Ellroy himself has summed it up perfectly: 'Great fucking movie. Better fucking novel.'

This is unlike anything else in the crime fiction genre I've read before. Leonard and Hiaasen for example are good, but their books verge on comedy, whereas Ellroy has a much darker, more serious tone. His plotting is also much thicker, with everything intertwined and nicely coming together at the end. I think I'll have to read more of Ellroy, I need to know more about Dudley's exploits.