When one considers that most people will not have time in their lives to read even a small fraction of all the books they would want to it is amazing that there is so much dross out there. Appallingly written garbage, with formulaic plots, undeveloped characters and worst of all so little evidence of imagination. It sometimes appears as if publishers only accept the best of the worst, making no attempt to gamble with something interesting or challenging. However, some good writing does slip through the net and actually gets published. Even better this has always happened so there is a back catalogue of top quality literature to choose from. However, older books do suffer from that dreaded disease 'not in print', making many impossible to get hold of.

Good ideas, no matter how badly they are expressed, always draw my interest. Many of the writers that I like are not particularly articulate in conveying their ideas, but they are all trying to say something worth saying. On the other hand, a bad idea, no matter how well dressed up, will always stink. Cliche, formula and lack of imagination cannot be hidden under a layer of fancy prose.

Unfortunately, bad ideas tend to crop up again and again. Publishers can't get enough of them. Many of the 'brilliant' new authors that appear every year are mere purveyors of hackneyed plots, touched up with whatever style is in vogue. And bestsellers only reveal the limited taste of many readers. New thinking is often hidden under the fully exposed carcass of poor writing. Lack of demand for anything better maintains this cosy dumming down of literature, allowing bad ideas to be re-written again and again.

If James Ellroy had only written The Black Dahlia he would have been considered a great author. The fact that he followed it up with three more brilliant '50s crime novels makes him one of the most significant living writers. His books are praised as top class genre fiction, but they are far better than that. They transcend the boundaries of their subject matter, giving rare insights into the nature of violence and corruption. The characters are realistically flawed, often destroyed by their weaknesses. There is heroism, but it is unsentimental and realistic. The police are exposed as an intrinsically violent, corrupt organisation, wielding power for financial and political gain. Of course, this is not a new concept, but Ellroy's treatment of it is. He accepts it as a given and bases all his plots and characters around it. There is no moralising, no good versus evil, just different levels of corruption.

Ellroy's novels are densely plotted and excellently written in his own, very distinct style. They epitomise the page-turner, being almost impossible to put down once started. The sex and violence in them is often graphic, but never gratuitous. The characters simply do what you would expect them to. This content caused problems to the production team who filmed Ellroy's L.A. Confidential. They could not make a film about the main plot of the novel, it would never pass any board of certification, so they opted for one of the major subplots. The fact that the film was a major success and cited as having a complicated plot gives some insight into the complex world that Ellroy builds in his novels.

I have not read all of Ellroy's books, only his 50s quartet. But I cannot recommend those four enough. Having read them slightly out of sequence myself I would advise others to read them in order. They start with The Black Dahlia, based on a real unsolved murder case. Second is The Big Nowhere, in which Ellroy first delves into the murky links between the police, Hollywood and the criminal underworld of 50s Los Angeles. The third, and most significant, is L.A. Confidential, a masterpiece of plotting and characterisation, which leaves you reeling and begging for more. The last is White Jazz, considered by some a weak finale. I, however, think it is an excellent tying up of loose ends, as well as being a compulsive crime thriller in its own right.