Royal Scandal, Hollywood Crime, Nail Salon Drama: Pajiba October 2025 Book Recommendations Superpost
What Books Are You Reading This Month?
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Books | November 3, 2025
Widespread Panic by James Ellroy
I'm back on the James Ellroy train. Yes, Ellroy has been my main literary obsession of 2025, and I don’t plan on dropping him anytime soon. The master of crime fiction is too captivating to abandon, even if he is undeniably eccentric.
Widespread Panic is surprisingly brief by Ellroy’s standards—my edition was a brisk 336 pages—but it remains rich in detail. The protagonist is Freddy Otash, a familiar figure from Ellroy’s Underworld USA series and a notable personality in Hollywood history.
Otash, a former LAPD officer and private investigator, was infamous as a fixer and researcher for the tabloid magazine Confidential. If you needed a scandal covered up or manufactured, Otash was the man to call.
- He was hired by Peter Lawford to investigate Marilyn Monroe.
- This investigation sparked decades of conspiracy theories about Monroe’s connection to JFK.
- The book explores Otash’s murky work in early 1950s Hollywood, mixing with and confronting the era’s elite.
This book stands out from Ellroy’s previous work by incorporating a speculative element. Otash narrates the story from purgatory, delivering a raw, no-holds-barred monologue about his life and crimes to an unseen higher power.
“Widespread Panic details his seedy work in the early ’50s, as he rubs shoulders and punches the faces of Tinseltown’s finest.”
“Otash is narrating this story from purgatory, offering a no-holds-barred monologue of his life and crimes to a hopefully forgiving higher force.”
Author’s summary: James Ellroy’s Widespread Panic delivers a gritty, fast-paced dive into 1950s Hollywood crime, narrated by a notorious fixer from beyond the grave.
Would you like me to format recommendations for the other books mentioned in the original post as well?