Rating: 
Summary: Gritty, Graphic, Vividly Imagined Noir
Review: On January 15, 1947, the mutilated body of a beautiful young woman was found in a vacant lot at 39th and Norton in the City of Los Angeles. The woman was twenty-two year old Elizabeth Short, a femme fatale who had moved from Medford, Massachusetts to Southern California as a teenager and lived an itinerant and promiscuous life in post-World War II Hollywood. Her body had been cut in half at the waist and disemboweled. It also showed signs of extreme torture. It was a gruesome murder that caught the undivided attention of the Los Angeles press, particularly the Hearst papers, as well as that of the Los Angeles police and district attorney's office. Quickly dubbed the "Black Dahlia" murder, the real-life crime remains unsolved to this day and has been a fertile source of books and articles speculating on the perpetrator of this noirish horror."The Black Dahlia" is James Ellroy's fictional re-working of the story, a gritty, graphic and vividly imagined crime novel that marks Ellroy as the finest, and perhaps only, contemporary successor to Chandler, Hammett and Cain. "The Black Dahlia" is the first-person, hard-boiled narrative of Bucky Bleichert, a member of the LAPD Warrants Squad at the time of the Black Dahlia murder. Bleichert, and his partner, Lee Blanchard, are both former boxers. They also share the friendship and romantic attention of a young woman named Kay Lake, a woman with intellectual interests and a somewhat checkered past. From this starting point, Ellroy writes a fascinating, complex and cynical tale of how the fascination with the murdered Elizabeth Short-the Black Dahlia-marks the lives of all the books characters (and this book is bursting with characters and motives). Ellroy is brilliant in developing a wide range of realistic characters, in writing and successfully resolving a complex and extraordinarily imagined plot, and in depicting the corrupt and often self-serving underbelly of the LAPD and District Attorney's office in post-World War II Los Angeles. In a tone which suggests the subversive and conspiratorial elements of Don DeLillo's "Underworld", but written in the starker style of a noir novel, Ellroy uses the real-life story to show the manipulation and corruption that often belies what we read in the popular press and what lives on in the popular imagination. "The Black Dahlia" is not intended to be a factual accounting of the real-life murder. Rather, it is a fiction that brilliantly uses the real-life murder to develop a vivid (and at times gut-wrenchingly graphic) description of how the lurid fascination with the Black Dahlia became obsessive, fetishistic, in the lives of Ellroy's characters. If you're interested in noir, or even if you're interested in just plain good, hard-boiled crime novels, "The Black Dahlia" should be at the top of your reading list.
Rating:
Summary: In Memory of Elizabeth Short
Review: Back in the mid-1980's, The Black Dahlia was the first James Ellroy novel that I had ever read. I have since become a huge fan, reading everything he has written, including a personal account of his own mother's murder, My Dark Places. My admiration for Mr. Ellroy as an author is unparalleled. Nowhere is his genius for capturing the noir era/LAPD corruption/tarnished Tinseltown of Los Angeles more evident than in The Black Dahlia. This densely plotted tale expertly exposes the gritty, seamy side of post-war Los Angeles. He also writes it like an homage to its victim, Elizabeth Short, whose murderer is unknown to this day. She was the classic Hollywood victim. To his credit, Mr. Ellroy does not shy away from exposing the brutal hypocrisy of Hollywood in the 1940's and 1950's. Mr. Ellroy's books are not for the squeamish; his blunt, staccato-like dialogue can be somewhat off-putting. Anyone, however, interested in a writer who delivers a story packed with interesting characters and an intricate plot, The Black Dahlia - along with Mr. Ellroy's other novels - is the choice for you.
Rating:
Summary: The Rebirth of "The Black Dahlia"
Review: This was my first James Ellroy book, and it is now my favorite of all time. He ended it in a twist...that i did not see coming. The frustration that he brings out in Detective Bleichert, and his passion for Kay and Madeliene, and Elizabeth Short, are unexplainable. It's a classic!
Rating:
Summary: Sensational
Review: Having read and loved 'American tabloid' and 'LA Confidential' (the movie version was absolutely robbed at the Oscars - it was a far superior piece of film making than 'Titanic') I bought 'The Black Dahlia'. It has that familiar staccato, hit-em-between-the -eyes Ellroy style, but I found it had a little more going for it than 'LA Confidential' (don't get me wrong - I thought that book was fantastic). I think this is because it's a little easier to follow. I was glued to each page and just when I thought that I knew who the killer was there was a sting in the tail. As a study of the vileness of some human behaviour, I was left shaken. I found the story complex and believable - just like the characters. In Ellroy's writing there are no really good guys, just varying degrees of badness and corruption (perhaps we should exclude Russ millard here, but he was a relatively minor character). Ellroy seems to have captured what people really are like. The book is magical and transports you to post war LA as effectively as if it were a time machine. In the end it is a shattering, amazing and riveting study of psychosis, murder and lust. Read it!
Rating:
Summary: Gritty, tough, very intense.
Review: There I was you see, I walked into the book store, the whole place smelled like old moldy books. So I see this old broad behind the counter. Had a couple of miles on her, sort of like me. So I ask her, trying not to sound too stupid, "Do you have any Elway books?" She looked at me, smiled and said "who?". Elway, you know, wrote L.A.Confidential". She said "Oh, you mean Ellroy". She then walks over to the used paper back mystery section and said, "All I have by Ellroy is "The Black Dahlia". It's based on a murder that happened in L.A. a few years ago". So I picked my brain, thinking, " yeah I read something about this Ellroy guy in the newspaper a couple of years ago". So I buy the book, looks like it is on its last legs, pages are almost yellow and ready to fall out. I take the thing home, read the back cover, get an idea of the story and start to read it. Then after reading a few pages, I'm hooked. I'm turning page after page, my eyes feel like two hot burning coals. I'm sweating, my brain feels like it's been scooped out, slammed against the wall and it's oozing down like cauliflower mixed with vanilla yogurt. I feel like laying two raw pieces of pork chops alongside my head so I can cool off. I read this book in two days. My whole life came to a stop. Never did have a clue on how it would end; yeah there were little clues here and there, but my little pea-picking brain never picked them up. Now I says to myself, "this Ellroy guy can really write". Now I'm afraid to read any more of his books. I don't want my life to come to a stop again. I'm an old retired copper, read my share of mysterys in my day, but I've got stuff to do around the house, I can't just read all day. So be aware ! Be prepared when you read this book. It's gritty, it's tough, it makes most mystery thrillers read like Peter Pan. I'll keep this book forever...Very intense, not for the light hearted! Make sure that you are ready for this. It ain't like picking daisies or taking a walk in the park with fido. This is a knock down, drag out, real life thriller that will knock your socks off. Maybe someday in the middle of winter when it's raining baby elephants and I can't do anything else, I'll even think about reading another Ellroy book.I don't think that my heart can take it......
Rating:
Summary: Grizzly but Gripping
Review: Ellroy takes us to the dark depths of humanity. Shows us how ugly we can be as human beings: murderers whose only motive is that of deriving a sexual kick. His angle is purely that of the impartial observer and entreats us to take a similar view. This is all well and good until we get to the nastier bits about two thirds of the way into book. In spite of my not having a strong stomach, I just had to read on. I realised my position was no longer neutral but that of the voyeur rubbernecking at an extremely tragic episode at an albeit fictional life. Scary stuff but this book really does get you to address some very nasty issues.
Rating: 
Summary: darkness visible
Review: This is not the work of a healthy mind. That doesn't mean that it's not brilliant, but be aware and be careful before you embark. You will probably have to finish what you start, and it is ultimately un-pretty. It's not too far a stretch to guess that Ellroy's own obsession with his mother's murder is playing out here, and the torment is ugly, graphic and real. Yet, like all truly talented and disciplined artists, Ellroy is able to make of his ghastly obsession an artistic statement about a society, a place, a time. His ULTIMATE 'solution' to the crime is not completely believable, because what happened to Betty Short, the 'Black Dahlia' is clearly the product of a private, unconscious descent into a particularly vile form of madness that he unconvincingly puts off on a character who can't really support the behavoir. But the grotesque characters met on the way down ARE real, and their lust for cruelty, death and dead things convincingly connects to ancient dramas of torture, and the 20th Century horror of the World War that ushered in a Century of atrocities founding a mountain of crazy profiteering on a grand scale. One is enormously grateful for the presence of a single character, Russ Millard (known aptly as "the Padre") who serves as a reminder that decency in some form does carry on. Otherwise, the police, the builders of the Hollywood hills, the film industry, and all powers north and south of the border seem devoted to a particularly foul living out of viler imaginings than most of us, fortunately, entertain in even our worst nightmares. To be honest, I finished this novel inclined simply to pray for Ellroy, and other direct and indirect victims of sexual violence, and that we and all the other Betty Shorts of the world should be spared.
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Summary: Black and bleak Dahlia
Review: This was not a easy book to find, and once I got hold of it, I found it tough to read as well. In San Francisco I saw a photo exhibit of Los Angeles police photographers. Once of the star subjects from the 40s was Elizabeth Short, also know as the Black Dahlia. There were copies of her letters and other documents and I was hooked and had to know more. Ellroy's book was the next step. Unable to find it in SF, at least not in the four bookshops I visited, I finally located it in London. (This time I didn't try Amazon!) I wasn't disappointed but I was frustrated, only because I wanted to know more about Elizabeth Short but THE BLACK DAHLIA is really about police work in Los Angeles. The protagonist, an ex-boxer, also wants to know more about Elizabeth Short and the story involves his obsession with her and her murder, his relationship to his job, his pals and the people linked to Betty Short. Even his tough personality cannot withstand the hideous and twisted goings-on in the police force. The story swings out of control when all the characters start to link up so that Ellroy can tie up his story. He wraps up the Black Dahlia's murder with what I found to be a preposterous conclusion. Nevertheless, whether or not it's a good point, the description written by the murderer in a journal (the conceit being that murder isn't worth it unless it's recorded) is the most shocking account of murderous human suffering I have ever read. Toughness extends through every word: the metaphoric and staccoto cop language, the twists of character and desire, and the hard-hitting story depict a world in which there is little comfort and few resolutions of which none are happy.
Rating:
Summary: perverse, gruesome, memorable... and somewhat flawed
Review: 'Black Dahlia' is my first James Ellroy novel. Clearly the author wishes he was born 50 years earlier so he can live along side the likes of Raymond Chandler, James Cain and Dashiell Hammett ... the champions on 1940s 'noir' fiction. Being a fan of this genre I can say James Ellroy goes a long way in emulating his idols, but he falls somewhat sort of the mark. Oh, the story itself is a wonder. Loosely based on actual events, 'Black Dahlia' involves the horrific mutilation of a young woman and the perversely obsessed cop tracking down her killer. No spoilers here, but Ellroy does a great job in engaging the reader while throwing in some plot twists. And he does a commendable job on the characterizations. So what could be wrong? Well I had the feeling the author tried *too hard* to capture the essence of 1940s Los Angeles, especially concerning the lingo. Raymond Chandler-esque tough guy talk taken to, at times, an almost incomprehensible level. While it did take some getting used to I found this gratuitous verbage to be a distraction during the first third of the book ... enough to detract me from reading any more from James Ellroy. Yet to be fair I found the foul language to be far more realistic compared to the relatively sanitized dialogue found in books written from the period. Bottom line: certainly a bizarre, remarkable story. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: The Most Readable Elroy -- Haunting and Powerful
Review: Here is Elroy at his most readable -- as his later style grows more and more clipped and turgid -- this book shines more and more as bright shining point in his writing and in this genre as a whole. In this book there are characters that stimulate real emotional resonance on the part of the reader while setting up an Elroyian bombardment of dramatic and violent imagery. Suffice to say that this is a truly, truly, unforgettable and moving novel that will haunt you long after you've finished reading it.
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