L.A. CONFIDENTIAL

'''L.A. Confidential''' is a 1990 crime fiction novel by James Ellroy. It is the third of Ellroy's L.A. Quartet series.

Contents

Plot

Film adaptation

Plot

The story is about Los Angeles policemen in the 1950s who are caught up in a mixture of lies, sex, corruption, and murder following a mass murder at the Nite Owl coffee shop. The story eventually encompasses organized crime, political corruption, heroin, pornography, prostitution, tabloid journalism, institutional racism, plastic surgery, and Hollywood. The novel's title refers to the infamous 1950s scandal magazine ''Confidential'', which becomes ''Hush-Hush'' magazine in the book.
Jack Vincennes is a slick and likable Hollywood cop who moonlights as the technical advisor for ''Badge of Honor'', a popular ''Dragnet''-like television show. Vincennes is connected with ''Hush-Hush'': He receives hefty payoffs for making orchestrated celebrity arrests, often involving narcotics, that will attract even more readers to the magazine—and more fame to himself.
Edmund Exley, the son of a legendary LAPD cop, is a brilliant detective determined to outdo his father. His intelligence, his education, his glasses, his insistence on following regulations, and his cold demeanor all contribute to Ed's social isolation from other officers. He increases the resentment against him by testifying against cops in a police brutality case (based on the Bloody Christmas incident) early in the novel.
Wendell "Bud" White, the most feared man in the LAPD, is a six-foot tall muscleman. His partner is convicted by Exley's testimony and expelled from the police force, and Bud vows revenge. He has a violent obsession with men who abuse women, counterbalanced by his tenderness towards the victims. His temper often overpowers his thought.
At different intervals, the three men begin to investigate the Nite Owl case, which reveals deep tales of corruption within their own precinct.

Film adaptation

The book was adapted for a 1997 film of the same title, directed and cowritten by Curtis Hanson and starring Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, David Strathairn and Danny DeVito.