The newsiness of the crimes in A Violent Masterpiece makes it feel contemporary, but the look and feel of the city—seen, so often, from behind the windshield of a car—also makes the novel a robust story of place. Noir thrives on style, on sensibility, and on situated-ness. Sure, there are bits of classic James Ellroy here: chopped sentences, words italicized for emphasis. Harper has incorporated these tropes in Jake’s narration, and it reads both old and new. The old, in this case, is peak Ellroy.
~ Carolyn Kellogg via The Atlantic

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