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Recommendations based on The Black Dahliaby James Ellroy
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American Tabloid
by James Ellroy
A riveting crime drama set in the 1950s, featuring a complex web of characters and their dark and twisted agendas.
"Shakedowns" covers just 26 days, introducing the three principal characters, and establishing their relationships, history, and career trajectories. Pete Bondurant is a former LASD deputy; he ... (Wikipedia)
The Big Nowhere
by James Ellroy
A crime noir set in 1950s Los Angeles, unraveling a web of corruption and violence.
The plot is about three characters; L.A. Deputy Sheriff Danny Upshaw investigates a brutal sex murder which becomes a string of killings, working outside the law in his efforts to catch him. Turner ... (Wikipedia)
L.A. Confidential
by James Ellroy
An epic crime noir set in 1950s Los Angeles, exploring the dark underbelly of the city.
The story is about several Los Angeles Police Department officers in the early 1950s who become embroiled in a mix of sex, corruption and murder following a massacre at the Nite Owl coffee shop. The ... (Wikipedia)
The Poet
by Michael Connelly
A Pulitzer Prize-winning poet's descent into darkness, as he unravels a web of deceit and murder.
Denver crime-beat reporter Jack McEvoy specializes in violent death. So when his homicide detective brother kills himself, McEvoy copes in the only way he knows how–he decides to write the story. But ... (Goodreads)
The Haunting of Hill House
by Shirley Jackson
A group of people investigating a mysterious and haunted house, uncovering its secrets.
It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, the lighthearted ... (Goodreads)
No Country for Old Men
by Cormac McCarthy
A gripping tale of violence and pursuit in Texas' desolate landscape.
The plot follows the interweaving paths of the three central characters (Llewelyn Moss, Anton Chigurh , and Ed Tom Bell) set in motion by events related to a drug deal gone bad near the ... (Wikipedia)
The Tsar of Love and Techno
by Anthony Marra
A collection of interconnected stories set in Russia, exploring the power of art and the human spirit in the face of political oppression.
From the New York Times bestselling author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena —dazzling, poignant, and lyrical interwoven stories about family, sacrifice, the legacy of war, and the redemptive ... (Goodreads)
Zeno's Conscience
by Italo Svevo
A comedic exploration of a man's life and his attempt to turn it around with the help of a psychologist.
The novel is presented as a diary written by Zeno, published by his doctor (who claims that it is full of lies). The doctor has left a little note in the beginning, saying he had Zeno write an ... (Wikipedia)
A Drink Before the War
by Dennis Lehane
Private detectives investigate a kidnapping case, uncovering dark secrets of the city.
Boston private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro receive a job from three state politicians, Sterling Mulkern, Jim Vurnan and Brian Paulson, to recover documents from a former cleaning ... (Wikipedia)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1
by Alan Moore
A band of Victorian-era misfits join forces to protect the British Empire.
In 1898, one year after her encounter with Dracula , Mina Murray has divorced her husband and now works for the British government. She meets with MI5 agent Campion Bond (the grandfather of James ... (Wikipedia)
The Terra-Cotta Dog
by Andrea Camilleri
Detective story set in Sicily of a missing person and a mysterious terra-cotta dog.
The story starts off with "Tano Il Greco", a tired mafia boss , making a deal with Montalbano to stage his arrest in order for him to save face. The arrest causes Montalbano to have to appear at a ... (Wikipedia)
The High Window
by Raymond Chandler
Private detective's desperate hunt for a stolen gem and the mystery behind it.
Private investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy widow Elizabeth Bright Murdock to recover a missing Brasher Doubloon , a rare and valuable coin. Mrs. Murdock suspects it was stolen by her ... (Wikipedia)
Women
by Charles Bukowski
A collection of stories exploring the lives of various women and their relationships with men.
Women focuses on the many dissatisfactions Chinaski faced with each new woman he encountered. One of the women featured in the book is a character named Lydia Vance; she is based on Bukowski's ... (Wikipedia)
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
by Michael Chabon
A murder mystery set in an alternate reality, with characters that explore the boundaries of identity and tradition.
The book opens with Meyer Landsman, an alcoholic homicide detective with the Sitka police department, examining the murder of a man in the hotel where Landsman lives. Beside the corpse lies an open ... (Wikipedia)
Tender Is the Night
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A young couple's tumultuous journey through love, wealth and tragedy.
Dick and Nicole Diver are a glamorous couple who rent a villa in the South of France and surround themselves with a circle of friends, mainly Americans. Also staying at the nearby resort are Rosemary ... (Wikipedia)
The Castle
by Franz Kafka
Townspeople's surreal struggle against a mysterious ruling power.
The protagonist, K., arrives in a village governed by a mysterious bureaucracy operating in a nearby castle. When seeking shelter at the town inn, he claims to be a land surveyor summoned by the ... (Wikipedia)
The Green Mile
by Stephen King
A prison guard discovers the power of redemption, and miracles, when he meets a mysterious inmate.
Featuring a first-person narrative told by Paul Edgecombe, the novel switches between Paul as an old man in the Georgia Pines nursing home writing down his story in 1996, and his time in 1932 as the ... (Wikipedia)
All-Star Superman, Vol. 1
by Grant Morrison
Superman's heroic quest to save the world, while dealing with his own mortality.
Dr. Leo Quintum and his team from P.R.O.J.E.C.T. are exploring the Sun when they are remotely sabotaged by Lex Luthor . Superman rescues them, and acquires the ability to project his bio-electric ... (Wikipedia)
The Good Soldier Švejk
by Jaroslav Hašek
A Czech soldier's satirical adventures during WWI, highlighting the absurdity of war.
The story begins in Prague with news of the assassination in Sarajevo that precipitates World War I . Švejk displays such enthusiasm about faithfully serving the Austrian Emperor in battle that no ... (Wikipedia)
The Postman Always Rings Twice
by James M. Cain
A crime drama of forbidden passion, deception and murder.
The story is narrated in the first person by Frank Chambers, a young drifter who stops at a rural California diner for a meal and ends up working there. The diner is operated by a beautiful young ... (Wikipedia)
The Snowman
by Jo Nesbø
Detective Harry Hole investigates a series of grisly murders, with the help of a mysterious snowman.
In 1980, a married woman has illicit sex with a lover while her adolescent son waits in a car outside; their lovemaking is disturbed when they think somebody is looking at them from outside the ... (Wikipedia)
The Falls
by Ian Rankin
An Edinburgh detective's investigation of a serial killer, with a personal connection.
A student vanishes in Edinburgh and her wealthy family of bankers ensure Detective Inspector John Rebus is under pressure to find her. A carved wooden doll in a coffin found near her East Lothian ... (Wikipedia)
A Perfect Spy
by John le Carré
A British spy's complex exploration of identity, loyalty and betrayal.
John le Carre's classic novels deftly navigate readers through the intricate shadow worlds of international espionage with unsurpassed skill and knowledge, and have earned him unprecedented worldwide ... (Goodreads)
Cyrano de Bergerac
by Edmond Rostand
A tale of unrequited love, an unlikely hero's journey for acceptance and admiration.
Hercule Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac , a cadet (nobleman serving as a soldier) in the French Army , is a brash, strong-willed man of many talents. In addition to being a remarkable duelist, he is a ... (Wikipedia)
Chess Story
by Stefan Zweig
A chess master's attempt to regain his lost skill, and the psychological battle he faces.
The narrator opens the story on a passenger liner traveling from New York to Buenos Aires. Driven to mental anguish as the result of total isolation by the Nazis , Dr B, a securities expert hiding ... (Wikipedia)
Winter
by Ali Smith
A novel set in the winter season, exploring family relationships, politics, and the impact of technology on society.
A family gathers in a large Cornwall house for a Christmas reuinion. With matriarch Sophia and her estranged sister Iris are her son Art and who they believe is his girlfriend Charlotte. Art has paid ... (Wikipedia)
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
by Gabriel García Márquez
A murder mystery narrated by the townspeople and tracing the events leading up to the crime.
The non-linear story, told by an anonymous narrator, begins with the morning of Santiago Nasar's death. The reader learns that Santiago lives with his mother, Placida Linero; the cook, Victoria ... (Wikipedia)
The Bridge on the Drina
by Ivo Andrić
A multigenerational epic of a small Bosnian town and the bridge that stands as its symbol.
A vivid depiction of the suffering history has imposed upon the people of Bosnia from the late sixteenth century to the beginning of World War I, The Bridge on the Drina earned Ivo Andric the Nobel ... (Goodreads)
The Long Goodbye
by Raymond Chandler
A hard-boiled detective's journey to unravel the truth behind a mysterious disappearance.
The novel opens outside a club called the Dancers. It is late October or early November. No year is given for the events but internal evidence and the publication date of the novel place them between ... (Wikipedia)
I, Claudius
by Robert Graves
An epic tale of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, told through the eyes of a dynasty's forgotten leader.
Into the 'autobiography' of Clau-Clau-Claudius, the pitiful stammerer who was destined to become Emperor in spite of himself, Graves packs the everlasting intrigues, the depravity, the bloody purges ... (Goodreads)
