| Plot Summary of Clandestine |
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"CLANDESTINE is the second novel, published in 1982, of James Ellroy.
In 1951, Fred Underhill is a talented young cop of the L.A.P.D. who believes to have found a serial killer. He asks police lieutenant Dudley Smith for help and soon will discover the evil side of Smith, a sadistic cop ready to do anything to arrest vicious killers.
After having left the L.A.P.D., Underhill begins a redemptive trip which will last four years, until the day his past will knock at his door again.
Recommended
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Daniel Staebler, Resident Scholar
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"Officer Freddy Underhill is 26, working out of the LAPD's Wilshire station, and chasing women in 1951 when he and his partner discover the mutilated and strangled corpse of a young secretary. The trail leads to other murders, new and old, and a beautiful crippled district attorney named Lorna Weinberg. Several familiar themes from Ellroy's other early novels (such as golf) and the majestic LA Quartet (sadistic detective Lt. Dudley Smith, his obsession with the Black Dahlia, and the Victory Motel) turn up in this, his second novel. Dialogue in _Clandestine_ is occasionally wooden and overly formal, and the novel has a tendency to club the reader with the Voice of Doom ("this had been the pivotal day of my life"; "the end of the last season of my youth"), but the plot is grippingly complicated Ellroy."
David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Clandestine |
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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
Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 20%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20%
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?
- 70%
Misc. Murder Plotlets
- "All in the family" murder
Kind of investigator
- police procedural, American
Kid or adult book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Any non-mystery subplot?
- feelings towards lover
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?
- just the right amount
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
- soggy whimpering jelly muffin
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- bulging muscles
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- police/lawman
Eccentric:
Yes
- obsessed
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a moderate amount
Motive of antagonist
- power
How sensitive is this character?
- mean, arrogant
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Midwest
- California
City?
Yes
City:
- Los Angeles
- Dirty, dangerous (like New York)
- dangerous
Small town?
Yes
Small town people:
- hostile, like Gomer Pyle on steroids
Misc setting
- resort/hotel
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- very gorey references to deaths/dead bodies and torture
How many deaths?
- 5-7
- 8 or more
Sex
Yes
What kind of sex:
- descript of kissing
- lesbians!
- actual description of sex
- descript. of breasts
- descript. of other female areas
- descript. of male nudity
- homosexuals doing their thing
- rape (yeech!)
Unusual forms of death
- asphyxiation
- poisoning
- perforation--bullets
- perforation--swords/knives
Unusual form of death?
Yes
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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