The Black Dahlia

Rating:
Summary: Perhaps the best modern crime novel written
Review: Ellroy's Dahlia-opus is the place to start in the jungle of modern hard hittting US-crime literature. Lending smal bits from many an old master (Ross MacDonald in peticular) Ellroy sets at fast pace and gives the reader fantastic inside knowledge of his characters. But - more importantly - he characterizes a society going down the gutter, a society where all good deeds are signs of weakness. A good plot - of course - help out in getting the "10" rating. Along with "The Big Nowhere" perhaps the best modern crime novel you will find. Just to bad Ellroy goes psycho in the rest of the "L.A. Quartet".

Rating:
Summary: Will knock your breath out.
Review: This is about as hard-hitting as a novel gets. Ellroy has the ability to punctuate every third page with blood, guts, and sex. He doesn't leave a lot of room for introspection, but who cares? The characters are finely drawn, the plot is interesting and fast-paced, and he's nailed the period and place (in this case, 1940's Los Angeles) COLD. Ellroy is one of the best writers in America and I'm looking forward to his follow-up to "American Tabloid", another excellent book

Rating:
Summary: The most engaging book I've read in 5 years.
Review: I'd never heard of James Ellroy until a friend gave me his copy of "The Black Dahlia" and said, "Read this, and then you can thank me." To be honest, this was also my first time reading crime fiction. But I gave it a chance, and when I finished I thanked my friend. About 50 times. The story is based on a real case in the 1940's, the gruesome murder of a young woman/Hollywood wannabe. At the center of the investigation are two policemen, both obsessed with the case for personal reasons. The mystery of who killed her unravels so intelligently, the dialogue is so sharp, and the setting so noirish, that I found myself reading the book very slowly--not because it's difficult, but because I did not want it to end. Well, of course it ended, but not before some very fun surprises. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I found something clever, juicy or funny on every page.

Rating:
Summary: Steamy thriller in 50's Hollywood
Review: A great mystery/thriller book that springboards from the real life unsolved (at the time the book was written) murder of a beautiful young woman in 50's in Los Angeles. This is one of those books where every character you meet has a secret history and less than noble motives. The book drips in the atmosphere of the period and you find yourself getting sucked into another world. There's tons of sex, lies and murder to keep you eagerly turning pages.

Rating:
Summary: The most engaging book I've read in 5 years.
Review: I'd never heard of James Ellroy untila friend gave me his copy of "The Black Dahlia" and said, "Read this, and then you can thank me." To be honest, this was also my first time reading crime fiction. But I gave it a chance, and when I finished I thanked my friend. About 50 times. The story is based on a real case in the 1940's, the gruesome murder of a young woman/Hollywood wannabe. At the center of the investigation are two policemen, both obsessed with the case for personal reasons. The mystery of who killed her unravels so intelligently, the dialogue is so sharp, and the setting so noirish, that I found myself reading the book very slowly--not because it's difficult, but because I did not want it to end. Well, of course it ended, but not before some very fun surprises. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I found something clever, juicy or funny on every page.

Rating:
Summary: Fictiously solved notorious murder
Review: James Ellroy's "Black Dahlia" is a fictious account of an infamous unsolved Los Angeles murder in 1947. Ellroy's novel reads like a literary confluence of the excellent period piece movies "Chinatown" and "L.A. Confidential". All three reveal the seamy, sleezy underbelly of Hollywood in the 40's.

The narrator of the story in Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert, an L.A.P.D. detective formerly a light heavyweight boxer of some note. Bucky is partnered with Sgt. Lee Blanchard also a highly regarded ex-boxer. Blanchard, with a short fused temper, we learn has some deep dark secrets. The partners make a formidable crime fighting team and also happen to be enamored with the same gal, Kay.

Bleichert and Blanchard are rising stars in the department when the city explodes over the murder of Elizabeth Short. Short, coined as the Black Dahlia is a beautiful and vampish would be ruby lipped starlet garbed exclusively in black with jet black hair. Her body is found in a vacant lot, sawed in half and apparently subjected to physical and sexual abuse. All other investigations conducted by the L.A.P.D. are put on hold. Every available man is endeavoring to hunt down the Black Dahlia's murderer. Bleichert and Blanchard are both obsessed with solving the crime

Ellroy directs us through Bleichert's detailed investigation which uncovers police criminality, sexual depravity and deviant behavior by both criminal and law enforcement officials. He creates a variety of colorful and flawed characters that seem realistic in the topsy turvy world of Hollywood in the 40's. While the actual crime is still officially unsolved, Ellroy fingers fictious subjects as the possible killers.

Rating:
Summary: My first Ellroy
Review: And "WOW" is the first word that comes to mind. I had heard of the Black Dahlia murder a long time ago, but had never read any of Ellroy's novels. I happened to be flipping around the tube and saw a cable special about the notorious murder and although I missed the first half, I become engrossed. A little futher research online brought the name 'James Ellroy' to my attention. I then read the reviews of his book 'The Black Dahlia' and decided then and there that I had to read it. I have read a couple of Hammett's books, and one of my favorite movies of all time is 'Millers Crossing', so stories with the 'slang of the day' language was something that I enjoyed. But this book is much more than that. It is a ride back in time and a look at the evil people do. With the exception of the actual murder, the book is entirely fictional which makes Ellroy's ability to conjure up the twisted tale around the real crime all the more impressive. In my busy life I was reading little bits here and there, ever anxious to get back to 'the case' whenever I could. After a few days (and late nights) I finished this book and could only smile in delight at what was my discovery of Mr. Ellroy's writting. A happy uplifting book? Hell no. Yet it is a page turning journey with characters and places so real you can smell 'em, and although it's not roses that comes to mind it is an aroma that makes you want to take several whiffs until it becomes perversly satisfying. I couldn't imagine reading another Hammett now (at least until I've read more Ellroy first), that would be like going back to a 28.8 modem from a cable. In short, you get a lot more out of an Ellroy, sorry Mr. Hammett (R.I.P.) but the times have changed and so has Crime Noir, curtosy of James E.

Next up for me, 'The Big Nowhere'

Rating:
Summary: one of the best crime books ever
Review: Think of this book as Raymond Chandler meets Hieronymus Bosch. Along with Big Nowhere, this is my favorite crime/mystery book ever.

Rating:
Summary: Flawed, but readable.
Review: James Ellroy's breakout 1987 novel, THE BLACK DAHLIA, is the literary equivalent of a stylish, powerful car on a closed track: it moves quickly, looks great, but never gets anywhere. More's the pity, because if there's a real-life murder with enough murky underpinning to fuel a terrific novel, it's this one.

It's America's most notorious unsolved murder: the torture and mutilation death in 1947 of Hollywood starlet-wannabe Elizabeth Short. Left naked and severed into two halves in a vacant lot, the so-called "Black Dahlia" was the center of Los Angeles' world for two months, as over a hundred policemen tried their damnedest to catch her killer. Ellroy inserts boxer-turned-cop Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert into the middle of this true crime story. As he did in 1982 with CLANDESTINE, a novel that fictionalized his mother's murder when he was 10 years old, Ellroy does what the police couldn't do: he serves up a resolution.

"Solving" real murders in fiction is makes for great reading when done correctly. Alan Moore's FROM HELL is a terrific example of how to dip into meticulous research and emerge from the welter of conflicting theories and half-formed clues with a thrilling tale that seems as authentic as the crime itself. Ellroy's problem is that he can't seem to focus on the task at hand, and THE BLACK DAHLIA suffers for it.

It's 100 pages before Elizabeth Short's body is found, with the space taken up introducing Bleichert and his partner (also an ex-boxer), Lee Blanchard. We learn all about Bucky's boxing career, get a detour into postwar-'40s race rioting, LA-style, and a charity boxing match where Bucky and Lee smash the hell out of each other. It's all done well, but one can't help but ask: what about the Dahlia?

Once the mutilated corpse turns up, the book takes off, but the ride isn't altogether smooth. Ellroy has pet themes concerning sexual deviation and seems to hold a belief that all people are corrupt on the inside, each one holding dark secrets of the heart. To illustrate these themes, Ellroy introduces a flood of subplots. If a character has a name and turns up more than once, chances are he or she has a little cul-de-sac of story, too. Time and again the reader is dragged away from the main plot to explore these nooks, which often go nowhere.

About halfway through THE BLACK DAHLIA, the novel begins to fall apart. Characters vanish and/or dispensed with half-heartedly. The events around Short's murder get murkier and murkier, but for all that goes on, there aren't enough solid clues provided to make for a satisfying resolution. Yes, the end gives us the solution to the key mystery, but Ellroy was so busy earlier in the book revving his engine that the answer to Bucky's investigation drops out of the clear blue sky. The last 50 or so pages consist primarily of one character after another spewing gobs of exposition in an attempt to make up for what's missing from the rest of the novel. It doesn't work.

What makes THE BLACK DAHLIA even sadder is everything Ellroy does right. His characters are well drawn and compelling, even when (or perhaps most of all) they do terrible things. We feel for them, and we feel for poor, butchered Elizabeth Short. If only Ellroy's craft had been such that he could have done the novel's structure justice.

Rating:
Summary: super!
Review: Very good book. Based on true story. The mystery is there, the writing taut, the dialogue & characters believable. Really worth the time. A classic in the genre.