| Officer Freddy Underhill is 26, working out of the LAPD's Wilshire station, and chasing women in 1951 when he and his partner discover the mutilated and strangled corpse of a young secretary. The trail leads to other murders, new and old, and a beautiful crippled district attorney named Lorna Weinberg. Several familiar themes from Ellroy's other early novels (such as golf) and the majestic LA Quartet (sadistic detective Lt. Dudley Smith, his obsession with the Black Dahlia, and the Victory Motel) turn up in this, his second novel. Dialogue in _Clandestine_ is occasionally wooden and overly formal, and the novel has a tendency to club the reader with the Voice of Doom ("this had been the pivotal day of my life"; "the end of the last season of my youth"), but the plot is grippingly complicated Ellroy. | ||
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Plot & Themes Tone of story - Dry-cynical How difficult to spot villain? - Difficult, but some clues given Time/era of story: Misc. Murder Plotlets - "All in the family" murder What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 70% Kind of investigator Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book Any non-mystery subplot? descript. of violence and chases - 20 % Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30 % Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30 % How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20 % Crime Thriller Yes Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes Main Character Gender - Male Profession/status: Age: - 20's-30's Unusual characteristics: Setting United States Yes The US: - Midwest - California City? Yes City: - Los Angeles - Dirty, dangerous (like New York) - dangerous Small town? Yes Small town people: - hostile, like Gomer Pyle on steroids Writing Style Accounts of torture and death? - very gorey references to deaths/dead bodies and torture Explicit sex in book? Yes What kind of sex: - descript of kissing - actual description of sex - descript. of breasts - descript. of other female areas Unusual forms of death - asphyxiation - perforation--bullets - perforation--swords/knives Unusual form of death? Yes Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog |
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