James Ellroy's Blood on the Moon

I just finished Blood on the Moon by James Ellroy. I downloaded it last week from the library onto my Kindle. I always search for the items that are immediately available because I have no patience and I feel that it is an opportunity for me to choose books that might not read otherwise. Blood on the Moon popped up on the list as available so I decided to give it a go. I've read L.A. Confidential previously and thought it was a pretty good book. Well actually, I thought the movie was better than the book. The book got too convoluted with so many subplots that it because incrediably far-fetched by the end. The movie on the other hand took the main plot and followed it to a logical conclusion ignoring the subplots. Of course Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce probably enhanced my overall rating of the movie.
So I started Blood on the Moon in the afternoon. The novel is set in LA between the Watt's Riots in the 60s and leads up to the 1980s. The book follows Lloyd Hopkins, a LAPD Homocide Detective from his early days and how his career was shaped beginning with the Watt's Riots where as a National Guardsman he kills one a psycopathic fellow guardsman. I got through Lloyds story in the afternoon and then picked it back up at bedtime. The next portion of the book dealt with the mind of the serial killer The Poet, how he was shaped by a butal rape and assualt on his by his high school classmates and how for the past 18 years he has consummated his romances with the women he stalked. It's fairly lengthly and after about 30 mintues, I wondered how much longer it would go on and hoped that the story would get back to the good guy soon. I put the Kindle to the side, turned off the light and went to sleep. Only to find that a couple of hours later I was struggling to surface from sleep where I was being attaked by a serial killer. Geez. I came awake and was really freaked out. It took me a while calm down enough to get back to sleep.
This evening I finished the novel. It was OK. I enjoyed knowing the locale--Lloyd grew up in Silverlake, goes to work at the Parker Center--the old one, has dinner in Glendale etc. etc. I now know the freeways, the neighborhoods, and the feel of the LA described in the book. Here is a photo of the Parker Center that I took on a recent Sunday afternoon spent downtown.

But once again, I felt that Ellroy gets too involved with coincidences. And once again the conclusion forces the suspension of disbelief.
I still want to read his famous Black Dalhia and I did learn to like Lloyd and Dutchman but on the whole, I don't think I will rush out and choose another Ellroy book anytime soon.