
L.A. is the perpetual dark heart of crime writing - samclemens
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2019-10-17/crime-books-noir-la-michael-connelly
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neonate
[https://web.archive.org/web/20191020022021/https://www.latim...](https://web.archive.org/web/20191020022021/https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-
arts/books/story/2019-10-17/crime-books-noir-la-michael-connelly)

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AceyMan
I haven't read much L.A. based crime, tbh, but it's nice to see noir / pulp
draw its fans in. I'm one, 100%.

My man for urban street crime is George Pelecanos. I think I've read damn near
all his stuff. His prose hits all the notes to convey an era, a mood. And the
plots are excellent and I like his protagonists. Most settings are
Baltimore/D.C., from where he hails. Good stuff.

<would not consider downstream posts with fave authors off-topic even if they
didn't RTFA (I did, first, honest).> [edit: I transplanted to LA around the
2nd bubble pop, just random timing]

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knbknb
Didn't know this name. I just learned that he was a co-writer for the TV
series "The Deuce". Very interesting

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mannykannot
I would guess that one factor is Hollywood acting as an incubator for up-and-
coming writers - the article hints as much.

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Overtonwindow
I think Los Angeles with its myriad of personalities, neighborhoods, and
cultures, makes an excellent setting for crime writing. I’m reading the latest
Michael Connelly right now and it’s just fascinating learning more about Los
Angeles.

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mdorazio
It helps that huge segments of the city are basically expensive ghettos with
storied histories of racial tensions, crime, gangs, and drugs. And it doesn't
hurt that the LAPD has such a bad reputation. It really is an easy place to
set a crime story and have it still be believable.

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mc32
But why not Chicago?

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SamReidHughes
What does Chicago have? Banks?

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mc32
Lots of mob and machine politics and run of the mill crime good for pulpy
novels.

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SamReidHughes
Yeah, bigcorps, corruption, and a big shiny ball.

L.A. has serial killers, disaffected body builders, criminal surfer gangs,
kung fu sidekicks, crooked magicians, new age cults, disgruntled aerospace
employees, gratuitously wealthy people, pornographers, and loads of driftwood
in orbit around Hollywood, flitting from project to project. Chicago has
Catholics and Perogies.

Any crime story set in Chicago could be better done in New York or
Philadelphia.

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fumar
That is one interesting and reductionist take on Chicago. The south and west
sides of the city are cultural melting pots. The north side also has its
ethnic enclaves. I am not defending Chicago but as the only other true
metropolis outside of NYC, its more than the two things you listed. The
architecture alone gives a great backdrop to any story.

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SamReidHughes
It certainly is reductionist!

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mturmon
Some good recommendations in the article. As a resident, I have enjoyed Joe
Ide and especially Walter Moseley’s writing and sense of place. Not to mention
all the crime TV and movies set here, from Chinatown to the Rockford Files.

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thedailymail
Remarkable to read a longish article on LA and noir and not find a single
mention of James Ellroy.

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EliRivers
Except, perhaps, this one:

Like the men and women in its crime novels, the city, a multicultural diary of
splendor and hurt, is its own character: grisly, sinister, smooth, sly,
urbane, verbose, sparse, fatalistic, celebratory, hopeful and occasionally as
doomed as James Ellroy’s "Black Dahlia."

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thedailymail
Hunh - I missed that!

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cafard
Ross MacDonald is worth a look, too.

