The Big Nowhere

By: James Ellroy

Narrated by: Craig Wasson

A novel in The L.A. Quartet. Murder, mayhem and dirty cops on the make against the backdrop of anti-communist hysteria in L.A. in 1950.

It’s Los Angeles in the new year of 1950. The Communist Scare is heating up. Gangsters vie for control of the town. The Hollywood studios are feuding with the unions. Then a dead body with its eyes gouged out turns up.

The investigating officer, Sheriff’s deputy Danny Upshaw, is obsessed with the murder case that no one else cares about. LAPD Lieutenant Mal Considine jumps onto the Red Scare bandwagon to advance his career and gain custody of his adopted son. And Buzz Meeks is in it all for the money.

The three cops get caught in the city’s web of ambition, perversion, and deceit. All three have purchased tickets to a nightmare.

All over the place

I had a hell of a time keeping up with what was going on, especially early in the story. It does come together later on, but i was pretty much checked out by that time

Censored

This book is heavily and I mean heavily censored. It’s sad to see how a few people have so much control.

Great Book, Decemt Reading, & Quit Censoring Great Writing

Awesome book, glad it’s finally on Audible. I usually really like how Craig Wasson reads Ellroy, but I thought he was a little overly emotional in places, some sorta odd places too, but overall he does fine. The problem with this release is the needless and senseless censoring of certain words throughout the book. Look, I’m not trying to say these are good words, of course they’re rough and can hurt, but that’s not the point. The point is that it’s a more realistic reflection the period with those words in the book, thus making it a better, more immersive listen than without it. Would you prefer a portrayal where all past sins are just glossed over like they didn’t happen? I surely wouldn’t. Seriously, why are we tailoring things to the needs of people who aren’t even going to listen to it anyway. Makes no sense. But that’s the way of the world now so….

A sprawling noir fable worth checking out before LA Confidential

The story of Buzz Meeks that you need to hear before you dive into the book the movie LA Confidential is based on. Each chapter in the LA Quartet is a self contained story and it's worth starting with The Black Dahlia even though you can pick up any of them in any order. Like a lot of audio books the narrator starts out a little shaky but he quickly warms to the material and his narration takes off like a rocket.

Great book and performance, marred by censorship

As others have noted, this book was selectively censored. All the gore was left intact, and there is plenty of it. All other racial slurs are still spoken, except for one. I am an adult, and don't need Random House Audio to make decisions to protect me from strong language. Craig Wasson's performance is great, as was his narration of L.A. Confidential. But the use of "N" instead of the full word breaks suspension of disbelief, and reminds the listener that risk-averse corporate cowards decided to make an "editorial decision" to alter the text. What's worse is the claim that this is an unabridged edition—stated in the product description, and mentioned again in the closing credits. How is a censored version unabridged?

I had listened to The Black Dahlia (#1 in the L.A. quartet) and L.A. Confidential (#3) already, but The Big Nowhere (#2) was not available until August 2025, so I have put off listening to White Jazz (#4) until I was able to fill in the gap. The prose is less "telegraphic" than L.A. Confidential, and now I finally understand the opening sequence of that book, where Buzz Meeks is on the run with a bunch of heroin and stolen money. I'll have to listen to the opening chapter again, now that I get the context. This book is as gory as The Black Dahlia, and possibly even more so. A combination of anti-communist investigation with pursuit of a demented serial killer, with some unexpected twists that are heart-wrenching. Craig Wasson's adaptable voice does a great job portraying the characters—Meeks, Audrey, Dudley Smith—and his emotional range is remarkable.

I did enjoy the book, so am torn on whether to seek a refund, given the fraudulent advertising of "unabridged." Future readers who see the Audible reviews at least know what they are getting into, but I preordered the book and was unpleasantly caught off guard by the bowdlerization.