My Dark Places – James Ellroy

I nearly gave up with James Ellroy’s My Dark Places. There were so many names and, seventy pages in, it was going nowhere. A sudden change of tone and it dawned on me that I wasn’t reading a novel (!), I was reading a detailed examination of a true story, the story of the murder of the author’s mother.

Divided into sections – the crime, the victim’s son (the author), the detective, the victim – this is an exhaustive examination of a crime and the investigation process. The author’s obsession with his mother’s killing is a fascinating read and is highly recommended.

I thought the author’s Wikipedia entry was interesting, encouraging me to seek out his novels.