James Ellroy Rashly Revises America’s So-Called Red Scare

Join JAMES ELLROY for a corrosive conversation about his new book, Red Sheet, and gas on how he conceived of and wrote his latest—most inflammatory—novel.

James Ellroy, the Demon Dog of American Crime Fiction [The Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential, Perfidia, This Storm, The Enchanters] has recklessly rewritten the events that seismically seized L.A. in the wake of  the Cuban Missile Crisis, late fall 1962. Ellroy’s sleezebag cop/drug hero, Freddy Otash, is hot on the trail of a corrupt communist trade union. Freddy O. hellaciously hobnobs with Tricky Dick Nixon, Playboy Putz Hugh Hefner, L.A. city councilman-elect Tom Bradley, and the soon-to-be-love-of-his-life, folk singer Judy Henske. Join Ellroy for a corrosive conversation about his new book, Red Sheet, and gas on how he conceived and wrote his latest – and most inflammatory – novel.

JAMES ELLROY was born in Los Angeles. He is the author of the Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy: American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, and Blood’s A Rover; and the L.A. Quartet novels: The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz. He is also the author of two other Freddy Otash novels, Widespread Panic and The Enchanters. He was awarded the 2022 Los Angeles Times Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement. He lives in Colorado. His newest novel, Red Sheet, on sale June 9,, ON SALE JUNE 9, 2026 FROM ALFRED A. KNOPF