Los Angeles is the birthplace of noir. Maybe it's the overwhelming shadow cast by Hollywood, the blur of artifice and reality, the possibility of shucking off the past like last year's dress and reinventing yoursefl beyond your wildest dreams. Maybe it's the desperation that descends when the dream goes sour, the duplicity behind the beauty, the rot of jungle flowers. Writers like James Cain and Raymond Chandler understood the hope and horror of the City of Angels and used it to masterful effect - now, their ethos is filtered through a 21st century, multicultural lens.