Fritz Brown, a burned-out ex-LA cop, makes ends meet by doing car repo's. His "private detective agency" is little more than a tax shelter. When a fat and obnoxious golf caddy who carries a surprising amount of cash hires Brown to investigate his beautiful cello-playing sister's relationship with a wealthy Jewish furrier (an apparent sugar daddy), Brown gradually finds himself mucking through family secrets, Mexican pornography, police corruption, and an 11-year-old arson case that was supposedly solved by a respected senior police officer. This is an admirable debut novel by a writer destined for future greatness. The dialogue is a little too clean and clear, but piquant details include the hero's love of classical German composers, an appreciation of LA golf courses, a good solid look at life in Tijuana and Ensenada, and passing references to Philip Marlowe and Ellroy's ongoing obsession, the Black Dahlia.
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The review of this Book prepared by David Loftus
BROWN'S REQUIEM is the first novel, published in 1981, of the american writer James Ellroy.
Fritz Brown is a private detective. Until now, his life has been a mess : excluded from the Los Angeles Police Department, a former drug and alcohol addict, he works in his spare time for Cal Myers, a car seller, and tries to bring back to his boss cars that haven't been completely paid.
One day, a fat golf caddy pays him to spy on his sister and her old mentor Sol Kupferman. Then begins for Fritz Brown a redemptive trip that will lead him to Mexico and deep into a corrupted Los Angeles.
Recommended.
The review of this Book prepared by Daniel Staebler
