James Ellroy

James Ellroy was born under the name of Lee Earle Ellroy on March 4, 1948 in the city of Los Angeles, California. He is best known for his distinct style of writing in which he frequently omits connecting words and uses short staccato sentences. Ellroy's most notable works are in the genres of crime fiction and historical fiction even though he occasionally ventured in some areas as well.

The best place to start is the Lloyd Hopkins series, the earliest of James Ellroy's multi-book series: it opens with Blood on the Moon (1984) and runs to 3 books across 1984–1986, ending with Suicide Hill (1986). James Ellroy's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

James Ellroy has 154 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1981 and 2026. 135 of them belong to 6 named series — the largest being the L.A. Quartet series with 4 books — and 19 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. James Ellroy's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Lloyd Hopkins (1984–1986, 3 books), L.A. Quartet (1987–1992, 4 books) and Underworld U.S.A. (1995–2009, 3 books), plus 2 more.

This guide splits James Ellroy's 154 books into 6 named series and 19 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: L.A. Quartet (4 books, 1987–1992); Lloyd Hopkins (3 books, 1984–1986); Underworld U.S.A. (3 books, 1995–2009); Best American Mystery Stories Anthologies (2 books, 2002–2010); Second L.A. Quartet (2 books, 2014–2019), plus 1 further series.