History YMMV / JamesEllroy

%% Bring Complete Monster examples to this thread before adding any: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=6vic3f9h1cy5qivsenw8llok&page=1.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler:Hideo Ashida]] is detained after the events of ''Perfida'' on a promise of early release from [[spoiler:Dudley]]. If you've read ''The Black Dahlia'' [[spoiler:you'll know that Hideo dies in prison so something in that plan goes awry.]]
** [[spoiler: While not in prison, Hideo is killed at the end of ''This Storm'' by Elmer Jackson and Buzz Meeks in an attempt to kill Dudley.]]

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: Ellroy's protagonists are usually assholes, and his antagonists are even worse. At some point the reader is likely to think that if they just killed each other off, the world would be an ever-so-slightly better place.

* PlotHole: ''Perfidia'' reveals that [[spoiler:Dudley Smith is Elizabeth Short's real father. Given his complete absence in ''The Black Dahlia'' there's going to have to be some explaining as to whether he could have prevented, solved or instigated her murder. A man of his stature could not have just not known about one of the most infamous real-life killings in history.]]
** Given his story arc so far [[spoiler: chances are he was high as a kite during the whole timeframe of the investigation.]]

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: Ellroy's protagonists are usually assholes, and his antagonists are even worse. At some point the reader is likely to think that if they just killed each other off, the world would be an ever-so-slightly better place.

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: Pete Bondurant forcing a Klansmen ally to hand out frozen turkeys in a poor black neighborhood dressed as Santa Claus.

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** In the Black Dahlia, there's the ''graphic'' description of the child porn movie that Elizabeth Short and another girl are performing in. They were high on drugs while shooting it, and it's full of descriptions of their glassy, vacant stares, and them mouthing ''NO'' to the camera. You ''will'' feel dirtier than a son of a bitch, reading it. [[HeroicBSOD Even Lee Blanchard couldn't take it.]]

* Foreshadowing: [[spoiler:Hideo Ashida]] is detained after the events of ''Perfida'' on a promise of early release from [[spoiler:Dudley]]. If you've read ''The Black Dahlia'' [[spoiler:you'll know that Hideo dies in prison so something in that plan goes awry.]]

%% Bring CompleteMonster examples to this thread before adding any: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=6vic3f9h1cy5qivsenw8llok&page=1. Check the FAQ first to see what would qualify characters for the trope, and if there has been previous discussion on the work.

* Foreshadowing: [[spoiler: Hideo Ashida]] is detained after the events of ''Perfida'' on a promise of early release from [[spoiler: Dudley]]. If you've read ''The Black Dahlia'' [[spoiler: you'll know that Hideo dies in prison so something in that plan goes awry.]]
* HilariousInHindsight: One of Ellroy's appearances on the Conan O'Brien show had him joking about starting an equal opportunity Ku Klux Klan in Kansas City, where he was living with his (now ex) wife at the time. One of the fellow guests on that particular interview was DaveChappelle, who would later go on to do a skit about a Black White Supremacist who didn't know he was Black, because he was also blind.

* NightmareFuel: Any of the many, many descriptions of torture. One of the worst is the extract from the killer's journal in ''The Black Dahlia''. Also the woman in [[spoiler: so much pain, with her head being crushed in a vice that she bit out her tongue so she couldn't talk - forcing her captors to kill her]] from ''The Cold Six Thousand''.
* PlotHole: ''Perfidia'' reveals that [[spoiler: Dudley Smith is Elizabeth Short's real father. Given his complete absence in The Black Dahlia there's going to have to be some explaining as to whether he could have prevented, solved or instigated her murder. A man of his stature could not have just not known about one of the most infamous real-life killings in history.]]

* PlotHole: ''Perfidia'' reveals that [[spoiler: Dudley Smith is Elizabeth Short's real father. Given his complete absence in The Black Dahlia there's going to have to be some explaining as to whether he could have prevented, solved or instigated her murder. A man of his stature could not have just not known about one of the most infamous real-life killings.]]

* PlotHole: ''Perfidia'' reveals that [[spoiler: Dudley Smith is Elizabeth Short's real father. Given his complete absence in The Black Dahlia there's going to have to be some explaining.]]

* {{Complete Monster}}: At least one per book, and these are complete monsters by the standards of Ellroy's characters.

* NightmareFuel: Any of the many, many descriptions of torture. One of the worst is the extract from the killer's journal in ''The Black Dahlia''. Also the woman in [[spoiler: so much pain, with her head being crushed in a vice that she bit out her tongue so she couldn't talk - forcing her captors to kill her]] from ''The Cold Six Thousand''.

* {{Nightmare Fuel Unleaded}}: Any of the many, many descriptions of torture. One of the worst is the extract from the killer's journal in ''The Black Dahlia''. Also the woman in [[spoiler: so much pain, with her head being crushed in a vice that she bit out her tongue so she couldn't talk - forcing her captors to kill her]] from ''The Cold Six Thousand''.