PERFIDIA by James Ellroy a Lurid Noir Crime Epic

Perfidia by James Ellroy is a lurid, sprawling juggernaut of a crime novel that pre-dates Ellroy's famed Black Dahlia-L.A. Confidential noir trilogy of Los Angeles in the late 1940s to mid 1950s.

This new novel begins in late 1941, just before the Pearl harbor bombing by Japan. The looming war and anti-Japanese fever serves as a backdrop to a politically hot murder case: the gruesome deaths of a local Japanese family by unknown killers.

Ellroy brings back familiar characters from his earlier L.A. novels. Captain William Parker, a morally ambivalent figure, later to become LAPD Chief. Detective Dudley Smith, the brutal, corrupt leader of an in-house police strong-arm squad. New character Hideo Ashida, a Japanese LAPD criminologist, is torn by internal conflicts as he works the murder case of the Japanese family.

Perfidia portrays an LAPD awash in corruption, dirty politics, and off-the-books cop beat-downs. The police are at their dirtiest during the cruel, indiscriminate roundups of local Japanese-Americans for internment as war breaks out. Captain Parker and Dudley Smith use all of it to pursue their own private agendas within the LAPD, and against each other.

Perfidia is an epic read, written in the author's trademark machine-gun style -- raunchy, driven, at times near-manic. The novel is salted with sleazy Hollywood dirt and scenes of raw, broken-teeth violence.

Crime fiction readers should find this one compelling and sure to be on the Best-of-2014 list.

BEACH RATING: 4 Palm Trees

THE SON a New Crime Thriller By Jo Nesbo

The Son by Jo Nesbo is the latest work by the Norwegian crime novelist, best known for his popular series of books featuring Oslo police inspector Harry Hole.

The Son is a departure by Nesbo, to a story about an escaped prison inmate and his trail of vengeful acts. The inmate is Sonny Loftus, known as The Son, who exacts violent revenge against people who he believes were responsible for the death of his policeman father. At times, the movements of The Son seem almost superhuman as he attacks his enemies from out of nowhere.

But the character at the heart of the novel is Chief Inspector Simon Kefas, who tracks The Son along his relentless rampage. Balding, out of shape, and near retirement, Kefas is an unlikely hero. In his private life, he agonizes over his younger wife's growing blindness and her need for an expensive operation to save her eyesight.

In his police work, Kefas is methodical and steady, qualities that make him an effective investigator. Simon Kefas is a striking contrast to Nesbo's long-running main character --- the obsessive, haunted, psychologically unstable Harry Hole.

The Son is a fast paced, gripping read with a wrenching late plot twist. The novel confirms Jo Nesbo's place as one of the most entertaining crime novelists writing today.

BEACH RATING:  4 Palm Trees

POLICE by Jo Nesbo Another Top Notch Crime Thriller

Police by Jo Nesbo is the latest in the outstanding crime novel series that features Oslo police detective Harry Hole.

This time, Harry is no longer active on the police force after being seriously wounded in a prior case. He now works as an expert criminology instructor at the police academy.

Meanwhile, a series of police officers are being murdered in gruesome fashion at former crime scenes that they worked. A diabolical serial killer is behind the string of deaths.

A team of Harry's police colleagues pursues the killer in Harry's absence. The character cast is familiar from earlier novels in the series. Forensic expert Beate Lonn. Detectives Katrine Bratt and Bjorn Holm. Criminal psychologist Stale Aune.

But in a shocking plot twist, one of the team members becomes a target of the vicious killer. That event brings Harry Hole himself into the hunt for the cold blooded butcher of policemen.

Police is another great read for fans of the Harry Hole series and reaffirms Jo Nesbo's place as one of the best crime novelists in the genre.