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Hollywood Death Trip cover art

Hollywood Death Trip

By: James Ellroy
Narrated by: James Ellroy
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  • Summary

  • From the Demon Dog of American literature comes James Ellroy’s Hollywood Death Trip. Dig into a quintet of highly stylized true crime that delves into some of the most notorious, unsolved, midcentury-Hollywood murders. Ellroy’s wicked baritone draws listeners into a series of hellacious crimes; beginning with the heartbreaking and gruesome murder of his own mother. Next, it’s the Karen Kupcinet Killing - her body, found strangled just days after JFK’s assassination. Beautiful Stephanie Gorman, a debutante killed by a stranger, made Los Angeles lock its doors at night. The series concludes with the salacious snuff of actor Sal Mineo, whose death is a fitting epigraph for a series set in “Hollyweird”. It’s a feast of death for Ellroy fans and true crime fanatics that will take your breath away.
    ©2022 Audio Up LLC (P)2022 Audio Up LLC
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Episodes
  • Trailer: Hollywood Death Trip

    Trailer: Hollywood Death Trip
    Jul 7 2022
    Available on July 7th James Ellroy’s Hollywood Death Trip is a highly stylized true crime series that examines five notorious, unsolved, midcentury-Hollywood murders. In gruesome and heartbreaking fashion, the series starts with Ellroy examining his own mother’s murder. Next, it’s the Karen Kupicnet Killing, followed by Stephanie Gorman, and many more. Concluding with Sal Mineo’s 1976 murder.
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    Less than 1 minute
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  • Episode 1: My Mother's Murder

    Episode 1: My Mother's Murder
    Jul 7 2022
    James Ellroy enlists the help of the LA County Sheriff’s Cold Case squad to reinvestigate the 1958 murder of his mother, Geneva Hilliker Ellroy.
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    37 mins
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  • Episode 2: Glamour Jungle Part #1

    Episode 2: Glamour Jungle Part #1
    Jul 7 2022
    Karyn Kupcinet popped pills and danced in the nude. Her boyfriend was a primetime star, who may or may not have strangled her to death. It's Hollyweird at its most brutal; a young actress cut down in the prime of her life. Only who did it, and why? Ellroy picks up the trail with the help of the LAPD’s Cold Case Squad.
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    45 mins
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True Crime
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What listeners say about Hollywood Death Trip

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for ines garcia pena

Audio mix problematic

The sound design, effects, folley etc was too loud. Very distracting. Feel it must have been intentional but they weighed it too heavily for my tastes. Ellroy's throat sweet was neither here nor there, his drawn, unique delivery engages those of us who dig it.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Amazon Customer

A great way of presenting Ellroy but some boring cases

Where’s the Audible exclusive American Tabloid audio drama? It was supposed to be released 16th November 2023 and it’s nowhere to be seen on audible UK! The US website for audible says ‘not available in your country/region.’
Is this this only going to be available to US listeners despite audible having already released Hollywood death trip over here in 2022? This is a shocking way to treat your customers!! Bad juju heading your way.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Patricia Leathley

Lascivious and sensational

If you dig Ellroy’s hepcat slang and jazzy literary riffs, this podcast will not disappoint. I can only hope that there will be more!!!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Profile Image for dinodog

If you like true crime film noir style...

This is the author of L.A Confidential! If you enjoy Raymond Chandler novels and gritty true crime podcasts, you will really enjoy this. He does a really good job of transporting you to downtown L.A and all its seediness. I really thought they were great. perfect to listen to late at night with a glass of Jack Daniels.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for L P

I thought I'd love this, but I really didn't

The issue I had was with the narration, I found it hard to listen to. No doubt there is energy in the delivery, but maybe too much energy to listen to easily and the sounds in the background are so annoying. I honesty thought someone was cleaning a window near me until I realised it was low quality clips of women screaming.

With so many other true crime podcasts out there I'd not return to this one.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Profile Image for Steve Sweden

Accidentally hilarious!

The overuse of stock sound effects for EVERYTHING is accidentally hilarious. Also every time they find a dead girl you get a stock scream like an episode of ghost investigators. Its kind of amazing and terrible.

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Sarah Mcloughlin

Not good.

I couldn’t get through this. The background music is so distracting, and surprisingly upbeat considering the subject matter - I kept expecting the story to turn into a farce or a comedy, to reveal itself to be fiction after all. But it’s not, this is about real cases of murdered and tortured women, including the author’s own mother. There are sound bites of a woman screaming as he’s describing how his mother was murdered, over the top of the jazzy music. It’s in really bad taste.
It could have been really interesting - a man seeing the police file for his mother’s, still unsolved, murder and coming to terms with how this event has shaped his life and career. But the way it’s presented is just bizarre, there’s no empathy at all. It made me feel quite uncomfortable.

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Profile Image for Amazon Customer

Noisy

Stopped at episode 3 because of performance and busy background. I like true crime stories and non- conventional story telling, but not in this case.



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boring

did 2 and a half episodes, boring and monotonous at best. Step into my office cos you're fired !

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Profile Image for Bill

Yawn, narrator's voice is so mundane.

this may be a good story but can't listen to another episode due to the narrator.

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