Settling old scores.
1992 novel by James Ellroy and the final book in his first The L.A. Quartet.
David Douglas Klein is an LAPD detective who moonlights as an assassin for several Los Angeles organized crime syndicates. In the looming shadow of a federal investigation in to the endemic corruption in the LAPD, a routine burglary investigation soon drags Klein into the nightmarish intersection of law enforcement, crime, and Hollywood at the close of the 1950s.
David wants to get out of the business of mob assassin but his mafia handlers aren't inclined to cut him loose. Meanwhile, Ed Exley has continued his ascent up the ranks of the LAPD and become far more ruthless in his pursuit of justice against Archenemy Dudley Smith. David proves to be a Wild Card in their struggle and his desires frequently having him switch sides to his benefit or whim.
A sequel to L.A. Confidential, as one of its major narrative elements is the power struggle between Ed Exley and Dudley Smith for the soul of the LAPD, with Klein caught in the middle. Despite being the last of the LA Quartet, the book was followed by a Prequel in Perfidia.
Tropes used in this book:
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Ed Exley has done a lot of questionable things in his rise to power but he's a much better man than Dudley White or David Klein.
- Arc Words: EYEBALL MAN!
- Been There, Shaped History: David Klein is responsible for the death of RL mobsters Tony Bracato, Tony Trombino, and Jack Dragna.
- Beige Prose: Inspired by having to trim L.A Confidential down to a more manageable length, Ellroy pushes his shirt, clipped style to the absolute limit in White Jazz. Almost every superfluous word is left out.
- Bigot with a Badge: Dudley Smith, of course, but it is especially noteworthy in White Jazz as the majority of his Evil Plan is designed around exclusively marketing heroin to the black population of Los Angeles in hopes of keeping them "contained."
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Dudley uses drugs to have David Klein kill Johnny Duhamel while catching the act on film to blackmail him.
- Bittersweet Ending: Dudley Smith finally gets some consequences to his actions but David Klein is forced to flee to Brazil. David also kills the Kafesjians on the way out of LA before vowing to return and get revenge. Given the amount of crimes David committed, though, the fact he escaped is actually enough to make it a full Downer Ending.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: The conflict between Edmund Exley and Dudley Smith with David Klein between them is one with no heroes.
- Brother–Sister Incest:
- Klein and his sister, Meg, slept together on one occasion. Meg stopped those feelings, David has not.
- The Kafesjian and Herrick families have a rather complex example of this going on. Both married couples were cheating on each other, with each other - Mrs. Herrick with Mr. Kafesjian, Mrs. Kafesjian with Mr. Herrick. As a result, the parentage of their children is ambiguous. Philip, the Herricks' son, is in love with Kafesjian daughter Lucille, but refuses to touch her because she might be his half-sister. Meanwhile Tommy, the Kafesjians' son, is at the very least Lucille's half-brother, but sexually abuses her anyway. This all ends in tragedy for everyone involved.
- Dirty Cop: Almost every major character, and most of the supporting cast.
- Dudley Smith, of course, is running drugs out of his position as the head of Narcotics.
- David Klein is so corrupt and vile that he may actually be more so than Dudley Smith in that he's an actual contract killer for the mob in addition to being a corrupt policeman.
- Evil Versus Evil: Dudley Smith and David Klein are in conflict for much of the story with it questionable which one of them is more corrupt or racist.
- Expy: The Kafesjian and Herrick families are ones for the Spragues from The Black Dahlia.
- Eye Scream: Dudley White has one of his eyes put out.
- Fate Worse than Death: Dudley Smith ends up with brain damage severe enough that it renders him non-lucid for long periods of time and no longer a threat to anyone. He ends up cared for by nurses and the subject of various biopics.
- Genius Bruiser: David Klein is a corrupt police lieutenant who acts as muscle when needed, earning a reputation to the point that his nickname is "the enforcer". He's also legally an attorney, having passed the bar exam. The fast-paced prose of the novel itself perfectly displays his quick thinking and self-awareness.
- Genre Shift: Ends up in some very strange places for a book that starts out as a hard boiled detective novel. The book is a stream of consciousness from a very disturbed man who often thinks in one or two word sentences.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Strangely, everyone in the book regarding David Klein. He's regarded as a capable and trustworthy operative who can be relied upon to get the job done by Ed Exley, Dudley White, Howard Hughes, and Mickey Cohen. In fact, he betrays everyone and rarely does the job, often for vague and unjustified reasons.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen:
- Mickey Cohen is no longer the feared gangster he used to be despite being out of prison. He only holds a few small gambling businesses and is firmly under Dudley Smith's control.
- Dudley Smith ends up a brain damaged mental patient cared for by a variety of nurses.
- Karma Houdini: David Klein escapes to Rio de Janeiro at the end, though he promises to eventually return and enact revenge on Exley, White, and Carlise.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: After getting away scott free in his previous two appearances, Dudley Smith gets a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that leaves him with brain damage and one eye.
- Katanas Are Better: David has one after his service in the Pacific. He uses it to kill Johnny Duhamel.
- Kudzu Plot: Even by the standards of an Ellroy novel, there's a vast series of interlocking corrupt conspiracies and side plots.
- Manipulative Bastard: Exley has become this in order to try to bring down Dudley Smith down. Every action he takes is calculated and full of deniable assets.
- The Mole: Johnny Duhamel is set up by Exley to join Dudley's Narcotics Squad.
- Morality Pet: Meg and Glenda serve as these for David, being his only redeeming qualities. Even that is Subverted as he slept with both despite the former being his sister.
- "Not So Different" Remark: At one point Klein straight up tells Exley that him and Dudley Smith groom, use, and discard people in pretty much the same way. It's one of the few times something manages to get under Exley's skin.I know it must get you to look in the mirror and see Dudley.
- Private Eye Monologue: All of the book is David Klein's perspective and his short, random, thoughts on everyone he meets. This gives the book a strange dreamlike disjointed feel as we deal with him through his racist, violent, and surreal worldview.
- Professional Killer: David Klein has this as a side job as the mob routinely contracts him to kill people that they don't like and he doesn't have the option of refusing. One job consisted of him being told to kill a jazz musician, he refused, then the job was given to Mickey Cohen who told David to do it.
- Proxy War: Exley and Dudley are using various people to try to take the other down.
- Sociopathic Hero: David Klein is a racist murderer, incestuous, and a Dirty Cop. He also has absolutely no remorse for any of his actions and is incapable of feeling anything resembling positive emotions.
- The Stoic: The Ed Exley of L.A. Confidential is shrewd and calculating, but not without emotion and unplanned expressions of passion. In White Jazz, set several years after LA Confidential, Exley, as seen through Klein's eyes, is so cold that he's barely human. It's implied that the events of the earlier novel, and Exley's unrelenting crusade to take down Dudley Smith, have sapped him of his humanity.
- Stylistic Suck: Attack of the Atomic Vampire, the movie Glenda is starring in, is objectively terrible.
- Took a Level in Cynic: After the events of L.A. Confidential, Ed Exley is far more bitter to police work.
- Villain Protagonist: Dave Klein is the worst of Jame Ellroy's anti-hero protagonists, which is saying something. He's a mob hitman, incestuous, and corrupt to the core.
