Catholicism and murder propel this novel based on the real-life Black Dahlia slaying in 1947. “True Confessions” by John Gregory Dunne. Chandler will always be the linchpin of L.A.

“It’s an almost perfect fusion of voice and story - funny, mean, tragic. “I read this novel every five years or so and it surprises me in new ways every time,” said crime novelist T. Tinged with sadness and loss, it is one of Chandler’s most personal novels, inspiring a 1973 film of the same name directed by Robert Altman. Marlowe’s back again in a dangerous friendship with hard drinker Terry Lennox. Marlowe, enshrined in film by Humphrey Bogart, became so much a part of Chandler’s imagination that the author once noted: “It begins to look as though I were tied to this fellow for life.” A classic mystery of blackmail and murder, this novel gave the world Philip Marlowe, the hard-boiled, quick-witted, proud, ever-suspicious private eye.

The list has familiar names and some not so, but the books have left a mark, a fingerprint, if you will, on a crime genre that since the days of Raymond Chandler has become distinctive and at times revelatory. The collection was compiled with help from writers, readers, critics and local booksellers. But the canon, which includes two nonfiction books, is a starting point for a conversation on crime writing and how it has informed a city driven by myth, desire and the cruel realities between. The stories vary in tone, style and subject. In the spirit of exploring crime novels set in and around Los Angeles, a city where noir is instinctive and eerily resplendent, here are 20 essential books that rouse the darker angels of our metropolis.

A funny book about horrible things