Alison Gaylin

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

California

In Hollywood, a trashing in the tabloids can make or break you, and dirty little secrets are the lifeblood of the media machine. Working for an infamous scandal sheet, Simone Glass is learning what they didn't teach her at journalism school: Always wear gloves when digging through the trash, never give your real name...and above all, trust no one.

When a soap opera star commits suicide, and her emotionally unstable assistant insists someone killed her, Simone sets out to uncover the real untold story. But before she can put the pieces together, will she become the latest casualty of Hollywood's brutal deceptions?

Trashed

af156068-9d5c-495c-900e-f7aff4380a22-1

#hardcover #protectivecover #formerlibrarybook #lawyer #losangeles #twists

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

In the third installment of Marcia Clark's bestselling series, attorney Samantha Brinkman's investigation into a family's deadly secrets is compromised by a threat from her past.

When the daughter of prominent civil litigator Graham Hutchins is found with her throat slashed, the woman's spurned ex-boyfriend seems the likely suspect. But only days later, the young man dies in what appears to be a suicide. Or was it? Now authorities are faced with a possible new crime. And their person of interest is Hutchins. After all, avenging the death of his daughter is the perfect reason to kill. If he's as innocent as he claims, only one lawyer has what it takes to prove it: his friend and colleague Samantha Brinkman.

It's Sam's obligation to trust her new client. Yet the deeper she digs on his behalf, the more entangled she becomes in a thicket of family secrets, past betrayals, and multiple motives for murder. To win her case, she's prepared to bend any law and cross any boundary that stands in her way. Sam has always played by her own rules, and it's always worked...so far. But this case cuts so deep and so personal that one false move could cost her everything.

Snap Judgment

4adf4279-3658-41ed-a375-9188afa4e971-1

hardcover with DJ, good condition. Clean and crisp pages. Tight binding. DJ shows minimal wear. Ex-Library with noted markings.  #hardcover #evebunting #lariots #losangeles #history #childrens #kids #fiction 

When the Los Angeles riots break out in the streets of their neighborhood, a young boy and his mother learn the values of getting along with others no matter what their background or nationality.

Smoky Night

71ce196b-a5fe-45f8-b006-2be4d778f3c4-1

James Frey

New York

One of the most celebrated and controversial authors in America delivers his first novel—a sweeping chronicle of contemporary Los Angeles that is bold, exhilarating, and utterly original. Dozens of characters pass across the reader's sight lines—some never to be seen again—but James Frey lingers on a handful of LA's lost souls and captures the dramatic narrative of their lives: a bright, ambitious young Mexican-American woman who allows her future to be undone by a moment of searing humiliation; a supremely narcissistic action-movie star whose passion for the unattainable object of his affection nearly destroys him; a couple, both nineteen years old, who flee their suffocating hometown and struggle to survive on the fringes of the great city; and an aging Venice Beach alcoholic whose life is turned upside down when a meth-addled teenage girl shows up half-dead outside the restroom he calls home. Throughout this strikingly powerful novel there is the relentless drumbeat of the millions of other stories that, taken as a whole, describe a city, a culture, and an age. A dazzling tour de force, Bright Shiny Morning illuminates the joys, horrors, and unexpected fortunes of life and death in Los Angeles.

Bright Shiny Morning

f625a065-0b88-4291-8f25-68f48aff524c-1

#hardcover #nonfiction #garykrist #history #losangeles 

Kentucky

Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles

The Mirage Factory

825f5f42-b069-42c7-8eb3-c84699920762-1

Paperback book in like new condition with the exception of residual price stickers on the back cover￼

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Maryland

Kill the Messenger

Gregg Hurwitz

Awakening in a hospital with a scar on his head and no memory of being found holding a knife over his ex-fiancée's murdered body, crime novelist Drew Danner struggles to reconstruct clues to determine his own guilt or innocence. By the author of The Tower.

The Crime Writer

5cf1b1ca-ae64-4e6f-9f2c-3c5d5ddc44c6-1

Paul Pringle

Nevada

Peril and Power in the City of Angels

For fans of Spotlight and Catch and Kill comes a nonfiction thriller about corruption and betrayal radiating across Los Angeles from one of the region's most powerful institutions, a riveting tale from a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist who investigated the shocking events and helped bring justice in the face of formidable odds.

On a cool, overcast afternoon in April 2016, a salacious tip arrived at the L.A. Times that reporter Paul Pringle thought should have taken, at most, a few weeks to check out: a drug overdose at a fancy hotel involving one of the University of Southern California's shiniest stars--Dr. Carmen Puliafito, the head of the prestigious medical school. Pringle, who'd long done battle with USC and its almost impenetrable culture of silence, knew reporting the story wouldn't be a walk in the park. USC is one of the biggest employers in L.A., and it casts a long shadow.

But what he couldn't have foreseen was that this tip would lead to the unveiling of not one major scandal at USC but two, wrapped in a web of crimes and cover-ups. The rot rooted out by Pringle and his colleagues at The Times would creep closer to home than they could have imagined--spilling into their own newsroom.

Packed with details never before disclosed, Pringle goes behind the scenes to reveal how he and his fellow reporters triumphed over the city's debased institutions, in a narrative that reads like L.A. noir. This is L.A. at its darkest and investigative journalism at its brightest.

Bad City

b5479d5e-c064-4cbc-8fd8-9a1d7d9e5330-1

Three Latin-American women in their late twenties, including an actress, a suburban mother, and a music manager, take Los Angeles by storm in their shared quest to find healthy relationships and success in a cutthroat city. By the author of The Dirty Girls Social Club. Reader's Guide included. Reprint.

Playing with Boys

31f1c7a1-bab2-4d64-9260-c9e86a842924-1

Phil Jackson

One of the most successful coaches in the history of professional basketball offers his own take on his turbulent 2003-2004 season with the Los Angeles Lakers, chronicling the difficulties faced by the team--difficult relationships, public feuds, the Kobe Bryant rape trial, contract disputes, and injuries--and their successful journey to the NBA finals.

Texas

A Team in Search of Its Soul

One of the most successful coaches in the history of professional basketball offers his own take on his turbulent 2003-2004 season with the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Last Season

e9d561d3-6ff6-4652-beba-ed554931bf21-1

David Samuel Levinson

A Novel

When a flood of Israeli refugees into a near-future America triggers anti-Semitic hostilities throughout the country, a Passover celebration for the Jacobson family is disrupted by years of resentment and claims of abuse from a hateful father.

Tell Me How This Ends Well

1aaf8199-ab14-42d9-82d5-f965c73affda-1

Sloane Tanen

HC with dust jacket. DJ shows minimal wear. Tight binding. Pages in like new condition.

A hilarious and moving chronicle of a wildly flawed family that comes together--in rehab, of all places--even as each member is on the verge of falling apart Meet Marty Kessler, a retired LA film producer whose self-worth has been eroded by age and a late-in-life passion for opioids; his daughter Janine, former child star suffering the after-effects of a life in the public eye; and granddaughter Hailey, the "less-than" twin sister, whose inferiority complex takes a most unexpected turn. Nearly six thousand miles away, in London, celebrated author Bunny Small, Marty's long-forgotten first wife, has her own problems: a "preposterous" case of writer's block, a monstrous drinking habit, and a son who has fled halfway around the world to escape her. When Marty's pill-popping gets out of hand and Bunny's boozing reaches crisis proportions, a perfect storm of dysfunction brings them all together at Directions, Malibu's most exclusive and absurd rehab center. But for all their failings, the members of this estranged--and strange--family love each other. Rich with warmth, humor, and deep insight, There's a Word for That is a comic ode to surviving the people closest to us, navigating the perils of success, and taking one last look in the rearview mirror before mapping out the road ahead.

There's a Word for That

7c6c98ab-fbb1-4e5b-a786-fe0798cc3cc9-1

Robert Ellis

Minnesota

When a businessman arrives home to find his wife in bed, carved from belly to throat with a very sharp knife, the elite robbery-homicide division of the L.A.P.D. responds in full force and detective Lena Gamble prepares for her first major case.

City of Fire

f46afb42-305e-43bd-ab9a-60e39529dcb6-1

Jake Anderson

Florida

The Tragic True Story Behind the Unsolved Internet Sensation

The case that captivated a nation and inspired the Netflix series Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel! A Fortune Magazine "Most Anticipated Books of 2020" Selection A Goodreads Featured Release for February 2020 Oxygen's List of "Best True Crime Books of 2020" Selection "The Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles is a palpable presence in Gone at Midnight. Given the checkered history of the Cecil Hotel (which was recently named to the Los Angeles registry of historic landmarks), I wouldn't rule out Jack the Ripper." --The New York Times "Outstanding...true crime buffs won't want to miss this gripping search for the truth." --Publishers Weekly STARRED REVIEW A Los Angeles hotel with a haunting history. A missing young woman. A disturbing viral video followed by a shocking discovery. A cold-case mystery that has become an internet phenomenon--and for one determined journalist, a life-changing quest toward uncomfortable truths. Perfect for Murderinos looking for their next fix... Twenty-one-year-old Vancouver student Elisa Lam was last heard from on January 31, 2013, after she checked into downtown L.A.'s Cecil Hotel--a 600-room building with a nine-decade history of scandal and tragedy. The next day, Elisa vanished. A search of the hotel yielded nothing. More than a week later, complaints by guests of foul-smelling tap water led to a grim discovery: Elisa's nude body floating in a rooftop water tank, in an area extremely difficult to access without setting off alarms. The only apparent clue was a disturbing surveillance video of Elisa, uploaded to YouTube in hopes of public assistance. As the eerie elevator video went viral, so did the questions of its tens of millions of viewers. Was Elisa's death caused by murder, suicide, or paranormal activity? Was it connected to the Cecil's sinister reputation? And in that video, what accounted for Elisa's strange behavior? With the help of web sleuths and investigators from around the world, journalist Jake Anderson set out to uncover the facts behind a death that had become a macabre internet meme, as well as a magnet for conspiracy theorists. In poring through Elisa's revealing online journals and social-media posts, Anderson realized he shared more in common with the young woman than he imagined. His search for justice and truth became a personal journey, a dangerous descent into one of America's quiet epidemics. Along the way, he exposed a botched investigation and previously unreported disclosures from inside sources who suggest there may have been a corporate conspiracy and a police cover-up. In Gone at Midnight, Anderson chronicles eye-opening discoveries about who Elisa Lam really was and what--or whom--she was running from, and presents shocking new evidence that may re-open one of the most chilling and obsessively followed true crime cases of the century.

Gone at Midnight

eaf8d536-5afe-4b06-8f9e-2a0f145079ac-1

Maria Hummel

New Jersey

A Gentleman in Moscow meets My Brilliant Friend in this novel of two estranged friends who reunite to confront each other and the devastating betrayal that tore them apart Downtown Los Angeles, 1990. Alone in her luxury hotel suite, the reclusive Lacey Crane receives a message: Edith is waiting for her in the lobby. Former best friends, Lacey and Edith haven’t spoken to one another in over four decades. As young adults meeting at summer camp in Maine, and later making their way in the glitzy spotlight of postwar Hollywood, Edith and Lacey share a deep-rooted bond that once saved them from isolation and despair, providing comfort from the public and private traumas that they had each endured and which a newly optimistic world was eager to forget. Told through a continuous, twisting conversation that unfolds over the course of a single evening, in which each woman tells her story and reveals long-hidden secrets, the narratives of Edith and Lacey burn with atmosphere, mystery, resentment, and regret. Set against the vivid landscapes of Los Angeles and unfolding with the evanescence of a dream or a memory, Goldenseal peels away the layers of an intimate female friendship to reveal a stirring and haunting story about the search for connection and the lingering echoes of lost love.

Goldenseal

5f9909e0-24ca-41be-a180-82ac04d380e8-0

Kim Gruenenfelder

Charlize "Charlie" Edwards finally has it all: a house in Silverlake, L.A.'s hippest neighborhood, two fabulous best friends who always have her back, and a great (though hectic) job as the personal assistant to Hollywood's hottest movie star, Drew Stanton. But best of all, Charlie has a newly feathered love nest with Jordan, the sexy photographer she recently started dating. Maybe Charlie's journal of smart-alecky life advice--which she's always been better at writing than following--has finally helped put her on the right track. Unfortunately for Charlie, Drew is causing complete havoc on his new movie set, her eccentric family is descending upon L.A. for the upcoming holiday season, and her love life may be back to square one. Jordan has left L.A. to work on a film shooting in Paris, where the women are gorgeous, sophisticated, and possibly after her man. And Drew's handsome new producer, Liam, is an old crush who has reappeared to tug at Charlie's heartstrings. Charlie's torn between the misery of waiting for Jordan and the tingly feelings she has for Liam. But there's nothing misery--or seduction--loves better than a great glass of cabernet.

Misery Loves Cabernet

e7340835-619a-4a46-8325-c9e579d6075a-1

Gary Phillips

Advanced uncopyedited edition!
Slight wear on jacket. Small bend in bottom right corner. Subtle stains on introductory page. Wear near spine on back. Pages crisp and devoid of dog ears and scribbles. 

Ohio

Race and civil rights in 1963 Los Angeles provide a powerful backdrop in Gary Phillips's riveting mystery about an African American crime scene photographer seeking justice for a friend--perfect for fans of Walter Mosley, James Ellroy, and George Pelecanos.

LOS ANGELES, 1963: Korean War veteran Harry Ingram earns a living as a news photographer and occasional process server: chasing police radio calls and dodging baseball bats. With racial tensions running high on the eve of Martin Luther King's Freedom Rally, Ingram risks becoming a victim at every crime scene he photographs.

When Ingram hears about a deadly automobile accident on his police scanner, he recognizes the vehicle described as belonging to his good friend and old army buddy, a white jazz trumpeter. The LAPD declares the car crash an accident, but when Ingram develops his photos, he sees signs of foul play. Ingram feels compelled to play detective, even if it means putting his own life on the line. Armed with his wits, his camera, and occasionally his Colt .45, "One-Shot" Harry plunges headfirst into the seamy underbelly of LA society, tangling with racists, leftists, gangsters, zealots, and lovers as he attempts to solve the mystery.

Master storyteller and crime fiction legend Gary Phillips has filled the pages of One-Shot Harry with fascinating historical cameos, wise-cracks, tenderness, and an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride of a plot with consequences far beyond one dead body.

One-Shot Harry

d8fc0d75-f251-4f1f-a349-23452aa40a69-1

Steve Lopez

This book is a clean copy with a good spine and binding. The contents and Graphics are in good condition. There is minimal wear inside. There is slight wear on the paperback cover. Will ship within hours after your order is received. Thanks for stopping by and please stay safe.

A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music

A portrait of gifted violinist Nathaniel Ayers traces his education at Juilliard, his struggles with schizophrenia, the factors that led to his homelessness in Los Angeles, his friendship with the author, and the author's efforts to improve the musician's life.

The Soloist

0acb029f-3d71-4838-8d29-805e9d40913e-1

Jill Leovy

Insightful and incredibly moving book.

Completely clean copy. No writing, dog ears or tears. Spine intact and no outside creasing. Outer page edges clean. Cover shows very minimal wear. 

Michigan

A True Story of Murder in America

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, USA TODAY, AND CHICAGO TRIBUNE • A masterly work of literary journalism about a senseless murder, a relentless detective, and the great plague of homicide in America NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • The Boston Globe • The Economist • The Globe and Mail • BookPage • Kirkus Reviews On a warm spring evening in South Los Angeles, a young man is shot and killed on a sidewalk minutes away from his home, one of the thousands of black Americans murdered that year. His assailant runs down the street, jumps into an SUV, and vanishes, hoping to join the scores of killers in American cities who are never arrested for their crimes. But as soon as the case is assigned to Detective John Skaggs, the odds shift. Here is the kaleidoscopic story of the quintessential, but mostly ignored, American murder—a “ghettoside” killing, one young black man slaying another—and a brilliant and driven cadre of detectives whose creed is to pursue justice for forgotten victims at all costs. Ghettoside is a fast-paced narrative of a devastating crime, an intimate portrait of detectives and a community bonded in tragedy, and a surprising new lens into the great subject of why murder happens in our cities—and how the epidemic of killings might yet be stopped. Praise for Ghettoside “A serious and kaleidoscopic achievement . . . [Jill Leovy is] a crisp writer with a crisp mind and the ability to boil entire skies of information into hard journalistic rain.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times “Masterful . . . gritty reporting that matches the police work behind it.”—Los Angeles Times “Moving and engrossing.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Penetrating and heartbreaking . . . Ghettoside points out how relatively little America has cared even as recently as the last decade about the value of young black men’s lives.”—USA Today “Functions both as a snappy police procedural and—more significantly—as a searing indictment of legal neglect . . . Leovy’s powerful testimony demands respectful attention.”—The Boston Globe

Ghettoside

92ebace2-000f-4d56-94ca-92567b1f2878-1

Iowa

Book is clean and tight. #paperback #losangeles 

Washington

Jackie Ishida, a young Japanese American woman living in Los Angeles, learns of the deaths of four young men in her grandfather's store during the 1965 Watts riot, and sets out to discover the truth about their deaths, along the way uncovering some long-b

Southland

c8b3e54f-70dd-4b3c-b4a4-02bb9c90f2f3-1

Janet Fitch

Georgia

Everywhere hailed as a novel of rare beauty and power, White Oleander tells the unforgettable story of Ingrid, a brilliant poet imprisoned for murder, and her daughter, Astrid, whose odyssey through a series of Los Angeles foster homes-each its own universe, with its own laws, its own dangers, its own hard lessons to be learned-becomes a redeeming and surprising journey of self-discovery.

White Oleander’s 

d573eb3c-38d9-42d3-9952-af1906d9b301

Natalie Nourigat

Indiana

The story of one woman's quest to move to Los Angeles and got a job in animation...and how you can too. 



When artist Tally Nourigat left her life in Portland to move to Los Angeles and pursue a job in animation, she realized that despite her research, nothing truly prepared her for the wild world that awaited in the studios of Southern California. From grinding on storyboard test after storyboard test to getting a job at a major studio to searching for an apartment in...the Valley...this autobiographical how-to graphic novel explores the highest highs and lowest lows of pursuing a dream in animation. Brushed with a dose of humor and illustrated advice about salaries, studio culture, and everything in between, I Moved to Los Angeles to Work in Animation is the unique insider experience you won't find anywhere else.

I Moved to Los Angeles to Work in Animation

e87c1996-bed2-4653-9be3-98cd81c503c1-1

Set in the dream factory of the 1940s, this glittering debut novel follows a young Hollywood hopeful into a star-studded web of scandal, celebrity, and murder . . . The chipped pink nail polish is a dead giveaway--no pun intended. When a human thumb is discovered near a Hollywood nightclub, it doesn't take long for the police to identify its owner. Miss Penny Harp would recognize that pink anywhere: it belongs to her best friend, Rosemary. And so does the rest of the body buried beneath it. Rosemary, with the beauty and talent, who stood out from all other extras on the Paramount lot. She was the one whose name was destined for a movie marquee--not for the obituaries. And for an extra twist, now an LAPD detective thinks Penny is the one who killed her . . . Penny is determined to prove her innocence--with a little help from an unlikely ally, the world-famous queen of film noir, Barbara Stanwyck. Penny met "Stany" on the set of Paramount's classic comedy The Lady Eve, where the star took an instant liking to her. With Stany's powerful connections and no-nonsense style, she has no trouble following clues out of the studio backlot, from the Los Angeles morgue to the Zanzibar Room to the dark, winding streets of Beverly Hills. But there's something Penny isn't telling her famous partner in crimesolving: a not-so-glamorous secret that could lead them to Rosemary's killer--or send Penny to the electric chair . . .

Browse by categories

Save this search

Alison Gaylin

Trashed

Marcia Clark

Snap Judgment

Eve Bunting; David Diaz (Illustrator)

Smoky Night

James Frey

Bright Shiny Morning

Gary Krist

The Mirage Factory

Tami Hoag

Kill the Messenger

Gregg Hurwitz

The Crime Writer

Paul Pringle

Bad City

Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

Playing with Boys

Phil Jackson

The Last Season

David Samuel Levinson

Tell Me How This Ends Well

Sloane Tanen

There's a Word for That

Robert Ellis

City of Fire

Jake Anderson

Gone at Midnight

Maria Hummel

Goldenseal

Kim Gruenenfelder

Misery Loves Cabernet

Gary Phillips

One-Shot Harry

Steve Lopez

The Soloist

Jill Leovy

Ghettoside

Jill Leovy

Ghettoside

Nina Revoyr

Southland

Janet Fitch

White Oleander’s

Natalie Nourigat

I Moved to Los Angeles to Work in Animation

S. Gates

Glamorous Dead The