It is January, 1942, and torrential rainstorms in L.A. unearth a body in Griffith Park. The cops rate it a routine dead-man job—but they’re grievously wrong. Lauded writer James Ellroy arrives on the rain-slick streets of Seattle to present his latest noir thriller This Storm on Town Hall’s stage. He offers us commentary on his timely novel, chronicling rising fascism and xenophobia at a critical turning point in World War II.

Through his refined and haunting style, Ellroy introduces us to a world of characters mirroring the dark side of humanity—a corrupt Vice cop, flesh peddler, and bagman for the L.A. Chief of Police; a crime-lab whiz caught up in the maelstrom of the Japanese internment; a rogue LAPD hardnose working Army Intelligence; a defrocked Navy lieutenant who’s also a war profiteer to her core. Join Ellroy for a look at his new novel depicting a summons to misalliance and all the spoils of a brand-new war.

James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. He is the author of the Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy: American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, and Blood’s A Rover, and the L.A. Quartet novels: The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L. A. Confidential, and White Jazz.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Elliott Bay Books.