The 20 essential L.A. crime books
LA TimesIn the spirit of exploring crime novels set in and around Los Angeles, a city where noir is instinctive and eerily resplendent, here are 20 essential books that rouse the darker angels of our metropolis. “Its mix of L.A. history and good old-fashioned intrigue opened my eyes to the notion that mystery novels could be about more than ‘who did it,’” says author and book critic Paula L. Woods. An unseemly look at heroin, sex, corruption and L.A. cops, or as the headline for The Times’ 1990 review called it, “Depravity in Dreamland.” The review goes on to note: “Almost everybody in ‘L.A. Rawlins draws us into another L.A. “‘Devil in a Blue Dress’ honors the hard-boiled tradition of Hammett/Chandler/Cain in its story line and attitude, but Mosley takes us down some mean streets that his spiritual predecessors never could have because they were white,” said The Times review. “An extraordinary novel that lays out the history of two families in the Crenshaw district — one black, one Japanese — between the 1930s and the 1990s,” said novelist Steph Cha.
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