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Ola de Crímenes
Alternate cover edition for ISBN 10: 8498722756 ISBN 13:9788498722758
Los Angeles. In no other city, do sex, celebrity, money, and crime exert such an irresistible magnetic field. And no writer has mapped that field with greater savagery and savvy than James Ellroy. With this fever-hot collection of reportage and short fiction, he returns to his native habitat and portrays it as a smog-shrouded netherworld where "every third person is a peeper, prowler, pederast, or pimp".From the scandal sheets of the 1950s to this morning's police blotter, Ellroy reopens true crimes and restores human dimensions to their victims. Sublimely, he resurrects the rag Hush-Hush magazine. And in a baroquely plotted novella of slaughter and corruption he enlists the forgotten luminaries of a lost Hollywood. Shocking, mesmerizing, and written in prose as wounding as an ice pick, Crime Wave is Ellroy at his best.
Los Angeles. In no other city, do sex, celebrity, money, and crime exert such an irresistible magnetic field. And no writer has mapped that field with greater savagery and savvy than James Ellroy. With this fever-hot collection of reportage and short fiction, he returns to his native habitat and portrays it as a smog-shrouded netherworld where "every third person is a peeper, prowler, pederast, or pimp".From the scandal sheets of the 1950s to this morning's police blotter, Ellroy reopens true crimes and restores human dimensions to their victims. Sublimely, he resurrects the rag Hush-Hush magazine. And in a baroquely plotted novella of slaughter and corruption he enlists the forgotten luminaries of a lost Hollywood. Shocking, mesmerizing, and written in prose as wounding as an ice pick, Crime Wave is Ellroy at his best.
452 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
19 people are currently reading
1622 people want to read
About the author
James Ellroy
138 books4,200 followersLee Earle "James" Ellroy is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a telegrammatic prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, staccato sentences, and in particular for the novels The Black Dahlia (1987) and L.A. Confidential (1990).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews
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July 4, 2019This hardcover is signed by James Ellroy.
March 3, 2018
I was curious what James Ellroy's non fiction would look like outside a novel setting and, well... he passed the test with flying colors as usual.
The first two essays are particularly powerful as they zero-in on a crime, just like Ellroy's novels and slowly introduce the authorial perception and reveal the degree of obsession and focus the grandmaster takes to the task whenever he sits behind the keyboard. His pieces are stark, almost voyeuristic in their attention to detail and communicate the violence of murder as much as its transcendent nature.
I thought the novellas were a little weak for Ellroy's usual material, especially Gretchell where he indulges in alliteration for way, way too long. I love when Ellroy alliterates, but when it's on every line for eighty pages it starts to get a little overboard.
Anyway, this is another strong entry in James Ellroy's cannon. People who love his work like I do will enjoy the heck out of it.
The first two essays are particularly powerful as they zero-in on a crime, just like Ellroy's novels and slowly introduce the authorial perception and reveal the degree of obsession and focus the grandmaster takes to the task whenever he sits behind the keyboard. His pieces are stark, almost voyeuristic in their attention to detail and communicate the violence of murder as much as its transcendent nature.
I thought the novellas were a little weak for Ellroy's usual material, especially Gretchell where he indulges in alliteration for way, way too long. I love when Ellroy alliterates, but when it's on every line for eighty pages it starts to get a little overboard.
Anyway, this is another strong entry in James Ellroy's cannon. People who love his work like I do will enjoy the heck out of it.
June 10, 2022
Muy irregular.
June 25, 2016
James Ellroy could write his name for fifty pages and he'd get five stars from me. He is the epitome of hard boiled noir, detective fiction and brutal, unflinching honesty. This collection of essays is no different, covering everything from his own mother's murder to the trial of OJ Simpson.
December 21, 2012
"Why," one might ask, "does she keep reading crime fiction if she doesn't like the genre?" The simple answer would be that Bette keeps loaning it to me. The real truth is that I'm an addict. I read because it's a compulsion. I'll even read if I'm not enjoying it.
I did not, however, manage to read the three fiction pieces in this collection. I just couldn't force myself to get through them. The alliteration and short sentences drove me mad. I had previously read what I thought were parodies of noir crime fiction, but now I'm beginning to think they weren't parodies so much as homages. The writing was almost comical.
The nonfiction pieces were only marginally better, in my opinion. The frequent references to his mother's murder and his sordid past, and his foul language, turned me off both the writing and Ellroy himself. He comes across as a deeply wounded sicko.
I will now give myself a break from reading autobiographical stuff from men who have overcome addictions and cuss a lot.
I did not, however, manage to read the three fiction pieces in this collection. I just couldn't force myself to get through them. The alliteration and short sentences drove me mad. I had previously read what I thought were parodies of noir crime fiction, but now I'm beginning to think they weren't parodies so much as homages. The writing was almost comical.
The nonfiction pieces were only marginally better, in my opinion. The frequent references to his mother's murder and his sordid past, and his foul language, turned me off both the writing and Ellroy himself. He comes across as a deeply wounded sicko.
I will now give myself a break from reading autobiographical stuff from men who have overcome addictions and cuss a lot.
August 3, 2009
Crime Wave is mostly James Ellroy's articles for GQ magazine, with a couple of short stories thrown in. As usual, the non-fiction centers directly on true crime, with Ellroy's persona-and-work-defining focus on murdered women. (The essay that would eventually become My Dark Places is in here, for example.)
The article that grabbed my attention the most was Ellroy's piece about O.J. and Nicole Simpson, which was written before the psychoretard antics of the trial really got under full swing; clearly Ellroy thinks that O.J. committed the crime but is careful to avoid any direct accusation, and he takes the essay in an interesting psychological direction that I've never seen before, despite the oceans of ink spilled on this topic. Best line EVER: "Clearly, O.J. is not the smartest motherfucker to walk the earth."
Any Ellroy fan will get a big kick out of this, and it's certainly got me amped for Blood's A Rover, which is out in September.
The article that grabbed my attention the most was Ellroy's piece about O.J. and Nicole Simpson, which was written before the psychoretard antics of the trial really got under full swing; clearly Ellroy thinks that O.J. committed the crime but is careful to avoid any direct accusation, and he takes the essay in an interesting psychological direction that I've never seen before, despite the oceans of ink spilled on this topic. Best line EVER: "Clearly, O.J. is not the smartest motherfucker to walk the earth."
Any Ellroy fan will get a big kick out of this, and it's certainly got me amped for Blood's A Rover, which is out in September.
June 8, 2010
I couldn't finish it. Once the sleazy reporter took over, I lost all interest. I tried to skip ahead (a huge no-no for me) but I realized that I was forcing myself to read this one. Too bad.
October 9, 2014
I find James Ellroy's non-fiction at least on the same level as his literary output. Since this book contains a 50/50 mixture of both, I'd call it the best introduction to his work that I've read so far.
The reporting on crime and corruption across Southern California shows an obvious blending between the writing styles of journalism and literature in the tradition of Hunter Thompson and Tom Wolfe. At the same time, however, Ellroy has a sensibility and a voice that can be mistaken for nobody else's. It's way more intimately personal than either, standing in the shadow of the still-unsolved murder of Ellroy's mother during his childhood and his subsequent descent into juvenile delinquency which is covered in depth by one article. At the same time, his writing is thoroughly steeped in world-weary moral reflexion over an unjust world where there often are no easy answers - a perspective that comes from not quite the same place as Thompson's furious indignation.
The same blending of sensationalist journalism and high literature can be seen in the short stories. Tabloid-employed muckrakers feature as main characters in most of them, along with real historical personalities in roles that make it difficult for readers to look at them the same way again. The high point is probably "Tijuana Mon Amour", which casts Frank Sinatra of all people as a villainous mastermind straight out a James Bond story and somehow pulls it off. The hyperfragmented and colourfully vulgar writing style might have obvious roots in the hardboiled prose of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler taken to an avantgardistic extreme, but it also calls to mind the most lurid journalism of the time which cannot be just a coincidence. Add to all that the sheer depths of decadence probed and you get a hyperactive kaleidoscopic journey through Western civilization's falling apart at the seams that echoes Louis-Ferdinand Céline at his most delirious had he been born 50 years later on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean.
The reporting on crime and corruption across Southern California shows an obvious blending between the writing styles of journalism and literature in the tradition of Hunter Thompson and Tom Wolfe. At the same time, however, Ellroy has a sensibility and a voice that can be mistaken for nobody else's. It's way more intimately personal than either, standing in the shadow of the still-unsolved murder of Ellroy's mother during his childhood and his subsequent descent into juvenile delinquency which is covered in depth by one article. At the same time, his writing is thoroughly steeped in world-weary moral reflexion over an unjust world where there often are no easy answers - a perspective that comes from not quite the same place as Thompson's furious indignation.
The same blending of sensationalist journalism and high literature can be seen in the short stories. Tabloid-employed muckrakers feature as main characters in most of them, along with real historical personalities in roles that make it difficult for readers to look at them the same way again. The high point is probably "Tijuana Mon Amour", which casts Frank Sinatra of all people as a villainous mastermind straight out a James Bond story and somehow pulls it off. The hyperfragmented and colourfully vulgar writing style might have obvious roots in the hardboiled prose of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler taken to an avantgardistic extreme, but it also calls to mind the most lurid journalism of the time which cannot be just a coincidence. Add to all that the sheer depths of decadence probed and you get a hyperactive kaleidoscopic journey through Western civilization's falling apart at the seams that echoes Louis-Ferdinand Céline at his most delirious had he been born 50 years later on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean.
January 24, 2011
A mixture of reportage and fiction, Ellroy's "Crime Wave" takes the reader once again into the unseemly side of his Los Angeles. The true crime stories sparkle, and there is an early telling of his mother's murder which later became "My Dark Places," but the fictionalized stories of private I's and gossip mag reporters felt kind of forced to me with their insistence on inputting the narrators into historical Hollywood events. Ellroy remains at his best when talking about himself and the demons that haunt him.
My recommendation is to go for "My Dark Places" instead. Only true Ellroy addicts need pick this one up.
My recommendation is to go for "My Dark Places" instead. Only true Ellroy addicts need pick this one up.
October 30, 2018
No es un libro largo, pero los relatos se hacen pesados por la forma de narrar tan "telegráfica".
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May 1, 2022It was very interesting to read the different stories, I really liked the style because for me it was refreshing.
May 19, 2025
Ugh…..I wanted to like it, I really did, but it DRAAAAGGGGED for me, and I don’t know why. Typically I like hardboiled detective drama shit but this felt more like a strange stream of consciousness collection of short stories and memoir(?) I just didn’t get it. Maybe I just don’t like L.A., ultimately. I’ve never cared much for it.
It does make you think about the origins of public fascination with True Crime and the overlap with, like, muckraking journalism? But I think that’s a stretch. I may give it another try sometime later, maybe I’m just not in the mood.
It does make you think about the origins of public fascination with True Crime and the overlap with, like, muckraking journalism? But I think that’s a stretch. I may give it another try sometime later, maybe I’m just not in the mood.
January 16, 2012
This is an oddity in the James Ellroy catalogue: it contains a mixture of novellas, set in context by Ellroy, memories of his mother's murder and his childhood, and some articles he wrote for GQ.
As a mixture it didn't really hang together well for me, but the comments surrounding the novellas were interesting. The critique of the OJ Simpson trial also held my interest, knowing how the trial actually turned out.
As an introduction to Ellroy, I wouldn't recommend this, but if you're a fan, he provides some greater context and insight into his influences and formative years.
My Dark Places details much better his feelings and thoughts on his mother's murder, but this book shows his overall feel and approach to "cold cases".
As a throw away almost, at the end of the book, he gives his take on the big screen adaptation of LA Confidential, another glimpse into his take on life and his work.
As a mixture it didn't really hang together well for me, but the comments surrounding the novellas were interesting. The critique of the OJ Simpson trial also held my interest, knowing how the trial actually turned out.
As an introduction to Ellroy, I wouldn't recommend this, but if you're a fan, he provides some greater context and insight into his influences and formative years.
My Dark Places details much better his feelings and thoughts on his mother's murder, but this book shows his overall feel and approach to "cold cases".
As a throw away almost, at the end of the book, he gives his take on the big screen adaptation of LA Confidential, another glimpse into his take on life and his work.
September 18, 2021
Wildly uneven, even for Ellroy, who is both wild and uneven. On average, let's call it 2.49 stars.
The fiction is mostly painful, especially the long "Hush Hush" piece written in the annoying alliteration Ellroy uses for his scandal-sheet reports. The other three tales are shorter and not as awful, but still something to be endured rather than enjoyed. One star for the collection.
The non-fiction in the book includes accounts of how homicide investigators work and the author's personal introspection and reminiscences about his youth, including one surprising piece about his junior-high experience and reunions with classmates nearly 40 years later. Throughout the non-fiction we learn more about why 1950s L.A. is Ellroy's eternal muse. The non-fiction earns at least an average of 3.5 stars.
Although I was tempted to chuck the entire book while mired in the early fictional pieces, I'm glad I stayed to the end for the non-fiction. Still, this book isn't a keeper.
The fiction is mostly painful, especially the long "Hush Hush" piece written in the annoying alliteration Ellroy uses for his scandal-sheet reports. The other three tales are shorter and not as awful, but still something to be endured rather than enjoyed. One star for the collection.
The non-fiction in the book includes accounts of how homicide investigators work and the author's personal introspection and reminiscences about his youth, including one surprising piece about his junior-high experience and reunions with classmates nearly 40 years later. Throughout the non-fiction we learn more about why 1950s L.A. is Ellroy's eternal muse. The non-fiction earns at least an average of 3.5 stars.
Although I was tempted to chuck the entire book while mired in the early fictional pieces, I'm glad I stayed to the end for the non-fiction. Still, this book isn't a keeper.
December 16, 2021
Δεν ξέρω....Τα αστυνομικά μυθιστορήματα του είδους του Τζέημς Ελλρόυ, σαν τα "Εγκλήματα κατα συρροήν" ξεκινούν με ένα σημαντικό προβάδισμα αναφορικά με τα γούστα ενός μέσου αναγνώστη: υπάρχουν πάμπολλες ταινίες με (πολλούς) φόνους, (πολλά) ναρκωτικά, (πολύ) σεξ, (πολλή) μαγκιά. Και τις έχουμε δει. Έτσι κατά κάποιο τρόπο οι ιστορίες είναι συναρπαστικές (αφού περιέχουν τα παραπάνω) και οικείες.
Δι��βάζεται ευχάριστα γιατί ακολουθείται η μαγική συνταγή: αίμα-σπέρμα και προσθέτω κι εγώ στο κλισέ το χρήμα.
Το συγκεκριμένο δεν είναι μυθιστόρημα. Είναι κάτι ανάμεσα σε μυθιστορήματα και ρεπορτάζ για ανεξιχνίαστους φόνους και δράση τύπων του λαμπερού υποκόσμου (μέσα και οι μπάτσοι) του Λος Άντζελες. Είναι βεβαίως καλογραμμένο, με πολλά έξυπνα σημεία. Μπλέκει άσημους με διάσημους (κι αυτό ελκυστικό).
Δι��βάζεται ευχάριστα γιατί ακολουθείται η μαγική συνταγή: αίμα-σπέρμα και προσθέτω κι εγώ στο κλισέ το χρήμα.
Το συγκεκριμένο δεν είναι μυθιστόρημα. Είναι κάτι ανάμεσα σε μυθιστορήματα και ρεπορτάζ για ανεξιχνίαστους φόνους και δράση τύπων του λαμπερού υποκόσμου (μέσα και οι μπάτσοι) του Λος Άντζελες. Είναι βεβαίως καλογραμμένο, με πολλά έξυπνα σημεία. Μπλέκει άσημους με διάσημους (κι αυτό ελκυστικό).
January 26, 2022
for how much I skipped around in this, it could count as a “did not finish.” there is a whole middle section written from the perspective of danny getchell, a fictional late homophobic tabloid editor (who died from AIDS lol okay ellroy), in near-full alliterative phrasing (“Ben noshed my napkin note and blew me a big bicarbonate kiss”) which was perhaps the most annoying thing I have ever tried to put up with in my life. ellroy retreads and retreads and retreads to a point where you’re standing at the core of the earth, his brain stem. and it is grey and dull and psychotic. that’s not news about ellroy though. he is able to capture some intensity that actually works (I loved “glamour jungle”) but otherwise, dunno how anyone got this published for him. excited to read the og quartet tho
May 6, 2013
A good collection, and a passable introduction to Ellroy for the uninitiated. The best introduction to Ellroy is his novel The Black Dahlia. A mix of fiction and non-fiction pieces that originally appeared in GQ magazine. I absolutely did not like the story "Tijuana, Mon Amour", an over-the-top tale that reads as if Ellroy was intentionally trying to be as offensive as possible. You can't take it seriously. No illustrations. Destination: Morgue is a better Ellroy collection than this one.
November 26, 2013
The body dump stuff is a re hash if you've read My Dark Places. The reporting at the end is good, but the real goodies are the Danny Getchel/ Dick Contino stories. 'Hollywood Shakedown' is, to me, even better than 'Dick Contino's Blues.' A solid read.
January 21, 2017
Calloused, crude, and irritating. One kept help but dislike Ellroy after trudging through this compilation of off the cuff and pissy articles.
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August 6, 2022#crimewave is a mixture of short stories and nonfiction articles from #jamesellroy featuring: the unsolved true crime case of a young wife and mother murdered. A short exploration of Ellroy’s mother’s murder and his investigation into it which would later be expanded in My Dark Places. The Unsolved death of an actress, could be murder could be accident. A brief discussion of the OJ Simpson trial, a visit to the LA county sheriffs department, a visit to the set of LA Comfidential, lunch with Curtis Hanson and a high school reunion. Some of the short stories include: a Reporter for scandal rag digging dirt on celebrity gossip - investigating rock Hudson - further developed in Widespread Panic (has one of the most perfect lines that sums up the character and the tone “mom mistreated me. She only let me read one book: a thick thesaurus”) possibly my favourite although a little short. The same reporter with Ellroys alluringly alliterative pulse pounding prose investigating Sinatra, lesbians, mink coats (first half was great, second half got a bit too silly for my taste and lost its way ). Also includes an Essay on how Ellroy met dick contino and what he thought of him before writing the novella dick contino’s blues as well as A short story told in first person from dick contino’s perspective returning from the war in Korea. Contino is blackmailed by Fred otash to wear a wire and inform on homosexual communist sympathisers. Outrageous fun as you would expect from the demon dog
#bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bibliophile #book #currentlyreading #bookworm #bookporn #justfinishedreading #justfinished #read #reading #fiction #genre #nonfiction #crime #journalism #shortstories
#bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bibliophile #book #currentlyreading #bookworm #bookporn #justfinishedreading #justfinished #read #reading #fiction #genre #nonfiction #crime #journalism #shortstories
January 8, 2023
As others have pointed out, this collection runs the gamut from intensely interesting to intensely irritating. Ellroy excels in the first part of the book, which deals with the horrible murder of his mother in 1958, and also the Karyn Kupcinet murder. The essay on the O.J. case is insightful and even prescient-it was written before the trial ended. The book grinds to a screeching halt in part two, when the author takes on the voice of a scandal-sheet hack writer. The story is now written in endless, excruciating alliteration which is nearly impossible to read. How could Ellroy-or his editor-have allowed this abomination? I understand challenging the reader, shocking the reader, even disappointing the reader. But is it really necessary to PUNISH and TORTURE the reader? That's how I felt: punished. If you're really interested in more about his mother's murder, read Ellroy's "My Dark Places" instead.
July 1, 2023
Obwohl der Mittelteil der deutschen Übersetzung (selbst Schuld, das nächste Mal i.O.) mit seinen unablässigen Alliterationen unausstehlich konstruiert ist, machen die persönliche Geschichte ebenso wie die fiktionalen Erzählungen dieses mit einer unermesslichen Beobachtungsgabe gesegneten Autors doch wirklich Lust auf mehr.
August 25, 2025
No voy a decir que es mal libro de hecho está muy bien construido pero y muy bien narrado pero como como no es el tipo de historia que yo leería el libro me metió en un bloqueo lector pero creo de verdad creo que tiene su público no thriller pero si policíaca , ya es un comprendió de distintos tipos de crímenes pero se me hizo muy difícil terminarlo
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 6, 2023
If I was forced to pick a favorite fiction author it would be Ellroy. This is the last unread book in his bibliography for me. I selfishly hope the guy has at least two more novels left in him before he kicks. But I'll take whatever I can get.
May 30, 2020
This was reports that were printed in the paper. Read like the newspaper.
July 30, 2022
Elliot is an addiction
You must get the James Ellroy collection.every one makes you think and moves along at a racing pace.
The cliche that I cannot put the book down is justified.
You must get the James Ellroy collection.every one makes you think and moves along at a racing pace.
The cliche that I cannot put the book down is justified.
December 19, 2022
"I sent a prayer up for the kid. I wished him imagination and stern will and lots of raucous laughs. I wished him a wild mix of people to breeze through and linger with over time."
October 25, 2025
The memoir/nonfiction pieces are 5 stars but the fiction (complete with the middle-school alliteration obsession) is 2-star brutal. If you cherry pick this guy’s output you will be happy.
dnf
December 20, 2025DNF 24.6%
Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews