The Black Dahlia

James Ellroy’s 1987 novel exploring the infamous unsolved and ghoulish murder of Elizabeth Short, the so-called “Black Dahlia,” gripped me with its chilling portrayal of two very different cops who become obsessed with solving the 1947 murder.

Although this is a relatively early work of Ellroy’s and extremely visceral owing to the nature of the historical crime, it’s arguably the author’s first mature novel, proved to be his breakout book, and pre-dates the rather alliterative, staccato prose style he would adopt not long after.

Post-war Los Angeles is seedily, disturbingly rendered in surreal and gothic relief, while Ellroy also masterfully… show more.

James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia needs no introduction to the serious crime fiction fan.

Like Hughes’ novel, we’re in postwar LA, in 1947, following the murder of Elizabeth Short, a young Hollywood hopeful whose disemboweled body is found one morning in a vacant lot.

Ellroy had authored six previous novels by this point, but it’s here, with The Black Dahlia, that many, myself included, find his style truly begins to shine.

It’s a standout of neo-noir literature that stuns with its prose, characters, and plotting. You’ll study it, you’ll re-read it, and you’ll memorize passages from it, so you better… show more.

The Black Dahlia is a piece of classic noir which takes us into the darkness of 1940s Los Angeles. Brilliantly paced and using pulsating vernacular, the novel is a disturbing journey through all the sleaze and horror of post-War America. Once hooked, you can delve into the other three novels in Ellroy’s LA Quartet.

Without question, the book that made Ellroy a literary celebrity. If it were not for The Black Dahlia, he might never have gotten past midlist sales and could have been forgotten. It’s based on the real-life unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short in LA, 1947. The subject is personal to Ellroy as his mother Jean Ellroy was also murdered in a case that went unsolved. Ellroy’s unforgettable fictional solution to Short’s murder is set against the backdrop of LA in its postwar boomtown years. The writing is so visceral that by the end of the book, the story will feel… show more.

I was, and still am, obsessed by the story of the Black Dahlia. Is it any wonder that I fell completely under the spell of this novel? Ellroy writes a tight, violent vision of what a horrific case can do, psychologically, to detectives. Cops are no less human than the rest of society, and the constant exposure to the worst, darkest, most terrible aspects of humanity erodes them. The Black Dahlia demonstrates this erosion brilliantly.