James Ellroy Gets to the Scene of the Crime

It's worked for 40 years. In June, Knopf will release Widespread Panic, the latest in the 73-year-old author's more-than-20-book oeuvre. That includes the L.A. Quartet, which spans 1946 to 1958 in Los Angeles and incorporates two of Ellroy's most famous novels, The Black Dahlia-his breakout book in 1987-and L.A. Confidential; the Underworld U.S.A. trilogy, which starts with American Tabloid and covers the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr.; and the Second L.A. Quartet, set during World War II, beginning with 2014's Perfidia. According to Knopf, his books have sold a combined 2.5 million copies.