(photo: Marion Ettlinger)

Tom Lutz talks to James Ellroy in Victor's Deli, about his career, his persona, and his new Byliner e-pub, Shakedown, a novella featuring Fred Otash, real life vice cop, private eye, scandal monger, and shakedown artist, and a character in Ellroy's American Tabloid, Blood's a Rover, The Cold Six Thousand, and L.A. Confidential.