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8797999's review against another edition
4.0
A good read, I enjoyed this book but I think this series peaked with the first book.
Overall a great series and a nice conclusion. To see the end game of the characters and story arc.
Between this Underworld USA and LA Trilogy I preferred the LA Trilogy.
So far of the Ellroy I have read my favourite would be between these three Black Dahlia, LA Confidential and American Tabloid.
I look forward to starting the Second LA Trilogy with Perfidia. Though not for a few weeks at least.
Overall a great series and a nice conclusion. To see the end game of the characters and story arc.
Between this Underworld USA and LA Trilogy I preferred the LA Trilogy.
So far of the Ellroy I have read my favourite would be between these three Black Dahlia, LA Confidential and American Tabloid.
I look forward to starting the Second LA Trilogy with Perfidia. Though not for a few weeks at least.
steadman_slick's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
smark1342's review against another edition
I thought this was the weakest of the underworld USA trilogy but I still had fun reading it and you could rip off 50 pages at a stretch without blinking. Every Ellroy book I've read previous to this has at its core the idea that all people, even the ones who have spent the last 1500 pages, say, oh, I don't know, going for the rare MLK/JFK/RFK assassination trifecta can be redeemed through love. It's a weird trick but some time in the last 50 pages of all his books you get a glimpse of something other than the insanely narsty grotesque preceding bits of the novel and I always kinda buy it and am impressed (maybe even moved?) by it. In this one all the main characters need to have a come to Jesus moment basically from the get go and it's political/romantic rather than romantic/political. His lefty guerilla types absolutely don't scan. I think more than anything you just cant convincingly make joan and Karen the ideologically pure bomb throwing commies he wants them to be and have them willingly associate with a creep like Dwight. Per the kinda Christian thing about redemption in all these books...people are willing to forgive A LOT.
Also I think he finds a lot of the domestic race/culture war scenes a lot funnier than I do. Maybe I'm simultaneously desensitized and ultra sensititized to some of this stuff but man it's just a long slog through the Byzantine machinations of various conflicting hate groups. He still has his fastball though, a few sentences and plot lines really manage to shine through. Also I think the plot was a little more complicated and confusing than the previous two. Finally it's very clear he, ellroy, kinda sees himself as crutch, a real guy he knew in real life, right down to the missing mother. But for some reason I thought some of the writing in Marsh's journal (the authorship of which kinda gets called into question-were we reading Dwight writing as Marsh the whole time?) sounded the most like The Good Ellroy. In sum I kinda liked it but all the other Ellroy cinematic universe is a lot closer to my heart. I will never ever recommend this book to an acquaintance and a friend will need to have already displayed a fondness for all this shit before I'd even think of it.
Also I think he finds a lot of the domestic race/culture war scenes a lot funnier than I do. Maybe I'm simultaneously desensitized and ultra sensititized to some of this stuff but man it's just a long slog through the Byzantine machinations of various conflicting hate groups. He still has his fastball though, a few sentences and plot lines really manage to shine through. Also I think the plot was a little more complicated and confusing than the previous two. Finally it's very clear he, ellroy, kinda sees himself as crutch, a real guy he knew in real life, right down to the missing mother. But for some reason I thought some of the writing in Marsh's journal (the authorship of which kinda gets called into question-were we reading Dwight writing as Marsh the whole time?) sounded the most like The Good Ellroy. In sum I kinda liked it but all the other Ellroy cinematic universe is a lot closer to my heart. I will never ever recommend this book to an acquaintance and a friend will need to have already displayed a fondness for all this shit before I'd even think of it.
thisisstephenbetts's review against another edition
2.0
Fairly disappointing Ellroy. Still an exhilirating ride, but the pay-off was very unsatisfying. This is the conclusion to his American Tabloid trilogy. The first part was based around the assassination of JFK, and the second around those of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Ellroy, justifiably, decided not to cover the Watergate scandal in the third volume, but that left no comparable historic events to anchor this book, making it feel a far less significant work. This sadly drags down the two preceding tomes by association and leads to the question of whether he should have bothered making the series into a trilogy.
All of the major mysteries - set up in the early part of the book, and driving much of the plot throughout - fizzle out into perfunctory and largely unbelievable (even by Ellroy standards) conclusions. It really felt like he hadn't plotted the book fully enough and ended up writing himself into a corner. If he had been using them just to drive along the plot he really shouldn't have built them up so much.
It's a shame, because the Ellroy roller-coaster or misanthropy does still deliver. And he has curbed some of his more annoying tics, while maintaining his kinetic, punchy prose. His conflicted and compromised anti-heroes are still compelling (although his propensity to kill his characters off - while admirably shocking - does mean that you feel seen his archetypes several times before), and the hallucinatory passages, particularly in Haiti, are immersive. He still delivers a convincing vision of a familiar world refracted through a prism of violence, fear and hate. Perhaps best of all, he introduces a young and ingenuous (as far as an Ellroy character can be) character that seems to have a lot of the young and wayward Ellroy, and hence feels particularly believable. I would like to read more about him.
Unfortunately, by the end of what should have been the crowning work of an impressive and challenging trilogy, I felt that Ellroy had over-indulged himself, and perhaps believed his own hype a little too much.
All of the major mysteries - set up in the early part of the book, and driving much of the plot throughout - fizzle out into perfunctory and largely unbelievable (even by Ellroy standards) conclusions. It really felt like he hadn't plotted the book fully enough and ended up writing himself into a corner. If he had been using them just to drive along the plot he really shouldn't have built them up so much.
It's a shame, because the Ellroy roller-coaster or misanthropy does still deliver. And he has curbed some of his more annoying tics, while maintaining his kinetic, punchy prose. His conflicted and compromised anti-heroes are still compelling (although his propensity to kill his characters off - while admirably shocking - does mean that you feel seen his archetypes several times before), and the hallucinatory passages, particularly in Haiti, are immersive. He still delivers a convincing vision of a familiar world refracted through a prism of violence, fear and hate. Perhaps best of all, he introduces a young and ingenuous (as far as an Ellroy character can be) character that seems to have a lot of the young and wayward Ellroy, and hence feels particularly believable. I would like to read more about him.
Unfortunately, by the end of what should have been the crowning work of an impressive and challenging trilogy, I felt that Ellroy had over-indulged himself, and perhaps believed his own hype a little too much.
nightchough's review against another edition
4.0
I LOVED THIS BOOK. It's as good as L.A. Confidential.
It's absolutely gonzo and I mean that as a compliment.
Ellroy has a formula - and this is very much in that formula - but he plays with his formula in this book. Adding voodoo (!!!), and perhaps just as significantly, add Ellroy at least trying to have meaningful female characters.
Other nice touches were his treatment of 60s US civil rights conflicts, add Richard M. Nixon's private tapes.
I wouldn't recommend this as a first James Ellroy book though. It's the third book of a trilogy.
It's absolutely gonzo and I mean that as a compliment.
Ellroy has a formula - and this is very much in that formula - but he plays with his formula in this book. Adding voodoo (!!!), and perhaps just as significantly, add Ellroy at least trying to have meaningful female characters.
Other nice touches were his treatment of 60s US civil rights conflicts, add Richard M. Nixon's private tapes.
I wouldn't recommend this as a first James Ellroy book though. It's the third book of a trilogy.
barts_books's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
beckydham's review against another edition
5.0
I know his stuff is an acquired taste. But this is one of his best, and it will take me a while to recover.
lowflyinggoose's review against another edition
Will come back to this at some point, just way too dark for me at the moment.
storyman's review against another edition
5.0
Brutal, but outstanding. Not as good as American Tabloid, but better than the Cold Six Thousand.
ajnel's review
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
"Blood's a Rover" is the final novel in the "Underworld USA" historical fiction series. Elroy uses the same staccato writing style as in the two previous novels, coupled with the same "overlords" (e.g. Hoover and Vegas Mob). As in "The Cold Six Thousand," the novel picks up directly where the previous novel left off and flies directly into new conspiracies panned against historical events. Though not as tightly written as "American Tabloid" and at times rather sentimental and introspective, the novel provides a satisfactory continuation and eventual conclusion, albeit written almost 20 years later. One of the best historical crime fiction series available. 4.5/5