YMMV / Perfidia

• Badass Decay: Dudley Smith is far from the unflappable, Crazy-Prepared villain he was in the first LA Quartet, actually slipping up in his plots and very much at risk of hits; granted, these books are set much earlier so he might grow into it yet.
• Complete Monster (includes L.A. Confidential): Pierce Morehouse Patchett uses his public persona as an eccentric, successful businessman to mask his crimes, covering up a series of murders of children by the insane son of a media mogul. Patchett later allows for Japanese attacks during World War II, including Pearl Harbor, and even engineers more, so the festering prejudice will allow him to purchase Japanese-American owned properties cheap. With his Fleur-de-Lis prostitution ring, Patchett pimps to wealthy associates, even having young boys and girls pose in sexual photos for his depraved clients. Patchett also uses his background in chemistry to modify heroin and create more potent batches to flood the streets and even modifies some doses to have his partner overcome police truth serum. Batches of his new concoctions are tested on one of his runners, and when the man fails to kill an investigating police officer, Patchett tortures him by injecting him with a series of bad strains.