Murder Season

October 17, 2011
At the outset of Ellis’s moody, fast-paced third mystery featuring LAPD detective Lena Gamble (after 2009’s The Lost Witness), Lena rushes to Club 3 AM, an elite Hollywood nightspot, where two men, both shot to death, have been found: Johnny Bosco, the club’s politically well-connected owner, and 25-year-old Jacob Gant, who was recently acquitted of the rape and murder of his 16-year-old neighbor, Lily Hight. Police bungling, including misplaced blood samples, ensured Gant’s release. Faced with the unpopular task of pursuing charges against Lily’s father, the chief suspect in the double homicide, Lena discovers additional cracks in the case against Gant. As Lena clashes with ambitious district attorney Jimmy J. Higgins and unstable Dan Cobb, the lead detective in the first murder case, she grows closer to deputy DA Greg Vaughan. The suspense builds as Ellis turns a spotlight on the justice system’s flaws, though the final twist is unlikely to stump seasoned crime fans. 

November 15, 2011
Murder and cover-ups in the city of the angels. Once again the paparazzi are surrounding celebrity hangout Club 3 A.M. But this time the LAPD Deputy Chief is circling the wagons to keep them away and putting admired homicide detective Lena Gamble in charge while D.A. Higgins and his assistants Debi Watson and Steven Bennett are shunting legal maneuvers off to Greg Vaughan. What makes this case such a hot potato is that inside, dead, is friend to the glitterati, club owner Johnny Bosco, and Jacob Gant, much loathed by the public for his acquittal in the brutal rape/slaying of his teenage neighbor Lily Hight. Security tapes show Lily's father driving away from the 3 A.M. scene with something that looks like a gun on the seat beside him. But Higgins, Watson and Bennett, still criticized for botching the Gant trial, realize that they'll be in for more condemnation if Hight is charged for what the public deems justifiable homicide. When Lena contacts investigator Dan Cobb for background on Lily's murder, the bodies start falling, the lies keep coming and it becomes clear that the D.A.'s office, knowing full well that Gant was innocent, prosecuted him anyway, paving the way for the Bosco and Gant murders. One final twist will nudge the death total past nine, leaving Lena the last one standing. Solid police work from Lena (The Lost Witness, 2009, etc.). If, like Shakespeare, you want to kill all the lawyers, this is your must-read.

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November 15, 2011
The novel's premise is, as they say, torn from the headlines. A woman is murdered, and the cops understandably pounce on the fellow who is all but standing nearby with bloodstains and an evil grin. But there's more to it, and the truth should have come out when the case was passed to the legal system. But the system stood behind the cops. Why? Detective Lena Gamble is called in to have another look. She uncovers a conspiracy that involves nearly everybody on the Los Angeles city payroll, and it's here that readers will either love the book or put it aside. The writing has an emotional intensity that is nearly palpable. Lena's anguish rises from the page. But why so many characters? So many plot zigzags that readers can't keep them straight? Readers are almost invited to lose interest. Pruning would have turned this into the sort of wrenching mix of distress and detection that James Ellroy writes. Despite wondering if the DA's office can really be loaded with this many ambitious, bloodthirsty crazies, dedicated readers will stay tuned to watch Lena attempt to sort it all out.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)