L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City

By John Buntin. No relation -- but I do know him from college! So I might be biased about the writing of my Dutch cousin, but I don't think so, and Gerald Posner's blurb backs me up about Buntin's account of the City of Angels in the middle of the last century; gangsters vs. police chiefs, and whether there's a difference; and the corruptions of Hollywood and California politics.  This paperback is new from the warehouse, but got a small ding in transit, so I've knocked the SRP down a bit.