfidia

A novel

By: James Ellroy

Narrated by: Craig Wasson

NATIONAL BESTSELLER     
AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

It is December 6, 1941. America stands at the brink of World War II. Last hopes for peace are shattered when Japanese squadrons bomb Pearl Harbor. Los Angeles has been a haven for loyal Japanese-Americans—but now, war fever and race hate grip the city and the Japanese internment begins.

The hellish murder of a Japanese family summons three men and one woman. William H. Parker is a captain on the Los Angeles Police Department. He’s superbly gifted, corrosively ambitious, liquored-up, and consumed by dubious ideology. He is bitterly at odds with Sergeant Dudley Smith—Irish émigré, ex-IRA killer, fledgling war profiteer. Hideo Ashida is a police chemist and the only Japanese on the L.A. cop payroll. Kay Lake is a twenty-one-year-old dilettante looking for adventure. The investigation throws them together and rips them apart. The crime becomes a political storm center that brilliantly illuminates these four driven souls—comrades, rivals, lovers, history’s pawns.
           
Perfidia is a novel of astonishments. It is World War II as you have never seen it, and Los Angeles as James Ellroy has never written it before. Here, he gives us the party at the edge of the abyss and the precipice of America’s ascendance. Perfidia is that moment, spellbindingly captured. It beckons us to solve a great crime that, in its turn, explicates the crime of war itself. It is a great American novel.

Classic Ellroy

Listening to Ellroy's books is so enjoyable! Great story and a great reading. Can't wait for the next one!

Stylish and engrossing, but sometimes messy and inauthentic

Sprawling, epic and utterly stylish. Ellroy is a master at time and place. This however does feel a bit sloppier and bit less cohesive and authentic than his other works.

Strong performance. Poor ending

Great reading.

Originally - throughout the first 2/3 of the book I was really impressed how Elroy could write a prequel to some of his other books light the Black Dahlia and LA Confidential and actually add to the characters' depth. But the last 1/4 of the book pretty much falls apart and we're left with a preposterous ending.

Too bad. I like Elroy's writing style, but it feels like he paints himself into a plot corner and uses dumb plot ideas to resolve.

needs a edit for all the dead wood

Once again a well established author clearly has nobody telling him that hes repeating himself over and over and over and over. It's a good book but it could have been trimmed down it would a been a great book

Monotonous

OK story but it seems very boring and long at times because of the repetitiveness. Not his best work. The performance by Wasson was great!!