Excess is the rock on which Bret Easton Ellis built his house. The author's work is frequently adapted into film (American Psycho, The Rules of Attraction, Less Than Zero), each story usually dealing with a core demographic: rich, often blonde, and prone to extremes. The sex, wealth, drugs, and violence in Ellis' latest translation, The Informers, do not break pace--though beyond creating a simultaneously attractive and appalling portrait of early-'80s LA, it's unclear what, if anything is the message. by Marjorie Skinner