The Informers
Bret Easton Ellis
Vintage
In this seductive and chillingly nihilistic novel, Bret Easton Ellis, the author  of American Psycho, returns to Los Angeles, the city whose moral badlands he portrayed  unforgettably in Less Than Zero. This time is the early eighties. The characters  go to the same schools and eat at the same restaurants. Their voices enfold us as  seamlessly as those of DJs heard over a car radio. They have sex with the same boys  and girls and buy from the same dealers. In short, they are connected in the only  way people can be in that city. Dirk sees his best friend killed in a desert car  wreck, then rifles through his pockets for a last joint before the ambulance comes.  Cheryl, a wannabe newscaster, chides her future stepdaughter, “You're tan but you  don't look happy.” Jamie is a clubland carnivore with a taste for human blood. As  rendered by Ellis, their interactions compose a chilling, fascinating, and outrageous  descent into the abyss beneath L.A.'s gorgeous surfaces.