White Jazz

By: James Ellroy

Narrated by: Scott Brick

A novel in The L.A. Quartet. Internationally acclaimed author James Ellroy presents another literary noir masterpiece of historical paranoia.

Los Angeles, 1958. Killings, beatings, bribes, shakedowns—it's standard procedure for Lieutenant Dave Klein, LAPD. He's a slumlord, a bagman, an enforcer—a power in his own small corner of hell. Then the Feds announce a full-out investigation into local police corruption, and everything goes haywire.

Klein's been hung out as bait, "a bad cop to draw the heat," and the heat's coming from all sides: from local politicians, from LAPD brass, from racketeers and drug kingpins—all of them hell-bent on keeping their own secrets hidden. For Klein, "forty-two and going on dead," it's dues time.

Klein tells his own story—his voice clipped, sharp, often as brutal as the events he's describing—taking us with him on a journey through a world shaped by monstrous ambition, avarice, and perversion. It's a world he created, but now he'll do anything to get out of it alive.

Fierce, riveting, and honed to a razor edge, White Jazz is crime fiction at its most shattering.

Critic reviews

"One of the great American writers of our time." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

"White Jazz makes previous detective fiction read like Dr. Seuss." --San Francisco Examiner

"Riffling, rolling, reeling. . . . Ellroy's best." --The Denver Post

"Riveting. . . . Impossible to put down. . . . An author who breaks all the rules. He's a kamikaze pilot on a collision course with hell. The pen moves madly across the page. . . . A book that is one long scream of rage and emptiness and longing." --The News and Observer

Scott Brick hits a home run!

Great book. Scott Brick always came across to me as a somewhat boring narrator, but this time he nailed it!

Someone's always watching

Scott Brick is a fantastic narrator and
Ellroy is still king of noire prose atmosphere

Raw, Challenging Final Act Needed Better Narrator

I’ve been a fan of James Ellroy for 25 years now but I only started listening to the audiobook versions of his work. It took me about 2 years to get around to all of them but I recently finished listening to his entire body of work, and White Jazz was the only one that featured a narrator that either just isn’t very good ior was at least wrong for this. Personally I’m leaning toward the former but this is the only thing I’ve heard him read so maybe he does a better job elsewhere, but he nearly ruins this. It’s too bad because White Jazz is a really great novel that features some of the best and boldest writing stylistically that Ellroy has ever done, and features a pretty insane plot that’s a worthy conclusion to the famed LA Quartet.

What a great book!

I've always loved this book and hearing it read by Scott Brick is a real treat. I don't get all the 1 star reviews. This is a really good book.

I wish Audible would get some more Ellroy books. An unabridged version of "LA Confidential" would be a great start. Followed by "The Big Nowhere".

Enjoyable...

There are better Ellroy books, but this was pretty good. The real downfall was Scott Brick. Normally I like him, but he's wrong for Ellroy. He can't do gritty pulp.