Crime week. Day 3. Hard-boiled Americana...

James Ellroy is madder than a sackful of cats and scary to boot. But his books are brilliant, dense, dark and dangerous. And he's brilliantly watchable too. However, trying to find a clip that was fit for us to post (nsfw) was a tough ask but we managed it.

So here's an expletive-free Ellroy from 2009 talking to the BBC's Culture Show. Ellroy's autobiographical book, The Hilliker Curse is fresh out in paperback.