Royal Scandal, Hollywood Crime, Nail Salon Drama: Pajiba October 2025 Book Recommendations Superpost

Royal Scandal, Hollywood Crime, Nail Salon Drama: Pajiba October 2025 Book Recommendations

What Books Are You Reading This Month?

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.

“What’s that? Kayleigh read another James Ellroy book? Well, I for one am shocked to hear that.”

Yes, Ellroy has been my main literary obsession in 2025, and I don’t plan to stop anytime soon. The dark master of crime fiction is too captivating to abandon, even if he is a genuine eccentric. Widespread Panic is surprisingly short by Ellroy’s usual standards—my edition is a brisk 336 pages—but it’s definitely packed with detail.

The protagonist is Freddy Otash, a familiar figure from Ellroy’s Underworld USA series and an intriguing character in Hollywood’s history. Otash was a former LAPD officer turned private investigator, notorious as a fixer and investigator for the tabloid magazine Confidential. If you needed a mess cleaned up or stirred, Otash was the man to call.

Notably, Otash was hired by Peter Lawford to investigate Marilyn Monroe, sparking decades of conspiracy theories about her links to JFK.
Widespread Panic explores Otash’s gritty work in early 1950s Hollywood, mingling with and sometimes fighting the city’s elites.

This book stands out from Ellroy’s previous works for its unexpected dive into the speculative. Otash narrates the story from purgatory, delivering an unfiltered monologue of his life and crimes to what he hopes is a 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’s 2025 Ellroy pick is a sharp, vivid dive into Hollywood’s dark past told by a uniquely notorious fixer, blending crime fiction with speculative narration.

Pajiba — 2025-11-04