LA Confidential - pretty damn good, pretty amazing
Since I saw this title in the movie thread, I remembered that I'd wanted to read it. (I'd previously read The Black Dahlia and thought it was surprisingly good.) It's been a long time since I've seen the movie. And I'm not trying to rate them against each other. But, holy crap, the book is like 100 times more deep and complicated. The writing is pretty strong. Has some artistic merit. Probably a must read if you're into crime novels.