The Big Nowhere

L. A. Quartet

De: James Ellroy

Narrado por: Craig Wasson

The second novel in The L.A. Quartet. Murder, mayhem, and dirty cops on the make against the backdrop of anti-communist hysteria in L.A. in 1950.

It’s Los Angeles in the new year of 1950. The Communist Scare is heating up. Gangsters vie for control of the town. The Hollywood studios are feuding with the unions.

Then a dead body with its eyes gouged out turns up.

The investigating officer, Sheriff’s deputy Danny Upshaw, is obsessed with the murder case that no one else cares about. LAPD Lieutenant Mal Considine jumps onto the Red Scare bandwagon to advance his career and gain custody of his adopted son. And Buzz Meeks is in it all for the money.

The three cops get caught in the city’s web of ambition, perversion, and deceit. All three have purchased tickets to a nightmare.

©2025 James Ellroy (P)2025 Random House Audio

All over the place

I had a hell of a time keeping up with what was going on, especially early in the story. It does come together later on, but i was pretty much checked out by that time

Great book and performance, marred by censorship

As others have noted, this book was selectively censored. All the gore was left intact, and there is plenty of it. All other racial slurs are still spoken, except for one. I am an adult, and don't need Random House Audio to make decisions to protect me from strong language. Craig Wasson's performance is great, as was his narration of L.A. Confidential. But the use of "N" instead of the full word breaks suspension of disbelief, and reminds the listener that risk-averse corporate cowards decided to make an "editorial decision" to alter the text. What's worse is the claim that this is an unabridged edition—stated in the product description, and mentioned again in the closing credits. How is a censored version unabridged?

I had listened to The Black Dahlia (#1 in the L.A. quartet) and L.A. Confidential (#3) already, but The Big Nowhere (#2) was not available until August 2025, so I have put off listening to White Jazz (#4) until I was able to fill in the gap. The prose is less "telegraphic" than L.A. Confidential, and now I finally understand the opening sequence of that book, where Buzz Meeks is on the run with a bunch of heroin and stolen money. I'll have to listen to the opening chapter again, now that I get the context. This book is as gory as The Black Dahlia, and possibly even more so. A combination of anti-communist investigation with pursuit of a demented serial killer, with some unexpected twists that are heart-wrenching. Craig Wasson's adaptable voice does a great job portraying the characters—Meeks, Audrey, Dudley Smith—and his emotional range is remarkable.

I did enjoy the book, so am torn on whether to seek a refund, given the fraudulent advertising of "unabridged." Future readers who see the Audible reviews at least know what they are getting into, but I preordered the book and was unpleasantly caught off guard by the bowdlerization.

Censored

This book is heavily and I mean heavily censored. It’s sad to see how a few people have so much control.

Great Book, Decemt Reading, & Quit Censoring Great Writing

Awesome book, glad it’s finally on Audible. I usually really like how Craig Wasson reads Ellroy, but I thought he was a little overly emotional in places, some sorta odd places too, but overall he does fine. The problem with this release is the needless and senseless censoring of certain words throughout the book. Look, I’m not trying to say these are good words, of course they’re rough and can hurt, but that’s not the point. The point is that it’s a more realistic reflection the period with those words in the book, thus making it a better, more immersive listen than without it. Would you prefer a portrayal where all past sins are just glossed over like they didn’t happen? I surely wouldn’t. Seriously, why are we tailoring things to the needs of people who aren’t even going to listen to it anyway. Makes no sense. But that’s the way of the world now so….

Why the need to censor

I genuinely don’t understand the point in censoring a book like this, and why only one slur but not the others? Why not just change it all together. Also I don’t imagine some young kid inadvertently listening deeply to The Big Nowhere. Pointless, and needless. It’s an ugly world, so let it be ugly.

Inane Censorship

I'm a near lifelong Ellroy reader. I popped my literary cherry with American Tabloid in high school and never looked back. His books are gritty, absurd, and violent explorations of an America rife with racism in our recent past. They humanize everyone involved but sanitize nothing.

The narration for Big Nowhere is absolutely fine. Craig Wasson could do Ellroy in his sleep (though his Mickey Cohen felt a little flat). For the most part the text stayed intact. Everyone from Jews to poor Oklahoma whites to Mexicans were given their period accurate bad names. Only the almighty boogeyman of the N word got censored. and in the dumbest way possible with Nnnnnnnnnn.

in one sentence we have a man call Mickey Cohen a bad word for Jews that rhymes with kite, and a black drug dealer a lucky Nnnnnnnnnn.

Absurd. I'm not buying any more Ellroy books on Audible. Censorship distorts the past and sets a bad precedent

Censorship getting a late start?

Had a hunch when listening, and the second time it happened, I checked against the printed text- in this recording, the narrator just says the letter "N" aloud when the well-known slur beginning with that letter is actually used in the text of the novel. James Ellroy's other novels, also published by Random House Audio, and also narrated by Mr. Wasson, do not censor this slur, or any other slurs, in this fashion. I consider this late change unusual, and believe it takes away from this novel's intentionally harsh, warts-and-all depiction of the period in which it is set, not to mention interrupting the listener's suspension of disbelief.

That said, the book itself is a great, gory, complex mystery story typical of Ellroy, though. I recommend buying a physical copy, or if you must have the audiobook, just dropping a hard R yourself as a stopgap measure. (That's a joke, don't do that.)