Pánico

"You go to Ellroy to wallow in the blood and muck, to subject yourself to the plot's twists and betrayals." Los Angeles Times

The demonic dog returns to 1950s underground Hollywood through the private investigator Freddy Otash: the tyrant who blackmailed the entire film industry.

The modern master of noir returns, in his rawest essence, with a novel based on the real-life character Freddy Otash, the malevolent monarch of the Los Angeles underworld in the 1950s.

Freddy Otash is a disgraced ex-cop. He liquidated a cop killer in cold blood, so chief William H. Parker dispatched him. Now he's a private investigator with a bad reputation, an extortion artist, and above all, the chief thug for Confidential, the tabloid magazine that spreads gossip about the weaknesses of misanthropic movie stars and airs the dirty laundry of idiotic politicians and socialites with a penchant for dirty sex. Jack Kennedy, James Dean, Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, Liz Taylor, Rock Hudson... Freddy the Frenetic has exposed them all. He was the Gossip Chief who held Hollywood hostage, and now, from purgatory, he has come to confess everything.

Narrated in Freddy's brutally hilarious voice, Pánico is a virulent, unvarnished revelation of corruption and paranoia, of sin and redemption.

Critics have said:
"In Ellroy, in the good Ellroy [...], there is no forgiveness, no respite, no place for good, but always for love, and sometimes for redemption. He's baaad, as he likes to say himself, he's great, he's truly dark, he's unique."
Juan Carlos Galindo, El País

"Panic is Ellroy in his purest essence, [...] a hilarious and memorable book. Fast, agile, and with a level of alliteration that oscillates between brilliant and ridiculous, Otash's voice is unlike anything in contemporary narrative."
Gabino Iglesia, NPR

"If you like Ellroy, you'll enjoy this wild ride."
The Washington Post

"Twisted and delicious [...]. Ellroy's absolute mastery of the syncopated, alliterative slang of the era is always astonishing. This is a must-read for fans of crime novels set in Los Angeles."
Publishers Weekly

"Extremely exuberant [...]. A spectacular explosion of language. For those who like obscene fireworks and freestyle jazz solos, both dazzling and exhausting, Ellroy is your man."
Booklist

"Such a deeply researched and plausible evocation of the world he writes about, so adept at interweaving real and fictional characters, that the novelist demands the reader's faith that these events could have happened, and that some [...] probably did."
Claire Messud, Harper#s Magazine

"The doyen of Los Angeles crime writers [...]. You go to Ellroy to wallow in the blood and muck, to subject yourself to the plot's twists and betrayals."
Los Angeles Times