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Suicide Hill (Lloyd Hopkins #3)
by
James Ellroy
Detective Sergeant Lloyd Hopkins is the most brilliant homicide detective in the Los Angeles Police Department and one of its most troubled. In his obsessive mission to protect the innocent, there is no line he won’t cross. Estranged from his wife and daughters and on the verge of being drummed out of the department for his transgressions, Hopkins is assigned to investigat...more
Paperback, 288 pages
Published
August 8th 2006
by Vintage
(first published 1985)
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Suicide Hill is a crappy name for a book, and the third book in James Ellroy's Lloyd Hopkins series of books. The title of the books i just shitty, I don't know what I would name the book, but the title is blah. Sorry, demon dog.
I don't know anything about James Ellroy's motivation at the time of this book being written. The cover of the mass-market I read says a Lloyd Hopkins Novel, as if that were being used as a selling point. I get the feeling that Lloyd Hopkins was an attempt to create a r...more
I don't know anything about James Ellroy's motivation at the time of this book being written. The cover of the mass-market I read says a Lloyd Hopkins Novel, as if that were being used as a selling point. I get the feeling that Lloyd Hopkins was an attempt to create a r...more
Mucho menos ambiciosa y compleja que las fabulosas L.A. Confidencial o La Dalia Negra, mantiene sin embargo el ambiente negro, descarnado y cruel, dibujado metódicamente con una prosa hecha de frases cortas y ajenas, y personajes fríos, patéticos y miserables, aún si notablemente inteligentes. Como en sus grandes novelas, da la impresión que Ellroy no inventa una historia sino que describe minuciosamente algo de lo que ha sido personalmente testigo. La historia es un encontronazo mortal entre un...more
Another fast tough crime novel from JAmes Ellroy. Unlike his more famous books, this one is set in the present day. But the updating of the scenery doesn't get in the way of his muscular prose. James Ellroy kicks mighty big butt!
Another earlier Ellroy novel lives up to the Devil Dog's reputation for fast-paced, suspenseful punch in the mouth action. There's a hill, it's called Suicide Hill, and a (alleged, by, well I won't spoil it for you. Stop at "alleged") suicide. Great Thomas Lux poem opens the book, like an apercu on Ellroy's literary work as a whole:
You're alone and you know a few things.
The stars are pinholes; slits in the hangman's mask
Them, rats, snakes;
the chased and chasers--
Derde en laatste deel van de Lloyd Hopkins Trilogy, boeken die, net als Clandestine en Brown’s Requiem, al laten voelen dat Ellroy geen doorsnee misdaadauteur is, maar nog niet opmerkelijk genoeg zijn om te kunnen spreken van uitzonderlijke werken. Na Suicide Hill zou nog een tussendoortje volgen (het eigenaardige Killer On The Road), waarna Ellroy uiteindelijk zou uithalen met zijn geweldige L.A. Quartet (The Black, Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential en White Jazz), stuk voor stuk uitst...more
I loved this book and couldn't put it down. It's probably because I haven't read Ellroy in so long, but it definitely has the tight complicated conspiracy, rough violence, and bullet ridden dialogue of the L.A. Quartet. My biggest issue is the cover. Why are there men with fedoras on the cover? This book takes place in the 80's and seems just fine.
Another audiobook I "read." The only James Ellroy book that I've read that took place in the 80's. The 80's were a really grimy time that really works well as a setting for him. It's a really plain narrative structure compared to other books by him. Also, excellent narration in the audiobook.
Nov 04, 2012
Mark
added it
A good entry level book for Ellroy Beginners-since Ellroy's plots are pretty byzantine its nice to be able to follow one protagonist.If you read all three in the series you can see how his sense of character grew and exploded.
Lots of action with little difference between the "good guys" and the "bad guys". Unfortunately a lot of foul language and violence also. I had a hard time really caring about any of the characters. But it was a quick read.
For hardcore Ellroy fans only. There isn't an ounce of the genius you see later in his memoirs, LA Quartet novels or his Underworld Trilogy. It's very generic.
Found there to be too much rape, etc so I had to put it down. I'll try it again but you have to be in the mood for that kind of violence.
Not sure that I finished this one
A definite miss for Elroy. Confuses his 50's slang in this late 80's setting and makes the book soun as if it is having an identity crisis. Comes across as a more hard-edged Elmore Leonard, but that really isn't saying much.
I loved White Jazz, but found Suicide Hill disappointing in comparison.
Of the two Lloyd Hopkins books I read, this is by far the best. This is also probably his best early novel. The story plots along for the first half and then goes totally insane. The end is bittersweet in a way Ellroy's books rarely are.
One of the more 'readable' stories from James Ellroy. Less police talk, more intrigue.
Chapters on Loyd Hopkins are good, after the introduction of Rice his chapters become teadious,
Unconventional but overly long, giving the reader to much information, We know all and watch Loyd try to figure it out.
Unconventional but overly long, giving the reader to much information, We know all and watch Loyd try to figure it out.
Ellroy before he became a phenom. Tightly drawn characters battling for some crude sense of justice and sanity in a world where the world turns a deaf ear to depravity as long as it's on the side of the Law.
Great to go back and read some older Ellroy, in a different time period than many of his (great) books.
May 19, 2013
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James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. His L.A. Quartet novels—The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz—were international best sellers. His novel American Tabloid was Time magazine’s Best Book (fiction) of 1995; his memoir, My Dark Places, was a Time Best Book of the Year and a New York Times Notable Book for 1996. His novel The Cold Six Thousand was a New York...more
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updated Aug 16, 2010 12:33pm
Aug 16, 2010 01:00pm