James Ellroy's American Tabloid

A Full Cast Audio Drama

By: James Ellroy

Narrated by: Brian Cox, Alessandro Nivola, Maya Hawke, Shea Whigham, Elliott Gould, Bobby Cannavale, full cast

Please note: This content is for mature audiences only. It contains adult language and themes. Discretion is advised.

In 1995, James Ellroy’s novel American Tabloid shocked the world with its gritty reimagining of the events leading up to the JFK assassination. Now, an all-star cast brings Ellroy’s masterwork to life in this gripping new audio adaptation.

Hollywood luminaries including Brian Cox (Succession), Alessandro Nivola (The Many Saints of Newark), Elliott Gould (Ocean’s Eleven), Maya Hawke (Stranger Things), Bobby Cannavale (The Irishman), Shea Whigham (Boardwalk Empire), Giovani Ribisi (Lucky Pete) and Matt Dillon (There’s Something About Mary) lend their talents to this salacious thriller narrated by Ellroy himself.

The high-low tale tracks the machinations of real power brokers, like Jimmy Hoffa, John F. and Bobby Kennedy, and J. Edgar Hoover, as well as the fictionalized footmen who did their dirty work behind the scenes. Weaving true events into his sordid story, Ellroy creates a portrait of midcentury America that’s as recognizable as it is shocking.

Take a trip beyond the gloss of the Kennedy presidency into the backroom deals and unsavory characters that really made things happen. Follow along with characters like Big Pete Bondurant, a violent associate of both Howard Hughes and Jimmy Hoffa who will go to any lengths to insulate his employers from repercussions, and Kemper Boyd, an FBI agent tasked with going undercover in the Kennedy political operation.

Ellroy invites a whole new generation to leave their historical preconceptions at the door—to lift up the rock and see what’s living underneath.

Available in Dolby Atmos on Audible.

©2023 Audio Up, Inc. (P)2023 Audible Originals, LLC.

Loved the performance/production

Great production that hopefully reflects Ellroy's vision. Or he's doing it for the money. Anyway enjoyed the actors and this format.

A great novel and a unique audio production

James Ellroy’s complex noir epics are incomparable, and this one is arguably his masterpiece.

This audio production features superb voice performances by a big cast of actors, plus a sprinkling of sound effects to help bring things to life.

The tricky bit is Ellroy himself reading the narration. Once I got into it, I came to love his noir growl and idiosyncratic cadences, but I understand why many reviews don’t take to it. Check out the sample and keep in mind that you are hearing the man himself.

Great Adaptation of a Classic

American Tabloid is an American classic. This classic “radio play” style adaptation makes it pop through your headphones. Any Ellroy fan should run, not walk, to listen - and when you’re done send a thank you to Jimmy Jellinek for making it happen.

"America Was Never Innocent"

The Audible Original production of "American Tabloid" takes an already enthralling novel and turns it into an audio-drama that plunges the listener into a world of intrigue, deceit, and labyrinthine schemes. The dialogue crackles, the story grabs you by the throat and never lets go, and the performances (with one VERY notable exception) are pitch-perfect from top to bottom. In "American Tabloid", Ellroy shows us America as a powderkeg waiting for a spark to ignite it and immolate the world with it. An insidious and pernicious CIA has its tentacles in every strata of society, a communist country lies 50 miles off America's shores, the mafia is at the height of it's influence, and the Kennedy family has its hands on the reins of power. It's a world where alliances are made with villains, plans within plans have the diremost consequences, and absolutely nobody is innocent. Of all the Ellroy novels that Audible could've adapted, I'm glad they chose "American Tabloid".
That said, there is one caveat: the narrator, James Ellroy himself, is so baffilingly unsuited to read his own material. I've never heard an author who has such an off-putting take on his own prose. It's guttural, harsh, and so strangely read it's almost comical. A story this taut, tense, and engrossing really needed a better narrator to articulate it. Caveat aside, the rest of the performances, to a one, are perfectly delivered. Audible scrounged up a "Murderer's Row" of talent to perform the dialogue and each and every actor has a surprising grasp on their respective characters and personalities. Particular acclaim should go to Allesandro Nivola, William Forsythe, and Shea Whigham as the leads. The stellar cast, immersive sound-design, tightly-paced and exquisitely written story all serve to deliver an utterly addicting Cold War pot-boiler that simmers from word one and builds and builds until its explosive conclusion...

And I could NOT stop listening.

If you enjoyed James Ellroy's "American Tabloid" as much as I did and are looking for similar titles please check out Ellroy's other works like "L.A. Confidential", "The Black Dahlia", and "The Enchanters". I also can't recommend Don Dellilo's "Libra" enough, as well as "Winter Kills" by Richard Condon.

Highly recommend

This is a great story line with the cast, Brain Cox did a fascinating job reading this. And with his voice and the way he read it and the music and sound affects made you think you were actually in that era. it was wild on on the different spin of the story. i loved this book.

A fantastic performance.

An already amazing book from James Ellroy really comes alive with the actors and performances.

Terrific, except for the narrator.

This is full-cast production, and most of the voice actors are quite good.
However, the primary voice—that of the narrator—sounds as if someone had asked an AI generator to create the snidest, most sarcastic adolescent monotone it had, and then used it throughout the book,

This book is about infighting among FBI and CIA agents in the 1950s and early 60s, and contains several scenes of disturbingly imaginative violence. Hearing murders and mutilations described by what sounds like an autistic teenager attempting to be

Great performances

Loved it. Wish they did the rest of the USA Trilogy like this. Wish they did all his books like this.

Wild Gonzo Crime Drama

The best thing I have listened to this year, this dramatized hard boiled crime novel has unparalleled dramatic sweep and intensity. While it ends abruptly I hope they do a second installment, voiced by an ensemble cast of fantastic character actors.

Everything amazing

I can’t find a downside to this. I’ve listened to original book 3x and this performance really brings it to life. Forgot how crazy things were back in 50s 60s US and if Elroy even 50% accurate w his crystal ball of history, I’m sure glad I wasn’t around back then. Such a well written and performed masterpiece