Rating: 
Summary: Ellroy is a master
Review: Ellroy takes a small detour from his hard-boiled crime genre to delve into a little historical fiction. I say historical fiction because he take real events from history and intertwines them with his own writing.The Black Dahlia obviously focuses on the murder of Elizabeth Short, one of the most famous unsolved mysteries in the world. It is also something of an obsession for Ellroy. This book is written in typical Ellroy fashion. Tight, hard-boiled prose, along with complex, faulted characters. If you have never read an Ellroy book, this probably will not be your last. If you are a fan of Ellroy, you probably will not even be reading this review, as your time could be better spent reading more Ellroy.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I watched James Ellroy in a TV documentary and listened to his, his friend's and policemen's thoughts about the unsolved Black Dahlia murder of 1947 LA. I also listened to Ellroy as he talked us through his style of writing, his research and his motives. All the talk had me out buying a copy of this book, "The Black Dahlia", the very next day. I was expecting the gruesome truths of the original story to be adhered to exactly and prepard myself for some 40's cop style interrogation with some extremely unpleasant characters. I was immediately disappointed when Ellroy chose to alter what is known about the Black Dahlia, Elizabeth Short, with his own ideas leading to a direct contradiction, the sort of which Ellroy had just told me he did not employ. It was going to be an uphill battle for the book from then on. The beauty of an Ellroy book is that you are not supposed to be able to tell fact from fiction, but here it was staring me straight in the face. I tried to get over it and finished the book. Expecting to be sickened by the killer when they were finally unmasked, I only felt relief. Ellroy pushed the boundaries of realism and credibility and the incessant unmasking of persons who were not the killer began to rankle. It was particularly stretching it a bit when the hero, Bucky Bleichert, starts to fantasise about sex with the Black Dahlia. No-one that saw the body would ever behave like that and still carry on a normal life and job. Obsession I can do, but blatant shock tactics that would never happen I will not. It all had the feel that Ellroy had so much to say but did not want to write an epic. So he wrote a mid-sized novel, but with too much in it. Therefore the trips to Mexico and the East Coast of America come across unreal, rushed and wholly unconvincing. The book was difficult to follow as it was with the 1940's slang (which is fair enough) without being forced to concentrate through the jet-setting, car-hopping trend that Ellroy begins to follow. I feel as though Ellroy tried to address so many issues in this novel that they all ended up jumbled and confused. I cannot fault the idea behind the story, but I can fault the execution because it is bad. I am going to read some more of Ellroy's work, because this is a relatively early work, and I am hoping he found his feet a little better later on.
Rating: 
Summary: yikes
Review: The first classic detective stories--Sherlock Holmes, Wilkie Collins, etc.--were based on the premise that crime and evil-doing would yield to the rigorous application of reason. The great police procedurals (Adam Dalgleish, the 87th Precinct, etc.) assume that professional technique and relentless work will solve the crime. No matter how noir the private eye novel, there is an implicit message that, though evil lurks just beneath the veneer of even the wealthiest family, and though the police and the crooks may both try to stop him, there exists a special breed of modern knights errant who will sally forth and do battle when we truly need them. Then there are the mysteries of James Ellroy, in which the evil has started to ooze out into public view, where the cops have been so desensitized by their contact with that evil that they are often as brutal as the criminals, and where crimes are not necessarily ever solved. Ellroy's vision is so bleak, and his stories are so unsettling, that it's sometimes a relief just to finish reading one, to get out from under his oppressive obsessions with violence and crime and corruption. Black Dahlia is a particularly personal work, with the famous unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short in 1947 standing in for the tragic murder of Ellroy's own mother in 1958. Similarly, the cop, Bucky Bleichert, who is consumed by the case and descends into madness, eerily parallels Ellroy himself (who has written about his own tortured fascination with his mother's slaying in My Dark Places). Where we tend to read mysteries because we like to solve puzzles ands want the reassurance that good triumphs over evil, Ellroy offers us instead unsolvable crime and the unsettling sensation that evil may well triumph and that the good guys may be as dangerous as the bad guys. His books aren't for the squeamish--they are just too disturbing--but they are terrific if you can take it and Black Dahlia is a good one to start with. GRADE : A-
Rating:
Summary: Gritty and Dark
Review: This is the first book of the LA quartet. It is dark, gritty and ugly. This book does not glamorize police in the 40's and 50's. You get them stripped down with all their prejudices, corruption and meaness. Like his other books in the series, he does not pull punches with the characters, whether they be police, suspects or victims. They are a kalidascope of characters, from every walk of life. Ellroy likes flawed characters, especially in his policemen. Seems to make them more human to the rest of us. Ellroy once again succeeds. This is based in truth on the murder of the real Elizabeth Short, whose murder was never solved. It is hard though to warm up to the characters, to really like them. You find yourself off kilter with them constantly. Bucky has many ups and downs in the book and you find yourself feeling them as much as he probably would if he were real. It is not as exciting as LA Confidential, but it is dark, gritty and intense. ....
Rating:
Summary: Good, but conflicts with other Ellroy material...
Review: The Black Dahlia is not my favorite of Ellroy's books. Also, its story conflicts with the circumstances of the case set up in Clandestine. Now, I am a great admirer of Ellroy's work. I would dare say that anything he has written couldn't be rated less than 4 stars. He's that good. Compared to other Ellroy novels, this one is incredibly written, but it's just not as good as say -- American Tabloid or The Big Nowhere. Still, I'm not saying it isn't good. It's a great read. Just compared to some of Ellroy's other work -- I found it lacking...
Rating:
Summary: Book Noir Noir
Review: The Black Dahlia was my introduction to James Ellroy and what a read. I literally could not put the book down and read it in one day. It is gripping and absorbing, but beware: it is not for the faint of heart or those looking for a summer beach novel. Like all of Ellroy's books--which I have also found intruiging (except for Killer on the Road which is pointless trash)--it is dark, thickly plotted (to the point of being incomprehensible, worse than Raymond Chandler), yet richly detailed and fascinating. Also, be aware that some sections describe brutal mutilations in clinical detail and maybe it is this repulsiveness that holds some of its fascination. While this book is not for everyone, it is an exceptional volume for those adventurous enough to jump into the dark underbelly of 1940s LA.
Rating:
Summary: Ellroy shines like Tinseltown never could
Review: Hollywood, the manufacturer of dreams, is relegated to holding James Ellory's candle as his writing continues to illuminate a vivid, intimate, violent, irresistable picture of life in L.A. in the late 40's. These characters are irresistable, yet flawed. The violence is ripped from the front page of papers (although, in this case, from the front page of 1947). A gruesome murder is the centerpiece for this novel, as a police officer desperately seeking to be a detective cannot cease his obsession with the case. It overwhelms his life and his career without overwhelming the plot or flow of action. There's an interesting look (in passing) at some aftermath of WWII, and the impact of being German-American or having been friends with Japanese-Americans. The end, when it hits you, will be a left hook worthy of Joe Lewis.
Rating:
Summary: "Dahlia" One of Ellroy's Best
Review: A fantastic novel and my favorite of the author's LA series. I am an avid horror fan and "Black Dahlia" (not even being 'horror' per se) had me so incredibly spooked during and after reading it. I couldn't even put my finger on the exact part of the book that spooked me - it was the mood and characters that haunt you during and after it ends. It weathers re-readings very well.
This is the start of the LA Quartet and you can really see in this book the foundations of the mythological LA Ellroy has built in the subsequent novels.
There is an Ellroy fan site that had a quote from the author which sums up how I (and many readers, I'm sure) feel about Ellroy's great crime fiction:
"Crime fascinates all of us. We like to look at it and touch it, while staying safe. Great crime fiction pulls that rug out from under you and gets your hands burned. Bad crime fiction gives you neat, tidy resolutions and is as dismissable as a box of Kleenex."
This is no box of Kleenex, boyo.
Rating:
Summary: RIVETING READ
Review: Ellroy weaves a tale of riveting suspense--you won't be able to put this one down! A true masterpiece! Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Ellroy's First Masterpiece
Review: This first novel in the much-praised "L.A. Quartet" is one of the great American works of art. Up there with Twain, Fitzgerald, Chandler, Hammett and Hemingway. "Dark" is too bright a word for Ellroy's fiction. Another reviewer called Ellroy "the Caravaggio of modern fiction." That says it all. In the "Dahlia", a real woman named Betty Short, whose butchered corpse appeared in a vacant lot one morning in real-life L.A. circa 1947, Ellroy found his essential enigma and his battering muse. This famous, unsolved murder victim becomes in the novel, a terrifying emblem for his own oedipal quest, a quest that he fearlessly explored in his memoir *My Dark Places*. It is a work of genius, and we are all the richer for it. Its scope is epic. Its tone is sharpened ebony. Nothing in Ellroy's previous novels prepares you for this. It is also a book that repays multiple readings. It's only outdone by each subsequent novel. Full-blown addiction is the only way I can describe my response to Ellroy's fiction. It will jazz you and haunt you and inhabit your dreams.
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