• Blood on the Moon

  • By: James Ellroy
  • Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
  • Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (207 ratings)

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Blood on the Moon  By  cover art

Blood on the Moon

By: James Ellroy
Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
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Publisher's summary

Detective Sergeant Lloyd Hopkins can't stand music, or any loud sounds. He's got a beautiful wife, but he can't get enough of other women. And instead of bedtime stories, he regales his daughters with bloody crime stories. He's a thinking man's cop with a dark past and an obsessive drive to hunt down monsters who prey on the innocent.

Now, there's something haunting him. He sees a connection in a series of increasingly gruesome murders of women committed over a period of 20 years. To solve the case, Hopkins will dump all the rules and risk his career to make the final link and get the killer.

©1984 James Ellroy (P)2010 Audio Go

What listeners say about Blood on the Moon

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Looking for new answers

“It’s because outside of the major dreams everything is always changing, and even though you keep doing the same things, you’re looking for new answers.”
- James Ellroy, Blood on the Moon

The first book in a trilogy of books (the L.A. Noir or Lloyd Hopkins Trilogy) that predate the Ellroy genius that is the The L.A. Quartet (The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz) and the Underworld USA Trilogy (American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, Blood's a Rover).

'Blood on the Moon' has many of the elements that will be repeated in most of his later cop novels (especially those in LA Quartet): idealized women, mothers, sexual obsession, dark history, inner demons, etc. This isn't nearly as good as the best of the LA Quartet, but not bad. It is like discovering a wet moth just after it has climbed out of its cocoon. It is early, imperfect, but contains a lot of creepy potential.

If you are new to Ellroy, don't start here. If you are already an Ellroy fan, this is still worth the time.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

It’s hard hitting…

Noir. Violent. Leonard always seems to do a great job exposing the criminal elements in society as ignorant and soulless.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A VERY CONVOLUTED STORY

Where does Blood on the Moon rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Probably in the middle. It wasn't the best but certainly wasn't the worst.

What did you like best about this story?

The twists and turns. At times they were hard to follow, but added to a good tale.

What does L. J. Ganser bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He made the story. Without his narrative I don't believe I would have finished the story.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When the past of the hero was finally revealed.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

The most absurd and lurid plot badly read

Elroy seems to delight in gratuitous sadistic violence and voyeurism. The plot is so totally unrealistic and absurd and the characters one dimensional. the reading quality matched the quality of the story - really bad.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Nope

Wrong book for me. Bodies everywhere. Narrator sounded like he was doing a Joe Friday imitation

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Awful

If I never hear the words Irish Protestant ethos again I will be happy. Really terrible book!

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Just offensive

It’s okay (maybe a little glib)…

…until ANY of the women characters enter the story, at which point you just want to gag.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Ellroy's prose is powerful in its bluntness. At first it is jarring, and it may take a few tries before you find that it "fits", but sticking with it is very rewarding.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Foul language

The first paragraph f-bombs very disappointed….but then again don’t care that author is done for me.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Avoid if you’re offended by slurs

I get it… noir but honestly unless you can overlook the author using N**ger and F**got about 1,000 times, you’ll be pretty distracted. Also, besides the general misogyny and WHACK ideas about how all gay men actually want to be women, NONE OF THE WOMEN IN THIS STORY MAKE SENSE. None of their reactions make sense, nothing they do makes sense. He does have a way with atmosphere and story. There are some fun bits but really not worth tolerating so much racism and misogyny.

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