The Enchanters; The Case of the Fan Dancer's Horse

 

James Ellroy's latest was, of course, brilliant beyond words. I love Freddy Otash, the anti-hero. I know I'm not supposed to like him. He's a sleeze and admits it, but goddamn if the man doesn't have style. 

It's the summer of 1962 and Marilyn Monroe is found dead. Bobby Kennedy wants Freddy to suppress any burgeoning rumors that his brother John or himself had anything to do with her death. Also, he wants him to get dirt on Jimmy Hoffa, the Teamsters' leader who is causing some trouble for the Kennedy brothers. 

This one was easier for me to follow than some of Ellroy's other books. I think I was paying closer attention. I doubt I've gotten smarter 😁

This one felt really familiar, and I'm not sure if I read it a long time ago or if it's because I've seen the episode of the TV show based on this book and they actually stuck pretty close to Gardner's story (not usually the case with a lot of the show). 

Perry and Della were returning from Mexico (I think...the book doesn't make it really clear. Maybe there was a case in Mexico in the book preceding it? I don't really remember. At any rate...) when they witness a car sideswipe another car and keep going. They stop to help out the elderly woman in the car that got overturned, but she doesn't speak English. Luckily another motorist who speaks Spanish comes along and offers to take the woman to the hospital to get checked out. Perry and Della search the car to make sure nothing valuable gets stolen and they find a pair of ostrich fans and dancing slippers--a fan dancer's stage costume. They take them and Perry puts an ad in the paper, saying he has the fan dancer's property and will return it if someone can describe it. The fan dancer, Lois Fenton, sees the ad and thinks Perry has found her missing horse. Intrigued, Perry gets embroiled in a case involving two fan dancer's of similar build who are arguing over use of the name "Lois Fenton". When the original Lois Fenton's husband is found murdered, there's a lot of confusion over which Lois Fenton visited his hotel room and at precisely what time. I enjoyed this one a lot, it was fun. Perry was still really mean to Paul, though.