L.A. Confidential Audiobook By James Ellroy cover art

L.A. Confidential

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L.A. Confidential

By: James Ellroy
Narrated by: Craig Wasson
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Christmas 1951, Los Angeles: a city where the police are as corrupt as the criminals.

Six prisoners are beaten senseless in their cells by cops crazed on alcohol. For the three LAPD detectives involved, it will expose the guilty secrets on which they have built their corrupt and violent careers.

©1990 James Ellroy (P)2015 Random House Audio Crime Fiction Fiction Hard-Boiled Historical Mystery Noir Police Procedural Crime

Featured Article: These Noir Listens Will Take You to the Dark Side of Fiction


What do you love most in your mystery listens? Is it dark, moody settings and gritty storylines? Is it morally ambiguous main characters with complex inner lives? If so, noir is your kind of fiction. As a literary genre, noir can be difficult to nail down because so much of it is based on a general feeling of darkness and danger. Noir fiction was inspired by film noir, and film noir traces its roots to hard-boiled detective novels. Check out the world of noir fiction audiobooks.

Featured Article These Noir Listens Will Take You to the Dark Side of Fiction
Intricate Plot • Compelling Story • Excellent Character Voices • Superb Vocal Performance
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Plot is more intricate and twistier than movie. Wasson gives a top notch performance as usual!

twistier than movie!

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A thrilling and gripping story. Violent, intense and intriguing. The story stalls out slightly in and around part 3 but accelerates towards an exciting and shocking ending. Craig Wasson is brilliant as the reader.

LA Confidential

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This just blew me away! From the text to the reading. A 1 performance! Bravo!

Wow! Author, author! Amazing!

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L.A Confidential is my favorite book of all time. I read it for the first time at 16 and it's the book that really got me interested in reading. I finished it at 4:00am while on vacation and reread it immediately. Every mystery or crime novel I've read since has been chasing the dragon of L.A Confidential. Some have come close, but it's never been surpassed.

I've read this book countless times, but I decided to listen to it this time around. Overall the audio book is great. Wesson is a gifted narrator and he handles Ellroy's unique staccato style very well. Um, the less said about his voices for female, Hispanic, Black and Asian characters the better. I have to admit, I usually read the last section of the book fairly quickly because there's so much going on. Listening to the book was great because it slowed me down and forced me to really pay attention to the story. I picked up on things I had missed in the past.

Great Audio of a Complicated Book

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James Elroy constructs a dark world. where the characters are cynical, deviant and endlessly engaging. I loved the book!

WAY better than the movie!

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But worth the read if you like crime thrillers. Wasson has done another excellent narration

Long ass book

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Probably my favorite part of the series. Well written, excellent story, and just a joy to listen to.

A great wrapup

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So many twists and turns. Loved it. Great character development along with who do it plot. Highly recommend.

Fantastic - crime thriller

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The novel is much more involved and complex than its remarkable film version. It features same characters, but with far more complex with different storylines. Many changes to the overall plot make the story fresh and interesting, including A much different solution and ending.

If you loved the movie, you’re going to love this!

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I’ve been going through the LA quintet by Ellroy and while I enjoyed listening to LA Confidential, it’s twisting storyline often left me struggling to keep up with all the characters and plots. The long chapters of ‘newspaper articles’ were largely unnecessary and ground the pacing of the book to a halt. The movie does a great job of building a coherent narrative out of this overstuffed book. All that said, I’m looking forward to White Jazz and the conclusion of this epic LAPD noire!

The movie is better…

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