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| Plot Summary of The Big Nowhere |
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"The second in Ellroy's LA quartet takes place in 1950 and opens up a much broader canvas than the first -- the already-complex _The Black Dahlia_. There are three hero-protagonists, several villains, and a panoply of oddballs between them, including such real historic personages as Howard Hughes and Mickey Cohen. Detective Danny Upshaw is an up-and-comer with the LA Sheriff's West Hollywood substation, assigned a sex murder case with a male corpse apparently strangled and gruesomely mutilated. Lt. Mal Considine, an executive officer with LAPD, and Turner "Buzz" Meeks, a tough guy/shitkicker and LAPD washout currently working as head of security for Hughes Aircraft (and incidental pimp for the big boss), agree to serve on a district attorney's anti-Communist task force. Considine is on the Red Scare bandwagon to advance his career and gain custody of his adopted son, Meeks is just in it for the money. The three cross trails and help each other out in the soup of Hollywood has-beens who sympathize with the socialist cause, jazz combos and drug traffic in the black districts, corrupt cops and sometime prostitutes, and Hispanic race riots. Old, ostensibly solved (and unsolved) murder cases also come into play. Anyone would have a hard time summarizing the plot after putting down this raging tumult of a book, but what a rush it is to read!"
David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of The Big Nowhere |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of story
- Dry-cynical
How difficult to spot villain?
- Difficult, but some clues given
Time/era of story:
- 1930's-1950's
What % of story relates directly
to the mystery, not the subplot?
- 30%
Misc. Murder Plotlets
- character killed during/after sexing
Kind of investigator
- police procedural, American
Kid or adult book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Crime Thriller
Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown)
Yes
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- police/lawman
Age:
- 20's-30's
How much violence does he/she use?
- a significant amount
How sensitive is this character?
- mean, arrogant
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- bulging muscles
Main Adversary
Identity:
- an organization
Profession/status:
- police/lawman
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a little/some
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- California
City?
Yes
City:
- Los Angeles
- dangerous
Style
Part of a series?
Yes
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- very gorey descriptions deaths/dead bodies
How many deaths?
- 5-7
Sex
Yes
What kind of sex:
- vague references
- descript of kissing
- actual description of sex
Unusual forms of death
- asphyxiation
- poisoning
- perforation--bullets
- blunt clubbing (like seals)
Unusual form of death?
Yes
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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