Clues 44.2: Reappraising James Ellroy.

Clues 44.2 (2026) has been published, which is a theme issue on "Reappraising James Ellroy," guest edited by Nathan Ashman (U of East Anglia, UK) and Steven Powell (U of Liverpool, UK). See below for abstracts. I will update this post when the ebook versions are available. Contact McFarland for subscriptions. 

Introduction: Reappraising James Ellroy / Steven Powell and Nathan Ashman
The coeditors discuss the contents of this theme issue on the work of James Ellroy, including articles on The Black Dahlia, Perfidia, the Underworld USA Trilogy (American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, Blood’s a Rover)

“It’s Good for Business”: The Conspiratorial Logic of James Ellroy’s Underworld USA Trilogy / Nathan Ashman 
This article examines the meaning and function of conspiracy in James Ellroy’s Underworld USA Trilogy. Engaging with twentieth century and contemporary debates on “conspiracy culture,” it contends that Ellroy presents a vision of history shaped less by coherent political ideologies than by competing economic interests.

Histories of Bad Men: William Guy Banister and Clandestine Archives in American Tabloid and Libra / Bradley J. Wiles (Northern Illinois U)
This article compares James Ellroy’s American Tabloid and Don DeLillo’s Libra through their portrayals of William Guy Banister, a key figure in Kennedy assassination lore. Banister’s appeal is rooted in his representation as a conduit to secret history, which could potentially provide answers to the many mysteries surrounding the Kennedy assassination. 

The Big Elsewhere: American Tabloid, States of Exception, and Imperial Noir
Rodney Taveira (U of Sydney, Australia)
American Tabloid and its successors map a dispersed network of limited sovereignty marked by a convergence of state and criminal violence. This essay argues that Ellroy’s Underworld USA trilogy and L.A. Quintet develop a form of “imperial noir” where the procedural methods of domestic crime fiction expose the extractive and racialized logics of American empire.  

The California Writers Memorial Grove (incl Hammett).

(Top) Robert Louis Stevenson, NYPL
(Bottom) Dashiell Hammett, ca. 1934

As Kristen Caven explains, the California Writers Memorial Grove at Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland is an effort by the California Writers Club (est. 1909) to plant trees in honor of writers who have contributed to the West's literary landscape. The initiative was announced in October 1930. Each ceremony usually featured speeches, readings, and tree planting. Two honorees were Robert Louis Stevenson (in 1942) and Dashiell Hammett (in 1984). Go here to see a complete list of writers featured.

• Images of the grove and the original plan for the grove 

Foxwell on unexpected authors in EQMM.

H.G.Wells, ca. 1915–20. Library of 
Congress, Prints and Photographs Div.

Over on the Something Is Going to Happen blog of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, in honor of the magazine's 85th anniversary, I provide in "Behind the Pages: Moonlighting in Mystery" a rundown of some unexpected authors who have appeared in the pages of EQMM, including such writers as Pearl S. Buck and H.G. Wells. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pearl S. Buck, ca. 1932. Library of
Congress, Prints and Photographs Div.

 

"Trouble Is My Business" exhibition, LSUS.

Running through September 30 at Louisiana State University Shreveport's Noel Memorial Library is the exhibition "Trouble Is My Business: Detective Fiction and Its Historical Contexts, which looks at the figure of the detective from Sherlock Holmes to Mike Hammer and how they reflect the culture in which they lived.