Destination: Morgue (2004)

James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential) made his name by rendering the hard-boiled genre in its densest form, a solid mass of verbiage composed of equal parts ultraviolence, depravity, madness, and hipster slang. This mixed bag of short fiction and nonfiction pieces is partially disappointing (some of the material retraces territory already well covered in Ellroy's hair-raising 1997 autobiography, My Dark Places). Still, with three all-new novellas here—titles include ''Hollywood F—-Pad'' and ''Hot-Prowl Rape-O''—those who've been jonesing for a jolt of the master's white-jazz hoodoo voodoo will greet Destination: Morgue as a thirsty wino would a case of Thunderbird.