Reading it - and loving it - now. Anyone else a fan?

Oh yeah. Perhaps the most unromantic American thriller/mystery novel ever written?

I read it and I think I enjoyed it. That is to say, I appreciated the way the book was put together, but man, did all those sentence fragments start to wear very quickly. A satisfying read, but a fatiguing one.

I haven't been tempted to follow it up with any more of his.

There are a lot of Ellroy fans on here.

Andy C, his earlier books aren't as staccato as American Tabloid. Though the sequel, The Cold Six Thousand had even more short sentences.

I think Ellroy's best is his memoir of his mother's murder, My Dark Places. Not an enjoyable read at all, but fantastic.

I might try another some time, then. Although, without wanting to labour the point, American Tabloid left me with a strong impression that Ellroy was desperately striving for style at all costs, which cast a the substance into the shadows somewhat. And it's difficult to imagine a plot that taps into much more substantial material than that of American Tabloid (although I do hear very much what you say about the story of his mother's death), so I'll continue to be a little wary of his other (fictional) work.

You won't like The Cold Six Thousand then, Andy. It's even more stylised than American Tabloid.

Destination:Morgue has kinda put me off Ellroy. The Crime Culture / Memoir stuff is good. Particularly Grave Doubt, which sees him changing his pro-death penalty stance. But the trilogy of short stories, Rick Loves Donna are awful. They read more like an over-the-top piss-take. I can understand that having Arabs as the villains of the piece is a reaction to 9/11, and that the racism of cops is a common feature of Ellroy's work, but here it comes across as more the author's voice and it's a pretty vile and repellant one at that.

Yeah, I didn't bother with the Rick Loves Donna novella.

I'm about two thirds of the way through "The Cold Six Thousand" right now.

Really good I reckon.

I love his characters,they seem so real.