At the top of the list. His writing is so gritty. His characters have every human frailty imaginable. And they don't always come out on top. I love stories that take place in L.A, and no one does it better, with the possible exception of Raymond Chandler, maybe. 

This is simple. I regard Ellroy as one of the three best living writers in America. Frankly, placing him in this grouping with mystery novelists is misleading. He far exceeds the genre, and is a brilliant commentator who writes like he came down from a higher league. In moments of personal conceit, I envision myself as a noir novelist (been working on a book for a while) I would sell my soul to write like Ellroy.

Great storyteller. The story is the thing with Ellroy; he takes real-life characters and weaves a dark, oppressively evil world out of them. The dialogue, though cartoonish at times, leaps off of the page, and drives the reader headlong thru the story. Not for the faint of heart, or the easily shocked.

Neo-Noir for the stout of heart. Very gritty, if sometimes tough to read. You love to hate all of his characters--there are no "good guys"!