"L.A. Confidential" is a neo-noir (contemporary dark fiction) novel written by which author?

"L.A. Confidential" (1990) is a neo-noir novel by James Ellroy and the third of his L.A. Quartet series. It is dedicated to Mary Doherty Ellroy (his first wife). The epigraph is "A glory that costs everything and means nothing"—Steve Erickson. The story is about several Los Angeles Police Department officers in the early 1950s who become embroiled in a mix of sex, corruption and murder following a massacre at the Nite Owl coffee shop.

The book was adapted for a 1997 film of the same name, directed and co-written by Curtis Hanson and starring Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, David Strathairn and Danny DeVito. The film was universally acclaimed.

Lee Earle "James" Ellroy (born March 4, 1948) is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. He working as a golf caddie while pursuing writing. He later said, "Caddying was good tax-free cash and allowed me to get home by 2 p.m. and write books.... I caddied right up to the sale of my fifth book". In 1981, Ellroy published his first novel, "Brown's Requiem", a detective story drawing on his experiences as a caddie.

While his early novels earned him a cult following and notice among crime fiction buffs, Ellroy earned much greater success and critical acclaim with the L.A. Quartet—"The Black Dahlia", "The Big Nowhere", "L.A. Confidential", and "White Jazz".