James Ellroy, the boss of concisely-written fast-on-the-draw prose, returns with another slice of relentlessly gripping, deep-down-and-dirty Los Angeles-based noir. Doorstop-sized and politically dense, Red Sheet follows on from Ellroy’s Hollywood-set thriller The Enchanters, in whichthe suspicious death of Marilyn Monroe was at the centre of a nefarious Tinseltown core.
If you have read The Enchanters, you will be familiar with the dubious methods of Freddy Otash, crooked cop and dope fiend. Red Sheet kicks off in 1962, with the Cuban Missile Crisis having just recently caused widespread panic. With America reeling, a communist witchhunt is taking place in LA – watched over by Attorney General Robert Kennedy, with dirty deeds dished out by the LAPD. Which is where Otash enters the frame once more.
A brutal murder takes place on Halloween night, with Richard Nixon’s name being whispered on the streets as having some connection. The future US President’s goons are desperate for these whispers to be snuffed out before a prying press can run with them. Circling above all this like vultures, hoping for payday and a pound of flesh, are Playboy magnate Hugh Hefner and aspiring future councillor Tom Bradley.
Red Sheet is a fast-paced carnival of sleaze and cover-ups, brilliantly conveyed and with more hairpin bends than Lombard Street.
