James Ellroy is one of the great American authors of the last 50 years, and yet, it is easy to dismiss his literary achievement. If you were to pick up his latest novel, Red Sheet, and turn to a random page, you’re likely to encounter such terse fragments as, “It was a sex-slash job. Cuts, mutilations, slashed throats.” Unfamiliar readers might think they’re dealing with just another hard-boiled crime writer, but Ellroy is decidedly more than that.