James Ellroy: Because the Night

James Ellroy: Because the Night (USA 2005)

From the Publisher:
A botched liquor store heist leaves three grisly dead. A hero cop is missing. Nobody could see a pattern in these two stray bits of information - no one except Detective Sergeant Lloyd Hopkins, a brilliant and disturbed L.A. cop with an obsessive desire to protect the innocent. To him they lead to one horrifying conclusion - a killer is on the loose and preying on his city. From the master of L.A. noir comes this beautiful and brutal tale of a cop and a master criminal squared off in a demented death match.

James Ellroy: Because the Night. A Novel. Vintage, ISBN: 9781400095292 (October, 2005), 279 p., $12.95.

James Ellroy: Because the Night (USA ca. 1988)

From the Publisher:
Three citizens are butchered during a liquor store holdup. An unstable veteran cop vanishes without a trace. Nothing connects these events except for a nagging hunch in the back of Detective Sergeant Lloyd Hopkins' brain -- a sinister foreboding that will lead him through the sin-and-sleaze playground of nighttime L.A. on the trail of a psycho psychiatrist with a talent for terror and mind-control. His gore-soaked journey through Hell will plunge this determined manhunter into the dark heart of madness... and beyond.

James Ellroy: Because the Night. Avon, ISBN: 0380700638 (2. Aufl. - ca. 1988), 230 p., $3.95.

James Ellroy: Because the Night (UK 1988)

From the Publisher:
* Jacob Herzog, a hero cop, has disappeared from an undercover assignment.
* A multiple murder committed with an antique revolver remains unsolved.
Two cases interlinked?

As Detective Sergeant Lloyd Hopkins pieces the puzzle together he discovers the darker threat of John Havilland, a psychiatrist whose pleasure comes from the manipulation of the weak and the lonely...

And, as Hopkins closes in, Havilland's madness rages uncontrolled - and forces a shattering confrontation with the darkest side of the human mind.

James Ellroy: Because the Night. Being a cop is a hard way to live... and an easy way to die. A Lloyd Hopkins Novel of Suspense. Arrow / Mysterious Press, ISBN: 0099497905 (March, 1988), 288 p., £2.50.

James Ellroy: Because the Night (USA 1987)

James Ellroy: Because the Night. A Lloyd Hopkins Novel of Suspense. Avon, ISBN: 0380700638 (April, 1987), 230 p., $3.50.

James Ellroy: Because the Night (USA 1984)

From the Publisher:
The saga of Detective Sergeant Lloyd Hopkins, begun in Blood on the Moon, continues in a powerful new novel.
Files regarding the disappearance of Jacob Herzog, a hero cop whose legend is almost as grand as Lloyd's own, and a multiple murder committed with a pre-Civil War revolver, are on Hopkins' desk. With his usual tenacity, he pieces the puzzle together; the picture which emerges is a frightening one. The two cases are related, and the motivating force behind them is cloaked in layers of darkness. Within that darkness lurks John Havilland.

Known as The Night Tripper, Havilland is a psychiatrist whose pleasure comes from the manipulation of the weak and lonely. Power for Dr. John comes from knowing as much as he can about as many as he can, and then using that information for whatever end suits his purposes... even if that end is murder!

As Hopkins closes in, the doctor uses his patients as a buffer until the detective breaks through the circle, causing Havilland's madness to rage uncontrolled.

The conclusion of Because the Night brings a shattering confrontation and the exorcism of Lloyd's own demons.

James Ellroy: Because the Night. A Lloyd Hopkins Novel of Suspense. New York: Mysterious Press, 1984, ISBN: 089296071X, 280 p., $15.95.