James Ellroy: Widespread Panic (USA 2022)

From the Publisher:
Ninteen-fifties Hollywood! This is PURE Ellroy territory. Mystery, crime, HollyWEIRD Babylon all wrap themselves into a literary knockout fever dream that only Ellroy could dream up. If you're looking for us, we'll be located at a booth in Musso & Frank Grill with a scotch in one hand and Widespread Panic in the other. And when you're done here, there's more Hollywood gone awry in The Disappearing Actby Catherine Steadman.

From the modern master of noir comes a novel based on the real-life Hollywood fixer Freddy Otash, the malevolent monarch of the 1950s L.A. underground, and his Tinseltown tabloid Confidential magazine.

Freddy Otash was the man in the know and the man to know in '50s L.A. He was a rogue cop, a sleazoid private eye, a shakedown artist, a pimp -- and, most notably, the head strong-arm goon for Confidential magazine.

Confidential presaged the idiot internet -- and delivered the dirt, the dish, the insidious ink, and the scurrilous skank. It mauled misanthropic movie stars, sex-soiled socialites, and putzo politicians. Mattress Jack Kennedy, James Dean, Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, Liz Taylor, Rock Hudson -- Frantic Freddy outed them all. He was the Tattle Tyrant who held Hollywood hostage, and now he's here to CONFESS.

"I'm consumed with candor and wracked with recollection. I'm revitalized and resurgent. My meshugenah march down memory lane begins NOW."

In Freddy's viciously entertaining voice, Widespread Panic torches 1950s Hollywood to the ground. It's a blazing revelation of coruscating corruption, pervasive paranoia, and of sin and redemption with nothing in between.

Here is James Ellroy in savage quintessence. Freddy Otash confesses -- and you are here to read and succumb.

James Ellroy: Widespread Panic. A Novel. Afred A. Knopf, ISBN: 9780593313107 (July, 2022), 336 p., $17.00.

James Ellroy: Widespread Panic (UK 2022)

From the Publisher:
Freddy is an ex-L.A. cop on the skids. He snuffed a cop killer in cold blood - and it got to him bad. Now he's a sleazoid private eye, a shakedown artist, a pimp - and, most notably, the head strongarm goon for Confidential magazine.

Welcome to the world of the malevolent monarch of the Hollywood underground - a tale of pervasive paranoia teeming with communist conspiracies, FBI finks, celebrity smut films and strange bedfellows.

James Ellroy: Widespread Panic. Penguin, ISBN: 9781529157581 (June, 2022), 400 p., £8.99.

James Ellroy: Widespread Panic (UK 2021)

From the Publisher:
From The Modern Master of Noir comes a novel about the malevolent monarch of the 1950s Hollywood underground - a tale of pervasive paranoia teeming with communist conspiracies, FBI finks, celebrity smut films and strange bedfellows.

Freddy Otash is the man in the know and the man to know in '50s L.A. He operates with two simple rules - he'll do anything but commit murder and he'll never work with the commies.

Freddy is an ex-L.A. cop on the skids. He snuffed a cop killer in cold blood - and it got to him bad. So Chief William H. Parker canned him. Now he's a sleazoid private eye, a shakedown artist, a pimp - and, most notably, the head strongarm goon for Confidential magazine. Confidential presaged the idiot internet - and delivered the dirt, the dish, the insidious ink and the scurrilous skank on the feckless foibles of misanthropic movie stars, sex-soiled socialites and potzo politicians. Freaky Freddy outs them all!

In Widespread Panic, we traverse the depths of '50s L.A. and dig on the inner workings of Confidential. You'll go to Burt Lancaster's lushly appointed torture den; you'll groove overhyped legend James Dean as Freddy's chief stooge; you'll be there for Freddy's ring-a-ding rendezvous with Liz Taylor; you'll be front and centre as Freddy anoints himself the 'Tattle Tyrant Who Held Hollywood Hostage'.

James Ellroy: Widespread Panic. William Heinemann, ISBN: 9781785152573 (July, 2021), 319 p., £20.00, eBook £9.99.

James Ellroy: Widespread Panic (USA 2021)

From the Publisher:
Ninteen-fifties Hollywood! This is PURE Ellroy territory. Mystery, crime, HollyWEIRD Babylon all wrap themselves into a literary knockout fever dream that only Ellroy could dream up. If you're looking for us, we'll be located at a booth in Musso & Frank Grill with a scotch in one hand and Widespread Panic in the other. And when you're done here, there's more Hollywood gone awry in The Disappearing Actby Catherine Steadman.

From the modern master of noir comes a novel based on the real-life Hollywood fixer Freddy Otash, the malevolent monarch of the 1950s L.A. underground, and his Tinseltown tabloid Confidential magazine.

Freddy Otash was the man in the know and the man to know in '50s L.A. He was a rogue cop, a sleazoid private eye, a shakedown artist, a pimp -- and, most notably, the head strong-arm goon for Confidential magazine.

Confidential presaged the idiot internet -- and delivered the dirt, the dish, the insidious ink, and the scurrilous skank. It mauled misanthropic movie stars, sex-soiled socialites, and putzo politicians. Mattress Jack Kennedy, James Dean, Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, Liz Taylor, Rock Hudson -- Frantic Freddy outed them all. He was the Tattle Tyrant who held Hollywood hostage, and now he's here to CONFESS.

"I'm consumed with candor and wracked with recollection. I'm revitalized and resurgent. My meshugenah march down memory lane begins NOW."

In Freddy's viciously entertaining voice, Widespread Panic torches 1950s Hollywood to the ground. It's a blazing revelation of coruscating corruption, pervasive paranoia, and of sin and redemption with nothing in between.

Here is James Ellroy in savage quintessence. Freddy Otash confesses -- and you are here to read and succumb.

James Ellroy: Widespread Panic. A Novel. Afred A. Knopf, ISBN: 9780593319345 (June, 2021), 319 p., $28.00, eBook $14.99.