In James Ellroy's riveting second novel, an ambitious beat cop is hot on the trail of a serial killer who frequents L.A. dive bars and preys on the fallen women he finds there.

Los Angeles, 1951. For officer Fred Underhill, the job is all about the wonder, an elusive quality he finds in L.A.'s seedy underbelly. He spends his off-duty hours playing golf and chasing women. But then a grim opportunity arises that consumes Underhill: a serial killer whose capture might make his career. This hungry rookie will have to wheel and deal with some of the force's most unscrupulous officers to prove his worth, and when the case goes sideways and fast, the eyes of the very law he serves will be trained on him. Cast aside and left with nothing, not even his unsullied love for a bright-eyed DA, Underhill has no choice but to pick up the trail of the soulless killer and close the case himself. The author says of Clandestine: "It's a wild ride of a book. It's got golf, police corruption, good sex, and some raunchy laughs." In his second, novel James Ellroy begins to limn the deep, dark themes that will define his career.