Signed, Limited hardcover editions SOLD OUT. Limited to 100 numbered copies and 26 lettered copies. 

James Ellroy fans will remember Freddy Otash from the author’s Underworld U.S.A. trilogy. For those who don’t, here’s an introduction: A corrupt cop turned sleaze hustler, extortionist, and pimp, Otash was an actual historical figure who made the 1950s magazine Confidential the go-to source for the sins of the rich and famous. In his prime, Freddy raised hell, and in the pages of Shakedown he finds himself in purgatory—literally—waiting for a transfer. Will he make it to heaven, or is his fate trending south? Promised redemption if he confesses, Freddy writes a tell-all peopled by Hollywood greats like Liz Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne, and Gary Cooper (to name a few), who are up to all sorts of wrong. Threesomes, foursomes, men’s room misadventures—anything goes in this licentious world.

Shakedown explodes the postwar America of June and Ward Cleaver and breathes randy new life into the man who whetted our national appetite for sex and scandal and whose lack of scruples makes today’s gossip culture seem almost innocent. What’s true and what’s fiction? Ellroy’s not telling.

(cover art subject to change)

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