History Literature / LAConfidential

** Edmund Exley is an idealist who genuinely wants to uphold "absolute justice", but he's also an ice-cold opportunist and a pragmatist. He earned a medal of honor in the Pacific when he stumbled across a platoon of dead Japanese soldiers, shot up the corpses with a machine gun, and staged it to look like he had killed them single-handedly.

* RetIrony: [[spoiler: After confessing all of his sins to Karen, and being forgiven, and knowing that his career with the LAPD is basically at an end, Jack Vincennes joins Exley and White for OneLastJob in an effort to take down Dudley. Karen leaves him a note telling him she knows the worst and doesn't care, and suggests a second honeymoon somewhere tropical, and also suggests that he can get a police chief job somewhere if he still wants to be in law enforcement. Jack is so giddy over the news that goes out on his job wearing a Hawaiian shirt to assist Exley and White. It is indeed one last job, as Jack gets randomly killed by a stray bullet in a gun battle. We later find out that Karen was so pissed over Jack's death and his treatment by the LAPD that she allowed no LAPD men to attend his funeral, and refused an audience with Exley.]]

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Bud White, who loathes and targets men who beat women, [[spoiler: ends up beating Lynn Bracken after he finds out she slept with Exley. This happens in the film too, but his immediate MyGodWhatHaveIDone reaction was exclusive to the adaptation. In the novel, Bud hits Lynn three times, and only stops "when he sees he won't break her".]]

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Russ Millard, a key supporting character in "The Black Dahlia," returns in this novel, and is largely aligned with Exley. [[spoiler: Fearing for the safety of the Nite Owl Suspects, advises Exley he's got them stashed for safekeeping. They escape, and the aftermath causes him so much guilt and shame that he has a fatal heart attack.]]

* PyrrhicVictory: Ed Exley.

* SuicidePact: [[spoiler: Preston Exley, Raymond Dieterling and Inez Soto all overdose on antipsychotic drugs, in the middle of Dieterling's amusement park, once Exley and Dieterling's conspiracy connected to the Frankenstein murders is uncovered.]]

* LawyerFriendlyCameo: Raymond Dieterling, the creator of beloved children's cartoons starring a character named "Moochie Mouse", and plans to open an ambitious theme park.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Dudley Smith, naturally. Pierce Patchett as well, who presents a perfectly reasonable and friendly face while being open about some of his criminal exploits, but as more is revealed about him, the more disturbing he becomes.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: Once again, Ellroy's protagonists are barely more than a lesser evil compared to those around them.
** Bud White is redeemable by his soft spot for women and his earnest hatred of abusers, but he's still a corrupt and brutal cop who cares more about taking care of his even more corrupt friends than actually upholding the law. He also turns himself into something of a {{Hypocrite}} [[spoiler: when he beats Lynn Bracken]].
** Jack Vincennes killed two innocent civilians while intoxicated during a shootout, an incident which was suppressed, and his involvement in the main case is a result of him hunting down the blackmail file implicating him in this shooting. He essentially falls backwards into the Nite Owl investigation while trying to cover his own ass.
** Edmund Exley is an idealist who genuinely wants to uphold "absolute justice", but he's also an ice-cold opportunist and a pragmatist. He earned a medal of honor in the Pacific when he stumbled across a platoon of dead Japanese soldiers, shot up the corpses with a machine gun, and staged it to look like he had killed them single-handedly.

* WouldHurtAChild: The Frankenstein murderer, as well as a serial rapist/murderer who becomes a target of Bud White's personal manhunt after killing his fourteen-year-old witness.

A 1990 novel by Creator/JamesEllroy, making up the third, and by far the longest installment of his ''Literature/LAQuartet'' series. Spanning nearly the entirety of the 1950s, this crime epic follows the investigations of three L.A.P.D. officers as they gradually unravel a dense, intricate web of criminal conspiracies, connecting murder to drugs to pornography to showbusiness to police corruption.

A 1990 novel by Creator/JamesEllroy, making up the third, and by far the longest installment of his "L.A. Quartet" series. Spanning nearly the entirety of the 1950s, this crime epic follows the investigations of three L.A.P.D. officers as they gradually unravel a dense, intricate web of criminal conspiracies, connecting murder to drugs to pornography to showbusiness to police corruption.

* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler: Jack Vincennes gets ignobly killed off midway through the third act by a shot to the face, JUST as he's started to redeem himself.

-->'''Lynn''': ''Some men get the world. Others get ex-hookers and a trip to Arizona. You're in with the former, [[SympathyForTheHero but God, I don't envy the blood on your conscience]].''