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A Bright and Guilty Place: Murder, Corruption, and L.A.'s Scandalous Coming of Age - Hardcover

 
9780385509701: A Bright and Guilty Place: Murder, Corruption, and L.A.'s Scandalous Coming of Age
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Traces the dual story of 1920s Los Angeles prosecutor's office crime-scene investigator Leslie White and ambitious corrupt political candidate Dave Clark, documenting how Clark was deemed a prime suspect in the brutal murder of mob boss Charlie Crawford.

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Review:
"Brilliant. . . . The nonfiction equivalent of the Raymond Chandler classics. . . . Utterly truthful, fantastic and new." --"Los Angeles Times"
"[A] multi-faceted literary high wire act. . . . Rayner can write an engaging sentence and construct an artful, evocative yarn." --"The New York Times Book Review"
"To love this book you have to love the wonderful novels of Raymond Chandler or James Ellroy. . . . If you can go along with that point of view, this social history will be a bonanza for you, a boundless source of creepy joy. . . . [A] complex and bristling narrative." --"Washington Post"
"[Rayner] abounds in the doings of crooked politicians, conniving business people, brothel keepers, casino operators, blackmailers, embezzlers, unscrupulous lawyers, corruptible journalists, thugs who took care of their dirtier jobs. And, of course, the Hollywood stars." --"San Francisco Chronicle"
" "
"Set in Los Angeles during the Roaring Twenties, "A Bright and Guilty Place" weaves the stories of two men, an idealistic crime scene investigator and a charismatic politico, who stood on opposite sides of a scandal that shaped a city's identity and darkened its soul. Richard Rayner makes masterful use of his material--sex, murder, corruption, greed, and the invention of noir--to concoct a seething, sinful tale worthy of Raymond Chandler himself. This is narrative nonfiction at its best: meticulously researched, deftly drawn, and more compelling than anything the imagination might dare to conjure." --Karen Abbott, author of the "New York Times" bestseller "Sin in the Second City"
" "
""A Bright and Guilty Place" is a seductively readable knot of intersecting stories about pre-noir Los Angeles. It has an intriguing shape, a spectrum of emotions, beckoning suspense, satisfying inevitability, and a flavor all its own, at once familiar and strange." --Luc Sante, author of "Low Life"
" "
"Thanks to this detailed and cinematic narrative of despera

Brilliant. . . . The nonfiction equivalent of the Raymond Chandler classics. . . . Utterly truthful, fantastic and new. Los Angeles Times
[A] multifaceted literary high wire act. . . . Rayner can write an engaging sentence and construct an artful, evocative yarn. The New York Times Book Review
To love this book you have to love the wonderful novels of Raymond Chandler or James Ellroy. . . . If you can go along with that point of view, this social history will be a bonanza for you, a boundless source of creepy joy. . . . [A] complex and bristling narrative. Washington Post
[Rayner] abounds in the doings of crooked politicians, conniving business people, brothel keepers, casino operators, blackmailers, embezzlers, unscrupulous lawyers, corruptible journalists, thugs who took care of their dirtier jobs. And, of course, the Hollywood stars. San Francisco Chronicle

Set in Los Angeles during the Roaring Twenties, A Bright and Guilty Placeweaves the stories of two men, an idealistic crime scene investigator and a charismatic politico, who stood on opposite sides of a scandal that shaped a city s identity and darkened its soul. Richard Rayner makes masterful use of his material sex, murder, corruption, greed, and the invention of noir to concoct a seething, sinful tale worthy of Raymond Chandler himself. This is narrative nonfiction at its best: meticulously researched, deftly drawn, and more compelling than anything the imagination might dare to conjure. Karen Abbott, author of the New York Times bestseller Sin in the Second City

A Bright and Guilty Place is a seductively readable knot of intersecting stories about pre-noir Los Angeles. It has an intriguing shape, a spectrum of emotions, beckoning suspense, satisfying inevitability, and a flavor all its own, at once familiar and strange. Luc Sante, author of Low Life

Thanks to this detailed and cinematic narrative of desperate people in a desperate city, LA the place, LA the novel, and LA the film are fused into a tourde force of LA noir. Kevin Starr, author of Coast Of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990-2002"
Book Description:
Hard-boiled detectives, scheming starlets, and tabloid trials fill this gritty chronicle of how Los Angeles lost its soul.

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  • PublisherDoubleday
  • Publication date2009
  • ISBN 10 0385509707
  • ISBN 13 9780385509701
  • BindingHardcover
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages267
  • Rating

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Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9781400033584: A Bright and Guilty Place: Murder, Corruption, and L.A.'s Scandalous Coming of Age

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ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9781400033584
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group, 2010
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  • 9781849012058: A Bright and Guilty Place: Murder in L.A.

    Consta..., 2010
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. 1st Edition. Signed by author on title page in black fountain ink. Los Angeles was the fastest growing city in the world, mad with oil fever, get-rich-quick schemes, celebrity scandals, and religious fervor. It was also rife with organized crime, with a mayor in the pocket of the syndicates and a DA taking bribes to throw trials. In A BRIGHT AND GUILTY PLACE, " Richard Rayner narrates the entwined lives of two men, Dave Clark and Leslie White, who were caught up in the crimes, murders, and swindles of the day. Over a few transformative years, as the boom times shaded into the Depression, the adventures of Clark and White would inspire pulp fiction and replace L.A.'s reckless optimism with a new cynicism. Together, theirs is the tale of how the city of sunshine got noir. When A BRIGHT AND GUILTY PLACE,begins, Leslie White is a naive young photographer who lands a job as a crime-scene investigator in the L.A. district attorney's office. There he meets Dave Clark, a young, movie-star handsome lawyer and a rising star prosecutor with big ambitions. The cases they tried were some of the first "trials of the century," starring dark-hearted oil barons, sexually perverse starlets, and hookers with hearts of gold. Los Angeles was in the grip of organized crime, and White was dismayed to see that only the innocent paid while the powerful walked free. But Clark was entranced by L.A.'s dangerous lures and lived the high life, marrying a beautiful woman, wearing custom-made suits, yachting with the rich and powerful, and jaunting off to Mexico for gambling and girls. In a shocking twist, when Charlie Crawford, the Al Capone of L.A., was found dead, the chief suspect was none other than golden boy Dave Clark. A BRIGHT AND GUILTY PLACE is narrative nonfiction at its most gripping. Key to the tale are the story of the theft of water from the Owens River Valley that let L.A grow; the Teapot Dome scandal that brought shame to President Harding; and the emergence of crime writers like Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain, who helped mythologize L.A. In Rayner's hands, the ballad of Dave Clark is the story of the coming of age of a great American city. New, unread, first edition, first printing, in flawless, new, mylar-protected dust jacket. {Not remainder-marked or price-clipped} M116. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 024715

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