The Enchanters
A novel
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4.3 • 33 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • James Ellroy—Demon Dog of American Letters—goes straight to the tragic heart of 1962 Hollywood with a wild riff on the Marilyn Monroe death myth in an astonishing, behind-the-headlines crime epic.
Los Angeles, August 4, 1962. The city broils through a midsummer heat wave. Marilyn Monroe ODs. A B-movie starlet is kidnapped. The overhyped LAPD overreacts. Chief Bill Parker’s looking for some getback. The Monroe deal looks like a moneymaker. He calls in Freddy Otash.
The freewheeling Freddy O: tainted ex-cop, defrocked private eye, dope fiend, and freelance extortionist. A man who lives by the maxim “Opportunity is love.” Freddy gets to work. He dimly perceives Marilyn Monroe’s death and the kidnapped starlet to be a poisonous riddle that only he has the guts and the brains to untangle. We are with him as he tears through all those who block his path to the truth. We are with him as he penetrates the faux-sunshine of Jack and Bobby Kennedy and the shuck of Camelot. We are with him as he falters, and grasps for love beyond opportunity. We are with him as he tracks Marilyn Monroe’s horrific last charade through a nightmare L.A. that he served to create — and as he confronts his complicity and his own raging madness.
It’s the Summer of ’62, baby. Freddy O’s got a hot date with history. The savage Sixties are ready to pop. It’s just a shot away.
The Enchanters is a transcendent work of American popular fiction. It is James Ellroy at his most crazed, brilliant, provocative, profanely hilarious, and stop-your-heart tender. It is a luminous psychological drama and an unparalleled thrill ride. It is, resoundingly, the great American crime novel.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Real-life LAPD officer turned private detective Fred Otash narrates Ellroy's sprawling follow-up to 2022's Widespread Panic. It's another opportunity for the author to showcase his encyclopedic knowledge of mid-century Hollywood: the plot kicks off in the summer of 1962 when Otash is hired to dig up dirt on the recently deceased Marilyn Monroe by the unholy trinity of Jimmy Hoffa, JFK, and the LAPD. Meanwhile, a laundry list of other crimes stack up on Otash's to-do list, including the kidnapping of a budding starlet, money laundering schemes, an exploding street drug market, and a ruthless peeping tom. As Otash burrows deeper into Monroe's death, his grip on sanity loosens, and he becomes increasingly worried the crimes are all connected in one vast conspiracy. Ellroy masterfully orchestrates his vast array of subplots to create a tour de force of vibe and atmosphere. That ambience, plus his signature jazzy turns of phrase, will thrill longtime fans, but newcomers may get lost in the sprawl. This fascinating, overstuffed outing won't win Ellroy many new converts, but it's still a hell of a ride.
