IF YOU, like me, have been sitting scanning the Amazon and Waterstone's lists for Ellroy's latest instalment in the Underworld USA trilogy you won't need to read this review. You'll buy it no matter what anyone says. You've had it on pre-order fo
r probably about a year now. You've had to find other things to read while you wait patiently for Wayne Tedrow to return. You may have been told already what happened to Drac and the Veep – but you want to know. You've planned holidays around this new book coming out and been crushed when you discovered that Ellroy still hadn't finished it and publication had been put back yet another six months.
Some people are calling Blood's a Rover his masterpiece. Yeah right – as if he's only got the one.
From the start you are pulled back into The Life. Even if you've never been a part of it before – you're in now. The heroes of The Cold Six Thousand, Pete Bondurant and Ward Littell, might be gone, but there are other hopped-up crazy dudes ready to take their place. Admittedly, we're not gearing up for a hit on the Prez – he's bought and in the bag. There'll be no need for a shooter this time.
Armed robbery – check. Guns, violence, pointless barbaric killings – check. Gruesome details of bodies and lives destroyed beyond all recognition – oh yes. Ellroy makes no allowances for you. If you're fresh to this, you don't stay fresh for long. Forget the Swinging Sixties of Austin Powers. This is the 1960s as they really were – conspiracies, corruption, coke and cooze. These men might battle their consciences every minute of the day, but they still call a spade a spade.
The brutality of the unsparing language has the effect of making you feel slightly soiled. You're right down in the gutter with Wayne, Dwight and Dipshit. You're in as deep as they are – and don't you forget it. Their world might be decidedly black and white but they live entirely in grey.
As the boys hop up on dexedrine, 'H', coke and even asprin, you twitch and flinch along with them. You buy into it – the conspiracies, the double dealing. We all know the big stories already. Tricky Dicky was in bed with The Boys. The Boys sold Vegas to Drac. But we also know that they're doomed to failure. Watergate is being set up and everything is about to come crashing down. The stench of decay is all the way through the book. But we want the real stories – not the history book stuff. Who went to check out Panama for the Prez? How did the Old Lady really buy it? How deep was the First Friend's involvement? Who was it who first suggested a little black-bag job at The Watergate?
Unlike American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand, Ellroy doesn't allow us any glimmer of hope. The times might have been wild before, but there was always a chance of getting out of The Life. The women always offered comfort and understanding. But now, even birth offers no potential for redemption. It merely pulls into focus how doomed all the schemes and cons are. Salvation is only available in death.
We were with the Kadre at the Bay of Pigs when Jack let them down and they didn't get that putain Fidel. So we went with Ellroy to Dallas. We stood on the grassy knoll. We've been to Memphis and looked in the windows of the Lorraine Hotel. And then we went with him to the Ambassador. Bye bye Bobby. We know. Forget whatever you've been taught – this is how it went down.
So, yeah, we'll trip along to the Dominican Republic with him this time. We'll scope it out and see what's on offer. We'll dig that crazy Haitian voodoo vibe. We'll groove with the Froggy, the Cubans and the Tonton Macout. But the big message of La Causa has gone. Fidel's there – and he's staying. Everyone else is bought and paid for and now they're all chasing the green.
But if you want answers – look to the paper. It's hardly assassination and strong-arming – but all three of our heroes find their answers written down. They follow the trail and make the connections. And then – they know.
Block out next weekend. Phone off the hook. You'll not need caffeine for a day or two. Follow the paper and the clicks will come.
