By far the best L.A. murder mystery I have ever read. Every word was a treat. ( )

Los Ángeles, años cuarenta: en un solar se descubre el cadáver mutilado de una joven. La prensa bautiza el caso con el sugerente nombre de la «puta virgen» y, de repente, un asesinato que podría haber pasado desapercibido se convierte en el ojo de un huracán que adquiere cada vez mayores dimensiones. Dos hermanos, Tom, detective de homicidios, y Des Spellacy, sacerdote con ambiciones políticas dentro de la Iglesia, constituyen los ejes en torno a los cuales desfilan personajes comp rometidos en sobornos y tráficos de influencias, que nos llevan de los aposentos de un cardenal a un sórdido prostíbulo de suburbio; de los campos de golf donde los notables juegan sus partidas y entretejen sus redes de poder y corrupción a la humilde feligresía de una parroquia californiana; de policías de moral ambigua que bordean la ilegalidad a la atormentada vida sentimental de Tom, cuya esposa entra en delirios místicos y cuya amante tiene la molesta virtud de despertar su mala conciencia.

Not entirely sure that I really liked this book - I wonder if it wanted to shock when it came out in the 70's, with its partially crude language, but more importantly with the connections between a corrupt police force, a Catholic church dominated by Irish who exclude anyone other in very racist ways, and corrupt businessmen/criminals. ( )

(14) I read this because of my recent reading of Joan Didion's 'The Year of Magical Thinking.' I had never read anything by Didion's husband whose death she so heart-renderingly narrates. So this is by her late husband and I think perhaps was made into a movie. The Introduction makes reference to the fact that this was a predecessor of the modern day gritty homicide police narratives. This is about two Irish Catholic brothers in LA in the 1980's - one a cop and one a priest (no surprise there) and a grisly murder of a young girl sawed in two that tangles both of them in a web of damaging revelations.

The overt sardonic Catholic religiosity resonates with me having grown up in a heavily Italian and Irish Catholic suburb of Boston in the 1980's but I imagine it would grate on other readers. All the characters have some serious flaws and the mentality/personality of being able to probe an individuals weakness and use it against them in a subtle - did he just threaten me? - manner was masterful and again resonates with me due to the culture that pervaded my own upbringing.

The plot was also quite good though I felt much too much time was spent on cryptic conversations that I guess served to develop character and less on good story-telling. It felt random at times and the narrative arc seemed to stall out. I also would have actually preferred to hear more about Des prior to the priesthood. I think that would have helped make his character more robust and less like a cipher.

Overall, I enjoyed it. Some of the blunt dialogue seemed a bit redundant at times - How many "Jesus, Mary and Joseph's!" can you read but it was entertaining with rich believable flawed characters. Weird though, not the type of book I thought this man would write based on what I gleaned form Didion's memoir. I expected something a bit more highfalutin and refined. ( )

One of the best of John Gregory Dunne's novels. Was made into a good film with Robert De Niro and Robert Duvall ( )