John Gregory Dunne

"In the town of Regent, a lurid murder becomes a magnet for the media, the best and worst of the local courtroom powers, and a rich cast of hangers-on. There is Teresa Kean, the advocacy lawyer whose life is changed by a mysterious secret; J.J. McClure, the prosecutor who contemplates his own secrets under the radar screen of Poppy, his glamorous, funny, right-wing congressman wife. There is Max Cline, a tough gay former state's attorney, once J.J.'s boss and now a marginalized defense counsel. There is the sociopathic seventeen-year-old Carlyle, half sister of the accused, a supermodel whose addiction is attention - no matter the cost. And - as if it were a character itself - there is the reckless passion that will fulfill a self-destructive destiny for one of the players."--BOOK JACKET.

Loosely based on the "Black Dahlia" case, this novel of Irish-Catholic life in Southern California just after World War II centers on two brothers, Tom and Des Spellacy. Tom is a homicide detective and Des is a priest on the rise within the Church. The investigation of an unidentified murder victim whose bisected body is found in a vacant lot in the shadow of the Los Angeles Coliseum provides the background against which are played the ever changing loyalties of the two brothers.

A collection of nonfiction. Includes An American education; China towns; To live and die in L.A.; On the Kennedys; BMOC [On William F. Buckley, Jr.]; New Grub Street [On Renata Adler]; Hog Heaven [On Tom Wolfe]; REMFs [On the Vietnam War]; essays on the film industry; In Israel--an outsider's journal.

The author's reflection on his life and what it means to be Irish in America.

Criminal lawyer Dutch Shea, Jr. re-examines his life after his daughter Cat is killed in a terrorist bombing.

Fly on the wall reporting of one year at 20th Century Fox. Great discussion of the making and marketing of big movies in 1960s Hollywood. Dunne is a breezy writer, making sabre cuts with a light touch.

He's an FBI special agent from the mountains. She's a liberal New York journalist. Both are drawn together as they infiltrate a dangerous hate group. Complete opposites, these two are about to discover they have much more in common than either could possibly imagine. The "New York Times Book Review" calls this novel delightful.

No writer captured the tragic absurdity of late-twentieth-century America better than John Gregory Dunne. For over forty years, he cast an unsparing eye on contemporary America, never flinching from the unpleasant truths he saw around him. Whether novels, screenplays, or nonfiction, his work was marked with a droll wit and a pointed cynicism that often examined buried aspects of public and private life in Hollywood and America at large. This book is a celebration of Dunne's best nonfiction, from frank observations on the film industry, politics, sports, and popular culture to tender reflections on what it was like to raise an adopted daughter. The collection spans his entire career, including his depictions of Las Vegas and an L.A. film studio, and essays from both of his existing compilations, as well as the essays from the last fifteen years of his life, never before collected.--From publisher description.