Royal Scandal, Hollywood Crime, Nail Salon Drama: Pajiba October 2025 Book Recommendations Superpost
Books I'm Reading This Month
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Books | November 3, 2025
Widespread Panic by James Ellroy
What is everyone currently reading? 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 any time soon. The demon dog of crime fiction is too juicy for me to abandon, even if he is a genuine weirdo.
Widespread Panic is surprisingly short by Ellroy’s usual standards—my edition was a brisk 336 pages—but it’s packed with detail. The protagonist is Freddy Otash, a familiar character from Ellroy’s Underworld USA series and a fascinating figure in Hollywood history.
Otash was a former LAPD officer and private investigator known for being a fixer and researcher for the tabloid magazine Confidential. If there was a mess to be cleaned up or created, you called Otash.
- He was notably hired by Peter Lawford to investigate Marilyn Monroe.
- This investigation sparked decades of conspiracy theories about Monroe’s connection to JFK.
Widespread Panic explores Otash’s shady work in early 1950s Hollywood, where he mingled with—and sometimes fought—Tinseltown’s elite.
Otash narrates this story from purgatory, delivering a raw monologue of his life and crimes to a hopefully forgiving higher force.
This narrative takes a speculative turn that distinguishes it from Ellroy’s other works.
Author’s Summary
James Ellroy’s Widespread Panic delivers a gripping and gritty portrait of a notorious Hollywood fixer, blending true crime with speculative narration from beyond the grave.