James Ellroy
2008-08-01
The highly acclaimed novel based on America's most infamous unsolved murder case. Dive into 1940s Los Angeles as two cops spiral out of control in their hunt for The Black Dahlia's killer in this powerful thriller that is "brutal and at the same time believable" (New York Times).
On January 15, 1947, the torture-ravished body of a beautiful young woman is found in a Los Angeles vacant lot. The victim makes headlines as the Black Dahlia -- and so begins the greatest manhunt in California history. Caught up in the investigation are Bucky Bleichert and Lee Blanchard: Warrants Squad cops, friends, and rivals in love with the same woman. But both are obsessed with the Dahlia -- driven by dark needs to know everything about her past, to capture her killer, to possess the woman even in death. Their quest will take them on a hellish journey through the underbelly of postwar Hollywood, to the core of the dead girl's twisted life, past the extremes of their own psyches -- into a region of total madness.
Ellroys The Black Dahlia pulls no punches. Its a relentless dive into the dark heart of Los Angeles, a city seething with corruption and violence. The prose is as brutal as the crime it describes, yet theres a hypnotic quality to it, a rhythm that mirrors the chaos of the investigation. The characters are sketches in noir, their motivations murky, their actions often driven by the desperation of the times. This is not a book for the faint of heart, but for those who seek the unvarnished truth, it offers a chilling glimpse into the abyss.
