No compromise as Ellroy gets back into his free-jazz groove

James Ellroy: what his writing lacks in elegance, it makes up for in pure mood PIc: Fergal Phillips

Crime: This Storm, By James Ellroy, Penguin Random House, €17.50

How do you like your summer reads? If the answer is “challenging, disorientating and nihilistic”, then This Storm by James Ellroy is for you. This is the second volume in a series of novels that serve as prequels to his first LA Quartet - which included LA Confidential - taking up two weeks after where the last novel, Perfidia, left off.

Hideo Ashida, ...