The Los Angeles crime novelist, whose new book is “This Storm,” is no fan of Cormac McCarthy’s work: “McCarthy fails to employ quotation marks. Neither did William Faulkner, another cat I don’t dig.”

What books are on your nightstand?

The Bible, “Prayer,” by Pastor Timothy Keller, and — of late — one of the groovy Israeli hit man novels by Daniel Silva. Silva’s a gas. He’s Robert Ludlum for the new millennium.

What’s the last great novel you read?

“Compulsion,” the 1956 novel by Meyer Levin. I’ve read it six or seven times, over the years. It’s the story of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, and their vile and idiotic “thrill killing” of Bobby Franks. Man, what a great period novel! Man, what a great depiction of 1924 Chicago! Man, what a great portrayal of two world-class psychopaths!

What books would you recommend to someone who wants to know more about Los Angeles?

Why mince words? My own novels, chiefly “The Black Dahlia,” “Perfidia” and my new book, “This Storm.” “Buy or die” — that’s my directive, issued to readers worldwide. Beyond yours truly, I would point readers to John Gregory Dunne’s 1977 classic, “True Confessions.” It’s the first novelized treatment of the hellish 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short, a.k.a. “The Black Dahlia.” The language is explosive. It’s a pulsating potpourri of racial invective, flamboyant street talk, cop rebop, and the wiiiiiiild American idiom at its most profane. “True Confessions” greatly influenced my current series of wartime Los Angeles books.