Rating: 
Summary: Dark, Demented...Brilliant.
Review: In 1947 Elizabeth(Betty) Short, a 'budding actress' in the glitzy exclusive club that is Hollywood and Los Angeles was found brutally murdered in a back alley lot in Hollywood. Her murder remains to this very day a mystery, despite the sometimes wild and eerily logical conspiracy theories surrounding her death.Called "The Black Dahlia" for the black Dahlia flower she often wore in her hair and her morose mostly black clothing, Betty Short has grown into a mysterious figure of Urban Legends. James Ellory, an author who has experienced his own tragedy in his Mother's real life unsolved brutal murders uses "The Black Dahlia" as a representation of his is own dissatisfaction at the horrendous unsovled aspect of his Mother and her murder. This book in his notrious "L.A. Quartet" novels, those of which include his novel to screen, Oscar Award winning "L.A Confidential". This is the first in the series of novels following the development and early days of the L.A.P.D whilst painting a dark picture of Post-War, Post "Golden Age" Hollywood. The story follows two policemen partners and both former boxers, Bucky Bleichert and Lee Blanchard. Their pasts intertwined in being best friends, former rivals and both being in love with the same woman (Blanchard being married to the woman in question). When the two are assigned the Elizabeth Short case, both men are throw into rivalship again each of them developing an odd obessesion with the dead girl as they follow her footsteps from years before she even left for Hollywood to her very death. Ellory brilliantly displays both mens frightening obessesion with the dead woman, while still keeping them leveled as easy to connect to protagonists. In the novel Ellory focuses mostly on the Bucky character as we see him as a kind of avatar for the 'humanly flawed' yet ultimately good anti hero that has become a common face on both the 'noir' face of mystery and thriller novels and for the rough, realistic 'cop story' novels and movies. Though Ellory took creative liberty in the life of Elizabeth Short in her sometimes promiscuous life style, extending her famous sexual exploits far beyond the actual truth. However where as some authors would be critizied for such a sharp change in an important factor in a real life figure. Ellory manages to make this liberty work, still causing the reader to feel sympathy for the novels victim. Famous for his jagged 'slang' dialogue that mimics the 'pulp' magazines of old, the whole novel reads as a 'pulp' magazine short story. His literary voice is often hard to understand and sometimes sharp distractions are thrown in that may turn most readers away from this novel. However despite his odd dialogue of the slang of old is easy enough to follow and guestimate as to what exactly they mean and why they are used. Thoroughly gruesome at some parts as well as being utlimately dark and a slightly demented. This novel is a testimate as to the brilliance of the author and has a well earned place among the numerous novels, and legends speculated about this most mysterious figure of Elizabeth Short. This novel is highly reccomended for noir loving readers everywhere as well as hard edged mystery and thriller readers. Though a strong stomach and a hard conscious is highly, highly reccomended for the sometimes twisted imagry and gruesome aspects of the novel. Utterly Dark and Utterly Brilliant. "The Black Dahlia" is a winner.
Rating: 
Summary: Great, but fiction all the way
Review: Just so you know this is a totally INACCURATE portrait of the actual Liz Short character. It's rather shameful to see real names used this way. Visit Pamela Hazelton's Beth Short website and see what I mean.
That aside, the drama in this is awesome and the twists are so unpredictable and ironic that this is going to stay with me for a while. I don't know if I'll sleep normally again.
That, and the graphic details are worthy of Hannibal Lechter. Even though they are fabricated they're still haunting.
Rating:
Summary: Ellroy Rules already, here's another
Review: Think L.A. Confidential (which Ellroy wrote) meets Chinatown (the movie) Two hard-boiled boxing cops with still-tender yolks attempt to solve a famous homicide of a beautiful dame and become obsessed.
I guess Ellroy didn't read "Severed," the supposedly true story of the Black Dahlia murder, as the author "solved" the case and it was nothing like Ellroy's. That may be because Ellroy's version is pure fiction. He did seem to get most of the facts right, as far as my memory serves. Dahlia aside, this is full-speed-ahead Ellroy. If you like Ellroy, or good, old-fashioned detective yards, you'll like this.
Rating:
Summary: Damn Good Crime Fiction.
Review: James Ellroy is an awesome writer, and I think I'm pretty much hooked on him. I loved L.A. Confidential (and the movie, too) after reading it a few months back and decided to go in order for the other three novels in the L.A. Quartet. "The Black Dahlia" did not disappoint me, and was almost as good as L.A. Confidential! Similar to L.A. Confidential in being a brutal crime novel set in mid-twentieth century L.A., surrounded by a jarring, but not unrealistic, portrayal of the general degradation of humanity. There are no squeaky-clean cops in this story; everyone has hidden agendas and skeletons in their closets, and they are willing to go to extreme measures to keep them secret. If you've never heard of the Black Dahlia murder, be prepared for some seriously gruesome descriptions; the violence done to this young woman is truly disturbing and inhuman. In some ways, this novel can be a bit of a downer; while you will be mesmerized with the characters of Bucky Bleichert and Lee Blanchard, as well as the story in general, you will probably also feel a little pessimistic and depressed. This book is definitely not for people looking for a light read. As long as you're prepared for a bleak, brutal crime tale going in, James Ellroy's "The Black Dahlia" is a wicked read, and highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Totally like any other
Review: I finally read "The Black Dahlia" after my husband had been raving about it. I was not disappointed. The story was engaging, and the writing style used an economy of words that I have never seen - straight to the story without wasting time on lenghty descriptions. And yet, you get fantastic description through dialogue. My only complaint is the ending, which I won't give away, but you have fixed in your mind who did it, then it turns and tells you, "No, it was THIS person." Just as you've gotten used the that idea, it twists again, and says, "No, we tricked you again. It's THIS person." That happens a few too many time. But it's still well-worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Obcession rules
Review: Ellroy is a fine writer, and this book, at least for the first 232 pages is a fine novel, not a mystery or thriller, but a novel. Unfortunately, Mr. Ellroy didn't listen to the wisdom his characters kept passing to the central character about obcession. He ends the book the first time with a reasonable, loose ended conclusion that was perfectly balanced. Then, it seems, he got hooked up into finding 'a killer'. So he tacks on another ending. Well, that it made it worse. So he tacked on still another ending. That made it worse yet. It's a fine book up to page 232, but it's pure hooey after that. And I'm disappointed to see someone with his experience try to attached a 'Motive' in the normal sense of the word, to a murder like the Dahlai's. This case has psychopath stamped all over it, and trying to attached motives like hate or envy or greed or sibling rivalry, just doesn't wash. Read some of the transcripts from interviews with Ted Bundy, in "The Last Living Witness". Normal motives don't apply. Elizabeth Short fell prey to a monster.
Rating:
Summary: The brutal world of Ellroy, circa 1947 Los Angeles
Review: James Ellory's 1987 novel "The Black Dahlia" packs the potent punch of an angry mule, and it will slam into the reader with the repeated force of a Joe Frazier left hook. I make a reference to boxing here, only because Ellroy's description of a boxing match early in this novel between protagonists Bucky Bleichert and Lee Blanchard is one of the most electric examples of this author's extraordinary grasp of the American English language one is most likely to read. Visceral, intense and unforgettable, this prose alone will provide an instant hook (if not an instant warning) for the nightmarish Los Angeles underworld the reader is about to enter. Just so there is no mistake, Ellroy's "The Black Dahlia" is not a non-fiction account of Los Angeles' most famous unsolved murder, the 1947 viperous mutlilation of Hollywood wannabe Elizabeth Short. This novel is a fictional account of two street-tough detectives (the already-mentioned Bucky and Lee) investigating this horrid crime. Working together, these two colorful rogues enter a world of too-greasy spoons and dark hotel dives, pounding the pavement of Hollywood's underside en route to a frightening conclusion. Maybe we've read it all before, but more accurately any run of the mill story by Ellroy (including "LA Confidential," "White Jazz," "American Tabloid" and the underrated "Killer on the Road") is made unique simply by his galvanic, if not inspired, writing style. He is a master, make no doubt. The story of Ellroy is familiar to many. At the age of 10, his mother was brutally murdered in Los Angeles, dumped in a vacant lot in a style eerily similar to Elizabeth Short. In fact, detectives have hypothesized that the same murderer may have been involved in both cases (to date, neither has been solved). Naturally, Ellroy became obsessed with the Black Dahlia case (Elizabeth Short's nickname), and thus we have this superb crime novel. I always feel emotionally drained after reading Ellroy's work, and "The Black Dahlia" will leave most readers absolutely spent. Fascinating characters abound, and the LA of old Hollywood black and white noir has never been more alive, more colorful and more despicable. I suppose my only complaint about this novel is the resolution of the case is certainly far from the truth. But that's not really the point of "The Black Dahlia." He's wading into the darkness of cities without civilization, and describing the creatures who inhabit that cultureless spectrum. Quite simply, Mr. Ellroy is one of our greatest living American writers.
Rating: 
Summary: All the investigation for nothing
Review: First of all let me tell you that this book could be written in 250 pages or les, the other 250 or so are things that has nothing to do with the book, for example the fight between Bucky Bleichert and Lee Blanchard and the way they were training for the fight, I can give some more examples.
The book has really nothing, no matter if it was real, and at the end the person who did the murder, well nobody does nothing to catch him and they knew who was.
And in the other hand, all the investigation was for nothing, at the end of the book you will see that even if there were no investigation at all they will find who was the murderer.
Rating:
Summary: All the investigation for nothing
Review: First of all let me tell you that this book could be written in 250 pages or less, the other 250 or so are things that has nothing to do with the book, for example the fight between Bucky Bleichert and Lee Blanchard and the way they were training for the fight, I can give some more examples.
The book has really nothing, no matter if it was real, and at the end the person who did the murder, well nobody does nothing to catch him and they knew who was.
And in the other hand, all the investigation was for nothing, at the end of the book you will see that even if there were no investigation at all they will find who was the murderer.
Rating:
Summary: Dead Girl Finds Hero in Cop!
Review: This is an exciting page turner. Once you get use to the chopped writing style of Ellroy you will want to buy every book he writes. Gritty realism set in the L.A. Police Department in the 1950's. See the workings of an L.A. Cop, on the edge, and trying to right a wrong. 5-Stars.
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