America's greatest crime writer investigates his mother's murder. On 21 June
1958, Geneva Hilliker Ellroy left her home in California. She was found
strangled the next day. Her ten year-old son James had been with her estranged
husband all weekend and was informed of her death on his return. Her murderer
was never found, but her death had an enduring effect on her son - he spent
his teens and early adult years as a wino, petty burglar and derelict. Only
later, through his obsession with crime fiction, triggered by his mother's
murder, did Ellroy begin to delve into his past. Shortly after the publication
of his groundbreaking novel WHITE JAZZ, he determined to return to Los Angeles
and, with the help of veteran detective Bill Stoner, attempt to solve the
38-year-old killing. The result is one of the few classics of crime non-
fiction and autobiography to appear in the last few decades; a hypnotic trip
to America's underbelly and one man's tortured soul.
America's greatest crime writer investigates his mother's murder. On 21 June
1958, Geneva Hilliker Ellroy left her home in California. She was found
strangled the next day. Her ten year-old son James had been with her estranged
husband all weekend and was informed of her death on his return. Her murderer
was never found, but her death had an enduring effect on her son - he spent
his teens and early adult years as a wino, petty burglar and derelict. Only
later, through his obsession with crime fiction, triggered by his mother's
murder, did Ellroy begin to delve into his past. Shortly after the publication
of his groundbreaking novel WHITE JAZZ, he determined to return to Los Angeles
and, with the help of veteran detective Bill Stoner, attempt to solve the
38-year-old killing. The result is one of the few classics of crime non-
fiction and autobiography to appear in the last few decades; a hypnotic trip
to America's underbelly and one man's tortured soul.
