October 2025 Book Recommendations from Pajiba
Widespread Panic by James Ellroy
What books are you reading this month? Kayleigh Donaldson shares her latest obsession with crime fiction.
I'm back on the James Ellroy train. Yes, Ellroy has been my main literary fixation in 2025, and I don’t see myself dropping him anytime soon. The demon dog of crime fiction is too captivating to abandon, even if he’s a bit of a weirdo.
Widespread Panic is surprisingly short by Ellroy’s standards—my edition is a brisk 336 pages—but it is dense with detail. The protagonist, Freddy Otash, is a familiar figure from Ellroy’s Underworld USA series and a fascinating piece of Hollywood history.
- Former LAPD officer and private investigator
- Notorious fixer and researcher for the tabloid magazine Confidential
- Hired by Peter Lawford to investigate Marilyn Monroe, sparking decades of conspiracy theories about her connection to JFK
Widespread Panic explores Otash’s shady activities in early 1950s Hollywood, where he mingles—and fights—with some of Tinseltown’s most prominent figures.
This book differs from earlier Ellroy works due to an unexpected speculative twist: Otash narrates from purgatory, delivering an unfiltered monologue about his life and crimes to a hopefully forgiving higher power.
"Otash is narrating this story from purgatory, offering a no-holds-barred monologue of his life and crimes to a hopefully forgiving higher force."
Ellroy’s blend of gritty historical detail and imaginative storytelling makes Widespread Panic a compelling read for fans of true crime and noir fiction.
Author’s summary: James Ellroy’s Widespread Panic combines hard-boiled crime history with a bold supernatural narration, immersing readers in 1950s Hollywood’s dark underbelly.
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