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Clandestine
by James Ellroy
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (1999-02-01)
ISBN: 0380805294
EAN: 9780380805297
Dewy Decimal #: 813.54
Paperback: 336 pages
Release Date: 1999-02-01
SKU: SA08051514
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: Exactly as shown, spine is creased, covers have light wear. Text clean with NO marks.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Fred Underhill is a young cop on the rise in Los Angeles in the early 1950's -- a town blinded to its own grime by Hollywood glitter; a society nourished by newspaper lies that wants its heroes all-American and squeaky clean.A chance to lead on a possible serial killing is all it takes to fuel Underhill's reckless ambition - and it propels him into a dangerous alliance with certain mad and unstable elements of the law enforcement hierarchy. When the case implodes with disastrous consequences, it is Fred Underhill who takes the fall. His life is in ruins, his promising future suddenly a dream of the past. And his good and pure love for a crusading woman lawyer has been corrupted and may not survive. But even without the authority of a badge, Fred Underhill knows that his only hope for redemption lies in following the investigation to its grim conclusion. And the Hell to which he has been consigned for his sins is the perfect place to hunt for a killer who hungers but has no soul.
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Customer Reviews
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Terrific tough book!
Rating  (5)
Date: 2006-12-30
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is the first Ellroy book I've ever read. After reading other reviews that say he just gets better, I can't wait to pick up some others.
Unlike some other readers, I loved the back story of the murdered women. Their stories brought everything together for me & during the last 75 pages I just couldn't put it down.
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Couldn't put it down!
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-10-01
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is the first hard-boiled/noir book that I have ever read, and it was really wonderful! The dialouge is rich and snappy, and the characters are memorable. This novel peaked my interest in the noir genre of films and books again.
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Better, but not yet great
Rating  (3)
Date: 2006-04-17
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
This novel was, I felt, leaps and bounds beyond Brown's Requiem. However, it does not quite achieve the greatness of the later novels.
Much of the positivity I found in this novel came from the first few parts. Once the crime is "solved" (so to speak) and Fred must face "justice", I felt the novel hit a skid it never quite recovered from. Up to that point, especially the inclusion of Dudley Smith and his techniques, I was totally floored. The interplay between Dudley and Fred is amazing because Dudley's evil as absolutely palpable- you're like a dog sensing evil and slowly backing away.
Unfortunately, the last two or three sections were very weak. I found myself disinterested in Fred's attempts at redemption. I hadn't a care for Doc Harris, the latest victim, or anything about Wisconsin's miles and miles of cabbage. Ellroy spent far too much time filling in the holes of the last victim's life which did nothing to interest me until those facts were connected to the earlier murders in the story.
Altogether I would recommend the book for its first two hundred pages. I would have been perfectly content to stop there, never know who the "real" killer is, and give it FIVE STARS. But the way a book ends is very important to me, and this one fell off considerably and kind of hurt my impression.
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The beginning of the L.A. saga
Rating (5)
Date: 2004-08-13
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Some of Ellroy's works are interconnected and critics or publishers have distributed his LA novels in the so-called LA Quartet (Black Dhalia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz)or the Dudley Smith Trio (the previous except Black Dhalia). Why Clandestine doesn't appear in any of this series is a mystery to me. Indeed Clandestine can be considered the first chapter of any of the series: it is set in LA in the early 50's, the plot follows similar patterns as the rest of the series (LAPD talented young officer gets into trouble and finds redemption by investigationg a murder), it features the omnipresent Dudley Smith...
Perhaps it is not as mesmeraizing as some of the LA Quartet but it is quite more realistic. It is free of some of the coincidential elements (i.e. officer assigned to a case conected with a crime his father investigated 20 years before)that somehow destroy the coherence in the other novels.
To sum up a fantastic introduction to Ellroy's noir universe.
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A Master Finding His Voice
Rating  (4)
Date: 2004-01-30
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
One of James Ellroy's first efforts, CLANDESTINE showcases a writing voice not yet matured into the staccato hipster prose of his L.A. quartet or the historical fiction of American Tabloid/The Cold Six Thousand. That said, it's still a great read (though the romantic sequences between Underhill and Lorna are a bit clunky). The last fifty pages are classic, non-stop page turners. The interrogation scenes with Dudley Smith, Underhill and Eddie Engels are Ellroy-esque and brutal, yet they lack the wit and cold intelligence of the interrogation scenes from L.A. Confidential. Lt. Dudley Smith is a monster, but not quite the cold, calculating beast he becomes in Ellroy's later masterpieces. For those not acquainted with the earlier works of James Ellroy, this one's a must. As I read this book, I could definitely see stronger beginnings of the voice that now makes Ellroy one of the world's very best.
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