Royal Scandal, Hollywood Crime, Nail Salon Drama: October 2025 Book Recommendations
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 fascination in 2025, and I don’t intend to stop anytime soon. The master of crime fiction is captivating, despite his eccentricities.
Widespread Panic is surprisingly short by Ellroy’s usual length—my edition spans 336 pages—but rich in detail. The protagonist, Freddy Otash, is a familiar character from Ellroy’s Underworld USA series and a notable figure in Hollywood history.
Otash, a former LAPD officer and private investigator, was infamous as a fixer and researcher for the tabloid Confidential. If you needed a scandal covered up or cooked up, Otash was the man to call.
- Notably, he was employed 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 murky activities in the early 1950s, detailing his interactions with Hollywood’s elite, sometimes involving violence.
This book diverges from earlier Ellroy works by introducing a speculative twist: Otash narrates from purgatory, delivering an unfiltered monologue about his life and misdeeds to a hope for forgiveness.
"Otash is narrating this story from purgatory, offering a no-holds-barred monologue of his life and crimes to a hopefully forgiving higher force."
Author’s summary: James Ellroy’s Widespread Panic reveals the dark underbelly of 1950s Hollywood through the eyes of Freddy Otash, blending crime, conspiracy, and a unique afterlife perspective.