First published in 1986 and considerably shorter than the typical James Ellroy novel, Killer On The Road takes the form of the memoirs of Martin Plunkett, a child genius who grew up to be a prolific serial killer.

The book starts with Plunkett already serving a life sentence at Sing Sing.  He’s a killer who is now off the road and his memoirs are less about his plans and more about his own struggle to understand how he became the killer that he became.  There are plenty of possible explanations, going all the way back to his dysfunctional childhood and the trauma of his parent’s divorce.  He may be brilliant but he spends all of his time wishing that he could turn invisible like a comic book character and spy on people in their homes.  He comes to idolize Charles Manson but is disappointed when, while in prison, he meets the actual Manson and discovers that he’s just a rambling loser.  The book is written in Plunkett’s own words and, in typical sociopath fashion, he thinks very highly of himself but careful readers will look between the lines and see someone who is just as confused by what he became as everyone else.  For all of his intelligence and his nonstop speculation about the human condition, Plunkett ultimately seems like an empty vessel.  Plunkett’s years on the road are full of unexpected detours.  A meeting with a cop definitely do not go the way that anyone would probably expect it to go.  Even though the story is narrated Plunkett, people like FBI agent Dusenberg come across as fully developed characters as well.

It’s a disturbing and sad but compulsively readable book.  It may have been written before Ellroy developed his signature style but it stills shows his strengths as a storyteller.  Interestingly enough, Ellroy later stated in My Dark Places that he based Martin Plunkett’s dysfunctional youth on his own, which definitely leaves one happy that James Ellroy discovered writing as an outlet for his emotions.  Unlike Martin Plunkett, James Ellroy went on to become one of the best writers of our current era.