The Devil Raises His Own
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3.7 • 15 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
From the master of Western noir comes a provocatively entertaining crime saga set in the early days of the film industry.
This dark historical adventure captures the beginnings of the Hollywood studio system and the “blue movie” industry that grows up alongside it.
Los Angeles, 1916: Photographer Bill Ogden has opened a portrait studio in the seedy noir world of early Hollywood, where he is joined by his granddaughter, Flavia—a woman in need of a fresh start after bludgeoning her drunken, abusive husband to death in Wichita. Though his business is mainly legit, Bill finds himself brushing up against the “blue movie” porn industry growing in the shadows of the motion picture mainstream.
When a series of grisly murders take place across the city, Bill and his capable granddaughter are pulled into events as tricky and tangled as anything this side of The Big Sleep. We meet dreamers, opportunists, washed-up former stars and starry-eyed newcomers, a cast of unforgettable characters living on the margins looking to make a quick buck, launch a career, or just keep their family together. The Devil Raises His Own is at once a stripped-down noir thriller and a panoramic look at Los Angeles at the beginning of motion pictures—a Boogie Nights set in the era of D.W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin from one of the best crime novelists working today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
For this raucous sequel set 38 years after the events of Hop Alley, Phillips sets his sights on the early days of the pornographic film industry. In 1916 Hollywood, septuagenarian photographer Bill Ogden runs a successful portrait studio with his granddaughter, Flavia, who's come to California from Wichita, Kans., after killing her abusive husband. Recently, Bill has photographed some people who work for Clyde Grady, a director of "blue movies" that have begun to enter the marketplace being carved out by L.A.'s nascent film industry. Several colorful characters orbit the main cast, including Clyde's producers, George and Irene Buntnagel, who are joined in a lavender marriage; Trudy Crombie, a single mother who's turned to porn to support her family; and Tommy Gill, a drunken, fading comedian who casts Trudy's two young children in a series of attempted comeback films. In rich, vividly realized vignettes, Phillips follows each cast member as a series of brutal murders sets the City of Angels on edge, leading Bill and Flavia to question their involvement in the sex industry. Phillips brilliantly marries cheeky comedy and noirish grit, taking the series in a wholly unexpected direction. James Ellroy fans will be thrilled.
