The Black Dahlia

By: James Ellroy

Narrated by: Stephen Hoye

Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

On January 15, 1947, the tortured body of a beautiful young woman was found in a vacant lot in Hollywood. Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, a young Hollywood hopeful, had been brutally murdered. Her murder sparked one of the greatest manhunts in California history.

In this fictionalized treatment of a real case, Bucky Bleichert and Lee Blanchard, both LA cops obsessed with the Black Dahlia, journey through the seamy underside of Hollywood to the core of the dead girl's twisted life.

©1987 James Ellroy (P)2006 Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Passionate, violent, frustrating...imaginative and bizarre." (Los Angeles Times)
"Ellroy's powerful rendering of the long-reaching effects of murder gives the case new meaning." (Library Journal)
"Building like a symphony, this is a wonderful, complicated but accessible tale of ambition, insanity, passion, and deceit, with the perfect setting of booming, postwar Los Angeles." (Publishers Weekly)

Dark,gritty and riveting.

elroy's rating guess you right into the story. sometimes he can be excessively rough. but the story is rough so it fits. Recommend to anyone who is interested in the Black Dahlia murder.

The coldest of cold cases

The Black Dahlia is an amazing book, a flawless detective story that is sort of a piece of historical crime fiction, seeing as how The Black Dahlia is a real unsolved murder case. The book takes that case and spins it into a unique world of crime and a quest for hard fought justice. I would be lying if I said I completely understood every character and subplot but that’s besides the point. It’s a fantastic journey into the underbelly of LA way back when. Ellroy is the crime writer GOAT.

Enthralling

Ellroy's rendering of post-war LA and its cops and their culture enthralled me as much as anything in this very entertaining book. That, together with strong, full characters, a believable plot and well-pitched narration, make this one of my favorite selections so far.

Not for me

This book is just not for me.However I can see why others will like it.Ellrov is a great writer.He draws one into the time and place wonderfully.The narration is a little over the top for my taste but on the whole does a good job. I'm not much into action ,because for some reason I rarely can picture what's going on. I was able to follow Mr Ellroys action segments very well,especially the enthralling boxing match.And I hate boxing. I grew very tired of the two main officers temper tantrums and think this took away from the book. Compared to the current trend to make every killer more gruesome than the ones before, this book is not all that violent.

Excellent, gritty noir!

If easily offended, walk away now. If you are looking for an unabashed take on detective stories of yesteryear, download instantly. Love the story and narrator,he does an excellent job.

Murder, sex, romance and perversion abound. Gunplay, rivalries, it’s all here.

Sometimes Ellroy’s characters become him, they don’t so much in this book. The narration helps keep everyone in their own lane.

Complete recommendation

I was so captivated by this book, I couldn't get enough of it. Almost hate that I finished it

Loved It

This is a great story that and I enjoyed listening to it. James Elroys' stories are new to me, I will certainly listen to more of his crime fiction! After listening, I reviewed the true account of the story and then saw the movie.

The best listening experience in 3 years!

Just finished listening and I am still reeling from the author's powerful prose. Excellent "film noir" atmosphere - the narrator's performance was absolutely superb! His voice was so versatile and compelling, it really made me stick with this book. I know I would have put it down if I was just reading by myself. His voice and the narrative take you right back to the 1940's, right after WWII. The writing is excellent - the subject matter is almost beyond a nightmare, not for faint hearted. The narrative is gritty, somewhat pornographic and definitely not of our politically correct times. I have to admit I found parts of it offensive. It was not easy to listen to, but the dialogue sounded authentic to how policemen must have spoke at the time.
The storyline had so many highs and lows - twists and turns, especially near the end!
This book is a work of fiction, based on two murders, one famous murder of a young woman in California and another murder of the author' s own mother. It's not just a crime drama, it's a study of obsession, guilt and redemption.

A great fictional take on a real unsolved case

I've seen the movie L.A. Confidential, but haven't started the audiobook, but Black Dahlia is the of four books in what I'd imagine is a thematic quadrilogy. Inspired by one of the most gruesome murders before the Manson family, but the case could never be solved, which leaves a lot of room for a great pulply gritty detective novel.

James Ellroy does a great job of researching Los Angeles post war and how everything would probably be. You will hear a ton of racial slurs through this novel, but it's America in the late 40's, segregation was still going strong, and cops were going to be largely white and and calling everybody a slur, because that's the time. So just be prepared for a whole lot of harsh language.

At it's core, this is the story of Bucky, a boxer turned cop, he's a detective and eager to get promoted to warrants, where he can make a difference, taking down the real bad guys, and having the prestige of being one of the elite in the LAPD. As soon as things get going, he gets a veteran partner, and settled into the next stage of his life, the Dahlia case happens, the whole LAPD put everybody on the case, and nobody cares about how much Bucky wants to be on warrants.

The Black Dahlia is really important, but this isn't the entire novel. Don't go in expecting an authentic historical story, the case happened, but these are fictional characters in this world. It's purely the author's imagination to how these detectives handled the stress of working an impossible case. There's a lot to do with personal relationships and the protagonist making crucial mistakes in his personal and professional life, where normally he would be the golden boy who plays by the book and retires as a police chief one day. Here, the world is morally gray and there are no simple answers to life and death.

There are definitely long parts of the novel where the Black Dahlia case becomes more of a background story, especially when it's meant to be unsolved. We see a number of conspiracies and corruption, that don't involve the Elizabeth Short murder case. It's a bigger story than this one murder, and it's a really well written story that goes into a lot of unexpected places, and everything is neatly tied up by the end. I haven't seen the movie, but I I know it's no L.A. Confidential. It's just hard to imagine any movie doing this novel justice, there's too much rich story that a movie would need to leave out. It would need a whole season of TV.

As for the narrator, a true professional. He does all the accents and alters his voice for each character, and his reading of the main character does fit perfectly with a post war detective story. He even voices a Scottish character, using his accent and the impression his daughter uses, so this narrator can do it all, some really challenging voices. Just going above and beyond.

Gruesome and Crude - I love it

One of the best narrator performances I’ve ever heard. Genius writing, but not for the faint of heart.