Books by Author Steven Powell

Steven Powell, 2023

This is the first and, to date , only full-length and authorised biography of James Ellroy, one of the most fascinating and compelling American authors of crime and historical fiction. I spent hundreds of hours talking to Ellroy and conducted dozens of interviews with his friends, associates, ex-partners, family, and fellow novelists. Through this exhaustive biographical method, I was able to shed new light on many mysteries from Ellroy’s past, including the identity of his mother Jean Ellroy’s first husband and new information on Jean’s unsolved murder. The book is a compelling portrait of a controversial and visceral author.

James Ellroy, 2012

James Ellroy is one of the most renowned literary figures today. He achieved not just through his body of work but by going out into the world, talking in bookstores, meeting the public and giving countless interviews. Conversations with James Ellroy covers interviews Ellroy gave from 1984 to 2010, including several I conducted. I wanted to give the reader a glimpse into how Ellroy created and honed his Demon Dog of Crime Fiction literary person over the decades.

S. Powell, 2012

Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Patricia Highsmith – there are so many legendary names in the field of American crime fiction that it’s difficult to know where to begin or end. But with 100 American Crime Writers, my team of contributors and I try to put crime fiction in the context of the history, politics, and literary developments of the twentieth and twenty-first century by telling the life story of one hundred authors who have made a massive contribution to the genre.