Murder, Corruption, and L.A.'s Scandalous Coming of Age
April 13, 2009
In his unfocused history of crime-ridden Los Angeles in the 1920s, nonfiction writer and novelist Rayner (The Associates
) touches on too many scandals—and scandalous characters—to make his account coherent. Leslie White, the young and idealistic DA's investigator (and, later, pulp fiction writer) seems like the only honest man in town, especially compared with the likes of promising prosecutor-turned-murder-suspect Dave Clark. Before the Depression hit, L.A. was swimming in wealth, not only from the burgeoning Hollywood studios but also from the oil boom. White saw firsthand how deep the city's corruption ran, from organized crime boss Charlie Crawford's “System,” whose tentacles reached the highest echelons of politics and law enforcement, to the press, always ravenous for another sensational story, a “circulation-boosting crusade.” Crawford's brutal murder in 1931 and star prosecutor Clark's emergence as the prime suspect is only one of the tales Rayner touches on in his chaotic chronicle of the city. Despite cameos by familiar faces—including noir master Raymond Chandler—readers may be overwhelmed by the onslaught of details, intriguing as they might be.
April 15, 2009
Noir-tinged portrait of the sick soul of America's Promised Land.
Rayner (The Associates: Four Capitalists Who Created California, 2007, etc.) traces the roots of the seamy allure of Los Angeles in this vivid social history, focusing on the murder trial of Dave Clark, a dashing, charismatic L.A. prosecutor whose fall from grace serves as a neat metaphor for the city: glamour and promise concealing an endemic corruption that, paradoxically, enhances the glamour. Clark was a crack prosecutor; in his early 30s, he had several high-profile victories to his credit and appeared to be bound for great things. Instead, he was sucked into the vortex of"'The System,' a low-profile but all-powerful syndicate that ran the gambling, prostitution, and bootlegging rackets in L.A." His mysterious involvement in the murders of Charlie Crawford, L.A.'s underworld boss, and reporter Herbert Spencer led to a sensational trial that captivated the public with its dynamic cast of characters, secret agendas and shocking violence—it was just like a movie. The author's account of the trial is engrossing, as is his handling of the supporting characters, including Leslie White, a pioneering scientific investigator who leveraged his experiences into a successful career as a pulp-fiction; Clara Bow, the rapidly imploding movie sex goddess; E.L. Doheny, scandal-ridden oil baron; and unhappy oil executive–turned-author Raymond Chandler. Rayner also provides useful glosses on the Teapot Dome scandal, the catastrophic Julian Petroleum Ponzi scam and the horrific flood caused by the failing of the St. Francis Dam. However, despite some striking descriptive passages, the author fails to create a coherent picture of Los Angeles in the'20s and'30s. Rayner's fascination with Clark dominates, and scant attention is paid to the lives of ordinary citizens trying to function within a fatally compromised system. Nonetheless, the narrative of crooked cops, larcenous lawyers and perverted politics is compelling.
The material would have benefited from a wider focus, but Rayner delivers a lurid, low-down portrait of Los Angeles sure to appeal to readers interested in the real L.A. confidential.
(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
July 29, 2009
Rayner (Drake's Fortune) uses the stories of two men-Leslie White, the painfully idealistic investigator for the DA's office, and David Clark, a savvy, well-educated prosecutor-to paint a portrait of Los Angeles on the precipice of the Great Depression. Their shared knowledge of organized crime boss Charlie Crawford, on trial for murder, leads them down very different paths-embodying Rayner's vision of a "bright and guilty" city. Rayner draws on interviews, trial transcripts, and archival sources to piece together his narrative, but the information is too broadly cited to be of much use to researchers. Verdict While Rayner dives eagerly into the material, the narrative is cluttered with tangential stories and characters. Nonetheless, those willing to wade through will enjoy the parallels between L.A.'s criminal underbelly and the noir classics of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.-Amanda Kuhnel, Univ. of Buffalo Libs., NY
Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
May 15, 2009
Although this book could loosely be considered true crime, it is much more of an archaeological dig into the psyche of one city. What Rayner does with interviews, archive material, trial transcripts, and literary sources in bringing that psyche to life is remarkable. The city is Los Angelesthe title comes from a line in Orson Welles 1948 The Lady from Shanghai. The basic thesis is that cities have characters all their own. Rayner argues that the period from the late 1920s through the early Depression years was critical in defining the delights and despair of L.A. He makes his case by tracing the fortunes of a crime-scene photographer, a prosecutor and aspiring politician, and a gangster overlord. Much of the book turns on the murder of the gangster, but it constantly expands outward into a study of L.A. itself. In both his previous fiction (The Devils Wind, 2005) and nonfiction (The Associates, 2008), Rayner has successfully mined the history of the West. He does so again in this page-turning piece of narrative nonfiction. Think Seabiscuit in the city.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)