In James Ellroy's riveting second novel, an ambitious beat cop is hot on the trail of a serial killer who frequents L.A. dive bars and preys on the fallen women he finds there. Los Angeles, 1951. For Officer Fred Underhill, the job is all about the wonder, an elusive quality he finds while dealing with the city’s drunks, hopheads, gunsels, and burglars. When he’s not reveling in the glory of cleaning up the streets, he’s on the green or scoring women. But Underhill’s ambition and allegiance to the badge get the better of him when a grim opportunity to prove his worth arises. Catching a serial strangler who is snuffing out women would all but ensure his place at the top. As he climbs his way up, the hungry rookie wheels and deals with some of the force’s most unscrupulous officers, and when the case goes sideways and fast, the eyes of the very law he serves will be trained on him. Now Underhill’s only chance to redeem himself is to pick up the trail of the soulless killer and close the case himself.

ジェイムズ・エルロイの初期傑作である本作は、単なる警察小説を超え、魂の堕落と再生を描く鮮烈な人間ドラマです。主人公が追い求める「ワンダー」という名の高揚感は、正義と虚栄心が混ざり合った危うい野心そのもの。１９５１年のＬ．Ａ．を舞台に、欲望の暗部を抉り出すエルロイの筆致は、読む者の胸を激しく突き刺します。 本作の真髄は、追う者と追われる者の境界が崩れ、自らの罪と対峙する心理的緊迫感にあります。暗黒の迷宮を彷徨った末に辿り着く、剥き出しの孤独と贖罪の物語。後の「Ｌ．Ａ．四部作」へと繋がる狂気と抒情が凝縮されたこの原点に触れれば、あなたはもうエルロイの描く漆黒の世界から逃れられないはずです。