Royal Scandal, Hollywood Crime, Nail Salon Drama: Pajiba October 2025 Book Recommendations Superpost
What books are you reading this month?
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Books | November 3, 2025
Widespread Panic by James Ellroy
What is everyone reading right now? I’m back on the James Ellroy train.
Yes, Ellroy has been my literary obsession of 2025, and I don’t plan on stopping. The dark master of crime fiction is too intriguing to quit, even if he is quite eccentric. Widespread Panic is surprisingly short for Ellroy—my edition is just 336 pages—but it remains rich in detail.
The protagonist, Freddy Otash, is a recurring character from Ellroy’s Underworld USA series and a captivating figure in Hollywood history. Otash was a former LAPD officer turned private investigator, notorious for working as a fixer and researcher for the tabloid Confidential. If trouble needed handling, Otash was the man to call. Most famously, he was hired by Peter Lawford to investigate Marilyn Monroe, sparking decades of theories about her ties to JFK.
Widespread Panic follows Otash’s shady exploits in early 1950s Hollywood, as he mingles with and confronts some of Tinseltown’s biggest names.
This book stands out from previous Ellroy works by taking an unexpected turn into the speculative. Otash narrates the story from purgatory, delivering an unfiltered monologue of his life and crimes to a hopefully forgiving higher power.
“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: Kayleigh Donaldson immerses readers in Ellroy's gritty Hollywood noir with a unique afterlife perspective, blending true crime with speculative storytelling.