Widespread Panic

From the modern master of noir comes a novel based on the real-life Hollywood fixer Freddy Otash, the malevolent monarch of the 1950s L.A. underground, and his Tinseltown tabloidConfidentialmagazine.

Freddy Otash was the man in the know and the mantoknow in '50s L.A. He was a rogue cop, a sleazoid private eye, a shakedown artist, a pimp-and, most notably, the head strong-arm goon forConfidentialmagazine.

Confidentialpresaged the idiot internet-and delivered the dirt, the dish, the insidious ink, and the scurrilous skank. It mauled misanthropic movie stars, sex-soiled socialites, and putzo politicians. Mattress Jack Kennedy, James Dean, Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, Liz Taylor, Rock Hudson-Frantic Freddy outed them all. He was the Tattle Tyrant who held Hollywood hostage, and now he's here toCONFESS.

"I'm consumed with candor and wracked with recollection. I'm revitalized and resurgent. Mymeshugenahmarch down memory lane beginsNOW."

In Freddy's viciously entertaining voice,Widespread Panictorches 1950s Hollywood to the ground. It's a blazing revelation of coruscating corruption, pervasive paranoia, and of sin and redemption with nothing in between.

Here is James Ellroy in savage quintessence. Freddy Otash confesses-andyouare here to read and succumb.