California Noir: Two Great Mysteries

Two gritty hard-boiled mysteries of the criminal underworld by a New York Times-bestselling author and a CWA Gold Dagger-winning author. A modern master of the noir novel, James Ellroy is "one of the great American writers of our time" (Los Angeles Times). And Edward Bunker is a CWA Gold Dagger-winning author, whose classic novel inspired Quentin Tarantino to cast him in Reservoir Dogs. Now two of these California writers' most famous mysteries are available in one volume. Blood on the Moon by James Ellroy: Lloyd Hopkins is one of Los Angeles's finest detectives. He's also a sex addict and an insomniac who breaks the rules to solve his toughest cases. After a psychotic serial killer called "the poet" murders twenty women, he must face his biggest challenge to catch the killer: think like a madman. The first novel in Ellroy's Lloyd Hopkins trilogy, this noir classic was adapted into the 1988 film Cop, starring James Woods. No Beast So Fierce by Edward Bunker: After eight years in San Quentin, Max Dembo is free. He has aspirations and even a modicum of faith in the future. But with a history of bad choices, an apathetic parole officer, and no job prospects, Max gives sway to the pervasive temptations of the only life he knows. Based on his own experiences in San Quentin State Prison, Bunker wrote a strikingly authentic story that Quentin Tarantino called "the best first person crime novel I have ever read."

About the Author :
With his outsize personality and distinctive prose style, James Ellroy (b. 1948) is one of the finest modern authors of hard-boiled fiction. His mother was murdered in 1958, and in his twenties Ellroy moved from job to job, finally finding steady work as a caddy, an experience which formed the backdrop for his first mystery, Brown's Requiem. Among the many honors and accolades he has received for his work, the Mystery Writers of America named James Ellroy a Grand Master in 2015. He drew a cult following with his first books, which included the Lloyd Hopkins trilogy of police novels, and found widespread fame with 1987's The Black Dahlia, a meticulously researched account of Los Angeles's most famous unsolved murder.That novel and 1990's L.A. Confidential, both of which were adapted for the screen, cemented his notoriety as an author of historical crime fiction. Ellroy lives and works in Los Angeles. Edward Bunker (1933-2005) spent many years in prison before he found success as a novelist. Born in Los Angeles, he accumulated enough terms in juvenile hall that he was finally jailed, becoming at seventeen the youngest-ever inmate at San Quentin State Prison. He began writing during that period, inspired by his proximity to the famous death-row inmate and author Caryl Chessman. Incarcerated off and on throughout the next two decades, Bunker was still in jail when his first book, No Beast So Fierce, was published in 1973. Paroled eighteen months later, he gave up crime permanently, and spent the rest of his life writing novels, many of which drew on his experiences in prison. Also an actor, his most well-known role was Mr. Blue, one of the bank robbers in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. Bunker died in 2005.

Review :
Praise for Blood on the Moon "A brilliant detective and a mysterious psychopath come together in a final dance of death." --The New York Times "Nobody in this generation matches the breadth and depth of James Ellroy's way with noir." --The Detroit News "Ellroy is either our greatest obsessive writer or our most obsessive great writer. Either way, he is turning the crime novel's mean streets into superhighways." --Financial Times Praise for No Beast So Fierce "The best first person crime novel I have ever read." --Quentin Tarantino "Quite simply, one of the great crime novels of the past 30 years." --James Ellroy "The most compelling quality of No Beast So Fierce is that, solidly rooted in his own experiences, it explores the nature of the criminal mind with almost blinding authenticity. Bunker is obviously a man of unusual gifts honed under circumstances that would destroy most men." --Los Angeles Times