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Author James Ellroy booklist (click here)

Book Review By David Loftus
Suicide Hill by James Ellroy

In the third and final Lloyd Hopkins novel, our hero senses the LA police department (especially his departmental enemy, Captain Fred Gaffaney, head of Internal Affairs) is pushing him toward early retirement for his reckless ways. Duane Rice, newly freed from prison from a grand theft auto sentence, has both overheard and concocted a plan to blackmail a couple of bankers by holding their mistresses for ransom, and hires the brothers Bobby and Joe Garcia to help him. Hopkins gets lent to the FBI to help crack the bank robbery/kidnappings, which inevitably leads him to a mortal confrontation with Gaffaney. Another gripping early novel by Ellroy whose ending is perhaps a little too pat to avoid straining credulity.


Plot & Themes
Tone of story - Dry-cynical
Time/era of story:
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
descript. of violence and chases - 20 %
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 50 %
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 0 %
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 30 %
Crime Thriller Yes
Crime plotlets:
General Crime (including known murderer) Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status:
Age: - 40's-50's

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 40's-50's
Profession/status:
Motive of antagonist - power
How sensitive is this character?
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - California
City? Yes
City: - Los Angeles - Dirty, dangerous (like New York) - dangerous

Writing Style
Accounts of torture and death? - very gorey descriptions deaths/dead bodies
Explicit sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references - descript. of breasts
Unusual forms of death - run over - perforation--bullets - perforation--swords/knives
Unusual form of death? Yes
Amount of dialog - significantly more descript than dialog
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