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* BestialityIsDepraved: Lucy did some smutty pictures with a Great Dane and this is the blackmail material being used against her. They may or may not be faked.
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* {{Blackmail}}: Felix Gordean, a Hollywood talent agent, also runs a male escort service, which he uses to identify and blackmail gay men in positions of power. [[spoiler: This includes Reynolds Loftis, who Gordean blackmails with knowledge of his affair with his own son. It's also suggested that Gordean identified Upshaw as a closeted gay man after their one encounter, and may have had plans for him]].
to:
* {{Blackmail}}: {{Blackmail}}:
** A StupidCrook, Tommy Sifakis, attempted to do this to Sol Gelfman by sharing pictures of his upcoming starlet with a dog, This is incredibly dumb because he is friends with Mickey Cohen, who is incredibly protective towards women he likes.
** Felix Gordean, a Hollywood talent agent, also runs a male escort service, which he uses to identify and blackmail gay men in positions of power. [[spoiler: This includes Reynolds Loftis, who Gordean blackmails with knowledge of his affair with his own son. It's also suggested that Gordean identified Upshaw as a closeted gay man after their one encounter, and may have had plans for him]].
** A StupidCrook, Tommy Sifakis, attempted to do this to Sol Gelfman by sharing pictures of his upcoming starlet with a dog, This is incredibly dumb because he is friends with Mickey Cohen, who is incredibly protective towards women he likes.
** Felix Gordean, a Hollywood talent agent, also runs a male escort service, which he uses to identify and blackmail gay men in positions of power. [[spoiler: This includes Reynolds Loftis, who Gordean blackmails with knowledge of his affair with his own son. It's also suggested that Gordean identified Upshaw as a closeted gay man after their one encounter, and may have had plans for him]].
* BotheringByTheBook: Danny Upshaw uses the fact that food and beverages are under the control of LA County to threaten people he can't technically arrest in Los Angeles proper.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Marty Goines suffered an EyeScream sexual assault after being killed with an overdose of heroine and then a GroinAttack. His body was left for exposure in all its humiliation as well.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Danny Upshaw fully believes he's not going to receive any help from the LAPD due to the presumption Marty Goines was a dopefiend and then that he was a homosexual.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Danny Upshaw fully believes he's not going to receive any help from the LAPD due to the presumption Marty Goines was a dopefiend and then that he was a homosexual.
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* {{Gayngst}}: [[spoiler: Danny Upshaw]]
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* {{Gayngst}}: [[spoiler: Danny Upshaw]]Upshaw is actually a severely repressed homosexual.]]
* TheFixer: Buzz Meeks has taken a job as this for Howard Hughes and his friends, covering up their scandalous liasions with underage girls, getting their relatives out of criminal litigation, and otherwise protecting their reputations.
* TheFixer: Buzz Meeks has taken a job as this for Howard Hughes and his friends, covering up their scandalous liasions with underage girls, getting their relatives out of criminal litigation, and otherwise protecting their reputations.
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1988 novel by Creator/JamesEllroy and the second part of the ''Literature/LAQuartet''.
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1988 novel by Creator/JamesEllroy and the second part of the ''Literature/LAQuartet''.
''Literature/TheLAQuartet''.
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Changed line(s) 13,14 (click to see context) from:
1988 novel by Creator/JamesEllroy and the second part of his "L.A. Quartet."
to:
1988 novel by Creator/JamesEllroy and the second part of his "L.A. Quartet."
the ''Literature/LAQuartet''.
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* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Another murder that was never solved in real life is given a resolution.
to:
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Another notorious L.A. murder case -- the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleepy_Lagoon_murder Sleepy Lagoon murder]] -- that was never solved in real life is given a resolution.
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Deleted line(s) 19 (click to see context) :
** Mal joins the investigation into communism. [[spoiler:
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Three detectives with three different angles will be drawn together into a circle of lies and murder. Danny Upshaw is an LA sheriffs detective with a group of bodies that will lead him to find out more about himself than he bargained for. LAPD lieutenant Malcolm "Mal" Considine is locked in a bitter custody battle for his son, whilst being drawn into the corrupt district attorneys plan to route out communists in Hollywood. Turner "Buzz" Meeks, a disgraced former cop, is now working for millionaire Howard Hughes and gangster Mickey Cohen. Buzz may try to right a few his wrongs along the way.
to:
Three detectives with three different angles will be drawn together into a circle of lies and murder. Danny Upshaw is an LA sheriffs detective with a group of bodies that will lead him to find out more about himself than he bargained for. LAPD lieutenant Malcolm "Mal" Considine is locked in a bitter custody battle for his son, whilst being drawn into the corrupt district attorneys attorney's plan to route smoke out communists in Hollywood. Turner "Buzz" Meeks, a disgraced former cop, is now working for millionaire Howard Hughes and gangster Mickey Cohen. Buzz may try to right a few his wrongs along the way.
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* RedScare: All three characters become part of a task force investigating Communism in Hollywood.
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* BoomHeadshot: [[Spoiler: Mal takes a bullet to the face.]]
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* BoomHeadshot: [[Spoiler: [[spoiler: Mal takes a bullet to the face.]]
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Changed line(s) 27 (click to see context) from:
* BoomHeadshot: [Spoiler: Mal takes a bullet to the face.]]
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* BoomHeadshot: [Spoiler: [[Spoiler: Mal takes a bullet to the face.]]
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* BoomHeadshot: [Spoiler: Mal takes a bullet to the face.]]
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Changed line(s) 36 (click to see context) from:
* JurisdictionFriction: Danny gets stonewalled by the LAPD when he first tries to investigate the Goines murder. A free hand in running the case is his top condition for joining the anticommunist task force.
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* JurisdictionFriction: The LAPD and LA County Sherriff's Department are loggerheads over Cohen. Thus Danny gets stonewalled by the LAPD when he first tries to investigate the Goines murder. A free hand in running the case is his top condition for joining the anticommunist task force.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Claire Katherine De Haven ends the book with no repercussions other than a guilty conscience.]]
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Claire Katherine De Haven ends the book with no repercussions other than a guilty conscience.]]
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Changed line(s) 33 (click to see context) from:
** Made even worse by [[spoiler: the first chapter of LAConfidential, in which [[SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome Dudley Smith tracks Meeks down and kills him just a week after the end of The Big Nowhere]].
to:
** Made even worse by [[spoiler: the first chapter of LAConfidential, in which [[SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome Dudley Smith tracks Meeks down and kills him just a week after the end of The Big Nowhere]].]]
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* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Upshaw killed himself before he ever caught the killer he was obsessed with. Meeks and Considine finished the job for him, with both Considine and the killer shot dead in the process. Meeks, the only one left who even cares about the wolverine killings, skips town and abandons Audrey Anders when Mickey Cohen finds out about their affair.]]
** Made even worse by [[spoiler: the first chapter of LAConfidential, in which [[SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome Dudley Smith tracks Meeks down and kills him just a week after the end of The Big Nowhere]].
** Made even worse by [[spoiler: the first chapter of LAConfidential, in which [[SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome Dudley Smith tracks Meeks down and kills him just a week after the end of The Big Nowhere]].
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* MoralityPet: Mal Considine's adoptive son Stefan. [[spoiler: Subverted when an argument over custody of Stefan leads Mal to viciously beat the boy's mother.]]
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* MasterOfDisguise: [[spoiler: The killer, Coleman Masskie. In his daily life under the pseudonym "Coleman Healy", he wears a fake beard. While hunting and killing, he removes this fake beard and dons a grey wig and makeup to impersonate his father, Reynolds Loftis. During the act of killing itself, he wears wolverine-tooth dentures. On top of this, he's been subjected to multiple rounds of plastic surgery that completely altered his face in the past, all while living under different identities or anonymously.]]
to:
* MasterOfDisguise: [[spoiler: The killer, Coleman Masskie. In his daily life under the pseudonym "Coleman Healy", he wears a fake beard. While hunting and killing, he removes this fake beard and dons a grey wig and makeup to impersonate his father, Reynolds Loftis. During the act of killing itself, he wears wolverine-tooth dentures. On top of this, he's been subjected to multiple rounds of plastic surgery that completely altered his face in the past, all while living under different identities or anonymously. Upshaw, Considine and Meeks hear various accounts of a "bandaged kid" who associated with Marty Goines and Reynolds Loftis' seemingly identical younger brother, and Upshaw even meets "Coleman Healy" face to face at the beginning of his investigation. It's not until the end that the investigators finally piece together the numerous identities of the same killer.]]
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* MasterOfDisguise: [[spoiler: The killer, Coleman Masskie. In his daily life under the pseudonym "Coleman Healy", he wears a fake beard. While hunting and killing, he removes this fake beard and dons a grey wig and makeup to impersonate his father, Reynolds Loftis. During the act of killing itself, he wears wolverine-tooth dentures. On top of this, he's been subjected to multiple rounds of plastic surgery that completely altered his face in the past, all while living under different identities or anonymously.]]
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* BandagedFace: Upshaw hears a lot about a kid with bandages covering a supposedly burned face who used to hang around Marty Goines and help him commit burglaries. [[spoiler: In reality, the bandages were the aftermath of plastic surgery. The bandaged kid was Coleman Masskie, Reynolds Loftis' illegitimate son. Reynolds commissioned a facelift from Terry Lux to make Coleman resemble him perfectly, as part of his own twisted incestuous fantasies. At the time he was seen with the bandages, Coleman was recovering from his second visit to Lux, to undo this job by breaking every bone in his face.]]
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* BlackAndGreyMorality: Outside of the main three, most of the characters are complicit in some abhorrent crime or another. Of the main three, Buzz Meeks is a corrupt ex-cop who does dirty work for Mickey Cohen and helps cover up Howard Hughes' affairs with underage girls. Mal Considine is [[spoiler: a wife beater]]. Danny Upshaw might just be the most upstanding of the bunch, [[spoiler: and he ends up killing himself]].
Deleted line(s) 32 (click to see context) :
* GreyAndGrayMorality: Outside of the main three, most of the characters are complicit in some abhorrent crime or another. Of the main three, Buzz Meeks is a corrupt ex-cop who does dirty work for Mickey Cohen and helps cover up Howard Hughes' affairs with underage girls. Mal Considine is [[spoiler: a wife beater]]. Danny Upshaw might just be the most upstanding of the bunch, [[spoiler: and he ends up killing himself]].
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* {{Blackmail}}: Felix Gordean, a Hollywood talent agent, also runs a male escort service, which he uses to identify and blackmail gay men in positions of power. [[spoiler: This includes Reynolds Loftis, who Gordean blackmails with knowledge of his affair with his own son. It's also suggested that Gordean identified Upshaw as a closeted gay man after their one encounter, and may have had plans for him]].
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* BigBadEnsemble: The killer is just the tip of the iceberg. [[spoiler: In reality, he's a renegade lashing out at his sexually abusive father Reynolds Loftis, and the latter's fiancee Claire De Haven, both influential figures who cover up the killings. On the other side of things there's Dudley Smith, a tremendously corrupt cop who spearheads the anti-Communist investigation to cover up the fact that he was the Sleepy Lagoon murderer. Then there's crime boss Mickey Cohen, who's tangentially involved as well.]]
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Changed line(s) 21 (click to see context) from:
** With regards to the real-life Sleepy Lagoon murder of Jose Diaz, [[spoiler: corrupt cop and L.A. Quartet regular Dudley Smith is revealed to be the culprit. Not only that, but Coleman Masskie/Healey, the "wolverine killer", was a witness to the crime, which started him down his dark path]].
to:
** With regards to the real-life Sleepy Lagoon murder of Jose Diaz, [[spoiler: corrupt cop and L.A. Quartet regular Dudley Smith is revealed to be the culprit. Not only that, but Coleman Masskie/Healey, the "wolverine killer", was a witness to witnessed the crime, crime as a teenager, which started him down his dark path]].
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* ScaryTeeth: [[spoiler: The killer mutilates his victims' corpses using a set of dentures he fashioned out of wolverine teeth. Buzz and Mal get to see this in person during the climactic shootout.]]
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* BeenThereShapedHistory: Buzz Meeks bumps elbows with both Howard Hughes and Mickey Cohen, even [[spoiler: starting an affair with the latter's mistress]].
** With regards to the real-life Sleepy Lagoon murder of Jose Diaz, [[spoiler: corrupt cop and L.A. Quartet regular Dudley Smith is revealed to be the culprit. Not only that, but Coleman Masskie/Healey, the "wolverine killer", was a witness to the crime, which started him down his dark path]].
** With regards to the real-life Sleepy Lagoon murder of Jose Diaz, [[spoiler: corrupt cop and L.A. Quartet regular Dudley Smith is revealed to be the culprit. Not only that, but Coleman Masskie/Healey, the "wolverine killer", was a witness to the crime, which started him down his dark path]].
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* GreyAndGrayMorality: Outside of the main three, most of the characters are complicit in some abhorrent crime or another. Of the main three, Buzz Meeks is a corrupt ex-cop who does dirty work for Mickey Cohen and helps cover up Howard Hughes' affairs with underage girls. Mal Considine is [[spoiler: a wife beater]]. Danny Upshaw might just be the most upstanding of the bunch, [[spoiler: and he ends up killing himself]].
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** Hilariously, Buzz Meeks is a transplant from Oklahoma, and references are made to him working as a ranch hand and a Western movie extra - so he was practically a ''literal'' cowboy cop. In practice though he used to be more of a DirtyCop.
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Changed line(s) 26,28 (click to see context) from:
* Gayngst: [[spoiler: Danny Upshaw]]
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent:
* PoliceBrutality: Danny actively beats up men in a bid to find the killer.
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent:
* PoliceBrutality: Danny actively beats up men in a bid to find the killer.
to:
* Gayngst: {{Gayngst}}: [[spoiler: Danny Upshaw]]
*MeaningfulBackgroundEvent:
JurisdictionFriction: Danny gets stonewalled by the LAPD when he first tries to investigate the Goines murder. A free hand in running the case is his top condition for joining the anticommunist task force.
* PoliceBrutality: Danny actively beats up men in a bid to find the killer. Of course it's pretty standard in this setting.
*
* PoliceBrutality: Danny actively beats up men in a bid to find the killer. Of course it's pretty standard in this setting.
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* StupidCrooks: Buzz's stripper girlfriend Audrey embezzles from Mickey Cohen, and is so clumsy at it that he faces an uphill battle covering for her.
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->''"It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.."''
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[[quoteright:258:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_big_nowhere_7.jpg]]
->''"It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of mychoice..choice..."''
->''"It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my
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* AnyoneCanDie:[[spoiler: By the end of the book both Mal and Danny are dead.]]
* AmbitionIsEvil: The District Attorney is starting another hunt into communists hidden in Hollywood. He doesn't care if the rumors are true and he is only using the investigation as a means to further his career.
** Mal joins the investigation into communism. [[spoiler:
* AmbitionIsEvil: The District Attorney is starting another hunt into communists hidden in Hollywood. He doesn't care if the rumors are true and he is only using the investigation as a means to further his career.
** Mal joins the investigation into communism. [[spoiler:
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* BrokenPedestal
* CowboyCop:
* DirtyCop:
* CowboyCop:
* DirtyCop:
to:
* BrokenPedestal
BrokenPedestal: Claire Katherine De Haven is a figure on the Hollywood social circuit and is a communist sympathizer in order to help people in need. [[spoiler: she also enabled a known rapist and murderer get away with his crimes.]]
*CowboyCop:
CowboyCop: Danny Upshaw and Mal both bend the law when they try to do the right thing.
*DirtyCop:DirtyCop: Both the LAPD and the LA county sheriffs department are filled with them.
** Buzz was sacked from the LAPD for this reason.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Danny Upshaw in a bid to avert anyone finding out about his homosexuality]]
*
*
** Buzz was sacked from the LAPD for this reason.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Danny Upshaw in a bid to avert anyone finding out about his homosexuality]]
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* PoliceBrutality:
* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Averted massively.
* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Averted massively.
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* PoliceBrutality:
PoliceBrutality: Danny actively beats up men in a bid to find the killer.
* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Avertedmassively.massively.
* SlidingScaleOfLawEnforcement: Danny and Mal are trying to do the right thing. Other cops may vary...
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Reynolds was the father of the murderer Coleman, he then formed a sexual relationship with him and drove him mad.]]
* TurnInYourBadge: [[spoiler: Danny Upshaw]]
* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Averted
* SlidingScaleOfLawEnforcement: Danny and Mal are trying to do the right thing. Other cops may vary...
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Reynolds was the father of the murderer Coleman, he then formed a sexual relationship with him and drove him mad.]]
* TurnInYourBadge: [[spoiler: Danny Upshaw]]
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The
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->''"It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.."''
-->-- '''Joseph Conrad'''
UsefulNotes/LosAngeles, 1950.
The city of angels is now the city of the angel of death.
Three detectives with three different angles will be drawn together into a circle of lies and murder. Danny Upshaw is an LA sheriffs detective with a group of bodies that will lead him to find out more about himself than he bargained for. LAPD lieutenant Malcolm "Mal" Considine is locked in a bitter custody battle for his son, whilst being drawn into the corrupt district attorneys plan to route out communists in Hollywood. Turner "Buzz" Meeks, a disgraced former cop, is now working for millionaire Howard Hughes and gangster Mickey Cohen. Buzz may try to right a few his wrongs along the way.
All three men will come together with front row seats to a nightmare...
1988 novel by Creator/JamesEllroy and the second part of his "L.A. Quartet."
----
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Another murder that was never solved in real life is given a resolution.
* BodyHorror: The Murders in the book are carried out with extreme vengeance and torture.
* BrokenPedestal
* CowboyCop:
* DirtyCop:
* Gayngst: [[spoiler: Danny Upshaw]]
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent:
* PoliceBrutality:
* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Averted massively.
-->-- '''Joseph Conrad'''
UsefulNotes/LosAngeles, 1950.
The city of angels is now the city of the angel of death.
Three detectives with three different angles will be drawn together into a circle of lies and murder. Danny Upshaw is an LA sheriffs detective with a group of bodies that will lead him to find out more about himself than he bargained for. LAPD lieutenant Malcolm "Mal" Considine is locked in a bitter custody battle for his son, whilst being drawn into the corrupt district attorneys plan to route out communists in Hollywood. Turner "Buzz" Meeks, a disgraced former cop, is now working for millionaire Howard Hughes and gangster Mickey Cohen. Buzz may try to right a few his wrongs along the way.
All three men will come together with front row seats to a nightmare...
1988 novel by Creator/JamesEllroy and the second part of his "L.A. Quartet."
----
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Another murder that was never solved in real life is given a resolution.
* BodyHorror: The Murders in the book are carried out with extreme vengeance and torture.
* BrokenPedestal
* CowboyCop:
* DirtyCop:
* Gayngst: [[spoiler: Danny Upshaw]]
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent:
* PoliceBrutality:
* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Averted massively.
