FICTION

L. A. CONFIDENTIAL by James Ellroy (Mysterious Press: $5.99). Town’s underside in the ‘50s, led by three bad cops--in Ellroy’s characteristic telegraphic style.

CAPTIVE SECRETS by Fern Michaels (Ballantine: $5.95). A she-pirate sails the seas to catch another posing as her mother’s daughter.

TITMUSS REGAINED by John Mortimer (Penguin: $8.95). Contemporary conflicts of British society experienced through a working-class boy who manuevers himself into the position of Squire of Rapstone Manor.

NEWER YORK, edited by Lawrence Watt-Evans (ROC: $4.50). Hard-core science-fiction writers envision what life will be like in the 21st-Century Big Apple.

NONFICTION

CROONING: A Collection by John Gregory Dunne (Touchstone: $9.95). High notes of this versatile writer’s magazine pieces.

DEADLY MASQUERADE by Richard T. Pienciak (Signet: $5.50). The Pikul family had it all--affluence, community standing and decorum--and so does the story of their fall: drugs, cross-dressing and murder.

THE SEVEN SISTERS by Anthony Sampson (Bantam: $5.99). History of the oil companies whose underground cache ensures global influence.

CONVERSATIONS WITH MOCTEZUMA: The Soul of Modern Mexico by Dick J. Reavis (Quill: $12). History of Mexico’s eternal internal battle, between the haves and have-nots, between the desire to preserve its culture and the need to compete in the technological arena.