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Title details for Widespread Panic by James Ellroy - Available

Widespread Panic

by James Ellroy
Craig Wasson
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available

Brought to you by Penguin.
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.
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'.
'Purgatory is rarely this much fun.' - Financial Times
© James Ellroy 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 2, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781804942093
      • File size: 354370 KB
      • Duration: 12:18:16

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      The intense opening of this audiobook and narrator Craig Wasson's delivery grab listeners from the start. The story focuses on Freddy Otash, a former cop who eventually becomes a private investigator who loves doing dirty work. Otash has also worked for CONFIDENTIAL MAGAZINE, a Hollywood rag, where he picked up dirt on just about everyone. Now he's telling what he knows. Wasson becomes Otash, narrating with the voice one expects from an unpolished former cop who once was as comfortable shaking down criminals as he was arresting them. Wasson also brings out the personalities of author James Ellroy's other characters in ways listeners will remember. D.J.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from April 26, 2021
      This devious and delicious side trip into the life and exploits of real-life Hollywood fixer Fred Otash from MWA Grand Master Ellroy (The Storm) has a cool conceit: Otash dies of a massive coronary in 1992, but has spent the last three decades stuck in purgatory, and his only way out is a full confession of his lifetime of misdeeds; and confess Otash does. In the 1950s, Otash transforms himself from bent cop to even more crooked private eye, delivering the dirt on Hollywood celebs, outing communist party members, and exposing then-verboten interracial relationships. When puritanical Chief William Parker of the LAPD builds a righteous legal case against Otash, he strikes a deal to let the ex-cop slide in exchange for help in taking down the salacious tabloid Confidential. And so Otash embarks on a dangerous path of playing both sides against the middle. Numerous celebrities appear in suitably compromising positions, including Rock Hudson, Jack Kennedy, and a sizzling cast of Hollywood femmes fatale. The infamous rape spree of Caryl Chessman (aka the Red Light Bandit) adds another layer of sordidness. Ellroy’s total command of the jazzy, alliterative argot of the era never fails to astonish. This is a must for L.A. noir fans.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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