Royal Scandal, Hollywood Crime, Nail Salon Drama: Pajiba October 2025 Book Recommendations Superpost
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Books | November 3, 2025
Widespread Panic by James Ellroy
What is everyone reading this month? I'm back on the James Ellroy train.
Yes, Ellroy has been my main literary obsession in 2025, and I don’t plan to stop anytime soon. Known as the demon dog of crime fiction, Ellroy’s work is too compelling for me to abandon, despite his eccentric reputation.
Widespread Panic is surprisingly short by Ellroy's standards—my edition clocks in at a brisk 336 pages—but it is rich in detail. The protagonist is Freddy Otash, a recognizable character from Ellroy’s Underworld USA series, and a fascinating figure in Hollywood’s history.
Otash was a former LAPD officer and private investigator, infamous as a fixer and researcher for the tabloid magazine Confidential. If you needed a scandal covered up or stirred up, Otash was the man to call. Most notably, he was hired by Peter Lawford to investigate Marilyn Monroe, which sparked decades of conspiracy theories about her connection to JFK.
Widespread Panic chronicles Otash’s shady operations in early 1950s Hollywood, where he mingled with and sometimes physically confronted the stars of Tinseltown.
This book stands out from prior Ellroy works by taking an unexpected speculative turn: Otash narrates his story from purgatory, delivering an unfiltered monologue of his life and crimes to a higher power, hoping 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 reimagines a notorious Hollywood fixer’s life in a gripping blend of crime history and speculative storytelling, told from beyond the grave.