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“1953 was a hell of a year for the Los Angeles Police Department. The bodies piled up: liquor store robberies gone bad, crazed spouses and cheating lovers, gang wars, back alley brawls and straight-up, cold-blooded killing. This was a decade that saw L.A.'s population boom, with suburban migration creating an inner-city vacuum that sucked in the worst elements. Those left behind who remained on the right side of the law, and the well-to-do in the new neighbourhoods trying to beat back danger on their doorsteps, relied on the LAPD to meet fire with fire…”

EXCLUSIVE: RJ Cutler, the maker of documentaries The September Issue and The World According to Dick Cheney who stepped into narrative film with If I Stay, has signed on to direct and co-write My Dark Places. That's the memoir by L.A. Confidential author James Ellroy that focuses on the 1958 murder of his mother and Ellroy's attempt to re-investigate some 36 years later, in 1994.

Also note coverage in “The Dissolve.”

To celebrate the release of Perfidia, the latest crime noir novel from the creator of L.A Confidential, James Ellroy, we've got 5 exclusive screen printed posters of the original cover artwork signed by the author to give away! If that wasn't enough, we're also throwing in 5 paperback copies of the novel just in time for the summer holidays.

“DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it's even better when paired with the razor-sharp prose of James Ellroy.

That seems to be the philosophy behind LAPD '53 (Abrams Books). The book is a collection of gritty crime scene photos taken by Los Angeles Police Department officers over the course of 1953. Alongside those images are short stories by Ellroy, whose books include L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia. LAPD '53 seamlessly melds facts with speculation and color straight from the novelist's imagination.”

“After combing through the photo archives of the police museum, Ellroy discovered that 1953 featured the most unusual and striking imagery of the extensive collection and was inspired to write 25,000 words of text that illuminate L.A.’s underbelly and the controversial law enforcement practices of the time.”

“I interviewed James Ellroy, the great American noir novelist, at LA’s venerable Pacific Dining Car in April 2001. We were there to discuss his latest book, The Cold Six Thousand, but wound up tackling a myriad of subjects over our three hour lunch. Ellroy sported a snappy fedora that I said would have looked great on Meyer Lansky. He barked a laugh and removed it, displaying his bald pate. When he looked at my full head of 33 year-old hair, his eyes narrowed: ‘That thing on your head real or a rug?' ‘Real,' I replied. Ellroy exhaled for what seemed like a full minute, then murmured: ‘Cocksucker.' We were off and running.”

The Guardian has some great photos from LAPD ‘53 along with commentary.

For a taste of Ellroy’s collaboration with the Los Angeles Police Museum on LAPD ‘53, visit this image gallery at CNN.

A must-see video as Ellroy opens up to Encore’s Mariam Saab about starting over three decades into his literary career, the blurred lines between reality and fiction and the real love of his life.

Read about it at the TheEdgars.com or read the press release from the Mystery Writers of America.