The Black Dahlia

The most familiar thing is that the cops from the 30’s and 40’s are no different than they are today . . . and neither is Tijuana either I guess . . . still about sex and drugs and fetish . . . so the story then is relatable today. Elroy takes 30+ chapters through the gutter and then, makes one more twist, finds the killer and ends the story in a few paragraphs . . . SLAM, The End . . . a better written story would have a better finish . . . this ended like a flashbulb from a tabloid’s camera . . .

I really enjoyed the setting of this novel in post-war LA. The plot was tortuous and often surprising. Ultimately I came away hoping Bucky’s marriage with Kay would succeed and they’d start a new family and put all that Hollywood corruption behind them.

James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia is a fictionalized account of the real life murder of Elizabeth Short. Short’s body was found in an abandoned field near the famous Hollywood sign on January 15, 1947. Despite a long and public investigation, the murder remains unsolved to this day. It is one of the most famous unsolved cases in American history.The novel follows Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert, an officer known more for his prowess in the boxing ring than his ability to uphold the law. He becomes partners with Lee Blanchard, a well-known and respected officer who is rising quickly in the police department. Bucky learns quickly at the hands of the more experienced Lee. He also falls in love with Lee’s live-in girlfriend, Kay Lake, a woman Lee met when he arrested and testified against her ex-boyfriend.While investigating another crime, Bucky and Lee are among the first officers to respond when the body of Elizabeth Short is found. She has been mutilated and cut in half. Also, her mouth has been slashed open from ear to ear. Bucky and Lee are transferred to the case, and Lee becomes obsessed with finding the killer. His sister was murdered when he was a child, and Bucky believes Lee’s unwavering focus on the case is a result. Bucky instantly wants to be off the case, but in compromise he promises Lee one week on the case.The investigation uncovers many unsavory details about Elizabeth, who was known by many aliases. Elizabeth was a liar who used men for her own ends and was obsessed with becoming a Hollywood star despite her lack of talent. Betty, as she was more commonly known, also appeared in a pornographic movie. However, all evidence that painted Betty in a questionable light was swept under the rug by the Assistant District Attorney, who wanted to find the killer of the "innocent" Betty in order to further his future political career.Bucky remains on the case for months, despite the disappearance of his partner. He becomes involved in the conspiracy to hide evidence when he engages in an affair with Madeleine Sprague, a Black Dahlia look alike, in exchange for making certain her name remains out of the investigation. Bucky and the other officers investigate thousands of leads; however, none lead to the capture of the murderer.Bucky is eventually taken off the case, but his obsession with the murder victim permeates all aspects of his life, including his marriage. Bucky investigates the murder even when he is off duty. His marriage suffers and eventually dissolves as he becomes further and further enmeshed in the life and murder of Elizabeth Short.Eventually, Bucky’s investigation leads him to a bungalow in Hollywood, where it appears the investigation comes to an end. However, the haunting image in a painting leads Bucky to uncover a larger conspiracy, one in which he serves as an unwitting participant. The real killer is someone Bucky never suspected, and the conspiracy to conceal the killer’s connection to Betty could cost Bucky his career.

Donald Maass used The Black Dahlia in The Fire in Fiction to illustrate how to make a character "special." Since no one personality would appeal to all readers, the best way to make a character special is to show how that character impacts others. Elizabeth Short, "The Black Dahlia," had a life-altering impact on Bucky Bleichart, even though they didn't meet until after her murder. For the purpose of Maass's illustration, this book is perfect. The Dahlia affected every single character in the novel, major and minor, but she pervaded Bucky's life until he was obsessed with her.This is a brutal book, depicting a world devoid of beauty and populated by complex, ugly characters, as is expected in a noir. This isn't intended for tender-hearted readers, for those of us who have been blessedly sheltered from the savageries of life. It's a hard read, and I'm embarrassed to admit I read it. Being commanded to "keep your eyes from evil," I almost feel like I've sinned.For writers, there is so much to learn from Ellroy's style. He seems to have totally immersed himself into the underworld of 1940, and immersed himself into his character so well it must have messed with his psyche. His setting depictions were vivid--at times too vivid. All of his characters were complicated, many with intricately woven subtleties that added depth to their personalities. One, Russ, aka "padre," seemed to be the only character that didn't belong in the storyworld. He had a wife, a family; he seemed able to leave the ugliness behind him at the end of the day and not get caught up in the seduction of the hunt beyond professionalism. Although Ellroy never said so, he appeared to be a Christian. Ellroy would almost have to have a believer to round out his cast of characters.I can't decide how many stars to give this book. It deserves five, because the writing and the presentation of the story were amazing. But it's a hard read. The deeper you get in the story the more barbaric the events. I didn't like reading it, but was drawn to it every time I talked myself into putting it down. I'm definitely not a better person for having read it, but after studying some of his techniques during the read, I may become a better writer because of it.

Enjoyed the book even though I found it disturbing. Not so much the graphic details of the murder of poor Elizabeth Short (the Black Dahlia), more so the psychological characteristics of the characters including the main character Bucky Bleichert, the LAPD cop. It wasn’t until I finished the book, I realized this novel uses a lot of true facts from the real Black Dahlia killing in 1947 Los Angeles. Then on learning something about the author, things started to drop in place as to why I found this book disturbing.Short was a young woman murdered in 1947, her body cut in half and discarded in Los Angeles, in a notorious and unsolved crime. According to one source, throughout the author’s youth, Ellroy used Short as a surrogate for his conflicting emotions and desires based on his own mother’s rape and murder when Ellroy was 10 years old. His confusion and trauma led to a period of intense clinical depression, from which he recovered only gradually.These personal issues are clear to see in this novel. Bleichert (surely the author?), his cop partner and buddy Lee Blanchard, and Kay Lake are the main characters at the centre of the novel. Initially, there is a kind of chaste and weird ménage a trois going on between them. Like most of the other characters they are dark and complex individuals weaving between righteousness, killing, corruption, and promiscuity - one moment trying to do good, the next … and that’s just the “good guys.” This book is full of dense plotting and a relentlessly pessimistic—albeit moral—worldview. I found it fascinating and hard to put down.You can expect dialogue and narration replete with jazz slang, cop patois, creative profanity and drug vernacular with a particular use of period-appropriate slang. This is a tale set in 1947 and the immediate years after so don’t be surprised to read words and attitudes expressed that are wholly unacceptable in 2020.It’s one of the few books I have read where I am forced to look up words and their meaning (American English). I now know the meaning of amscray, ixnay, and copacetic. The first two are derived from ‘Pig Latin’ – what I knew in Britain as back slang, whereby a made-up word is formed by transferring the initial consonant or consonant cluster of each word to the end of the word and adding a vocalic syllable and can be used in a conversation to convey secrecy. You can also expect stripped-down staccato sentence structures like some of the great noir and pulp fiction writers.Recommended.

I glad I have read this book it was on my list to read and I did find the story fascinating but it was a very dark story, understandably concerning the story, which is based on an true occurrence of the horrific murder of Elizabeth Short, actually called 'The Black Dahlia'.The author James Ellroy uses the genre of noir fiction, to tell the story as the time period has its roots in that genre of the 1940's. He uses much of that time periods style of talking which at times went over my head and needed to research the dialogue. This complicated the story for me and I did feel frustrated at times also.I did like a lot of the twists and shocks in the story and was curious if the author solves the case in the book as in the real life story of the Dahlia the case was never solved.Because of the struggles at times with the flow of the novel I think I need a re-read in the future because I think it will help pick pieces which I may of misunderstood or missed. I also want to look at the film based on the book, which may also help me detangle issues I have muddled or misinterpreted.The book did make an impression on me and if you are a fan of the noir fiction, I definitely recommend you read it.

James Ellroy’s LA Quartet delivers us in to a world of brutality where the police don’t just beat up their suspects but batter their witnesses as well. Every bit as lethal as the gangsters they collude with, they even face the wrath of their superiors if suspected of the unpardonable crime of not using the requisite amount of force. Non-whites are despised, homosexuals are loathed, prostitutes, male and female, are abused, often murdered, and sometimes viciously defiled. Offences committed against any of the beforementioned are, though, usually, considered of little importance, and not worthy of the police’s valuable time.Nothing is straightforward, a maze of colourful and dangerous characters pockmarked by what appear to be errors, misspellings, or typos, or, at least, words that even the dictionary couldn’t get its head around, have the effect of just adding to the mayhem. All played out to a backdrop of seedy clubs and the incessant beats of bebop and jazz. The pace is always furious, the plots often so convoluted, and, more so, as the series progresses, from the easier read The Black Dahlia, through The Big Nowhere and LA Confidential, to the cryptic stream of White Jazz, that sometimes it is hard to know what’s going on. But who cares! You just sit back and enjoy the ride.Drink, drugs, illicit gambling, perverse sexual acts, gratuitous violence, and that’s just the police!There are no good guys.

“The stench got to me, so I walked over and opened the window. Looking out, I saw a group of uniformed cops and men in civilian clothes standing on the sidewalk on Norton, about halfway down the block on 29th Street. All of them were staring at something in the weeds of a vacant lot; two black-and-whites and an unmarked cruiser were marked at the curb. I said, 'Lee, come here.'“Lee stuck his head out the window and squinted. ‘I think I see Millard and Sears. They were supposed to be catching squeals today, so maybe—'“I ran out of the pad, down the steps and around the corner to Norton, Lee at my heels. Seeing a coroner’s wagon and a photo car screech to a halt, I sprinted. Harry Sears was knocking back a drink in full view of a half dozen officers; I glimpsed horror in his eyes. The photo men had moved into the lot and were fanning out, pointing their cameras at the ground. I elbowed my way past a pair of patrolmen and saw what it was all about.”20% in, Chapter Seven, The Black Dahlia by James EllroyBased on the real-life grisly torture-murder of Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, whose body was discovered, mutilated and dissected in the undergrowth of a mostly-deserted industrial estate in Los Angeles in 1947.The story follows ex-boxers, now police officers, Bucky Bleichert and Lee Blanchard, and the woman they both love, Kay Lake. As Bucky and Lee look into the murder of the Black Dahlia, their investigation leads Bucky to a grand mansion, a series of lesbian bars, and right across the country to Boston. Meanwhile Lee, keen to exact justice on a newly-released bank robber, heads to Mexico and a strange fortune. But will the team find the killer? Will Betty Short ever get justice? And when will Bucky stop seeing her face when he looks at his wife?An awesome story, visceral and bloody, I had to look away from the page from time to time because the writing is thorough and unflinching. The characters were really well captured and frankly leapt off the page, and the author’s voice feels authentic to 1940s police-speak.There were a fair few instances of extraneous apostrophes (for example: “DA’s” meaning multiple DAs, “straight A’s” - no apostrophe needed, “B&E’s” for "B&Es”, etc.) and a strange absence of the second E from the word ‘heroes’. Having not read Ellroy before, I have no idea if this is a stylistic choice of his (which I could respect) or something missed in editing (which I wouldn’t).That said, it’s a powerful, shocking and atmospheric read and I’d give it a big old thumbs up.Side note: the 2006 Brian De Palma film with Mia Kirshner, Josh Hartnett and my favourite, Fiona Shaw, is pretty dang faithful to the book. Look out for kd lang’s cameo as the tuxed-up lounge singer at the nightclub.

There isn't a lot to say about the novel that hasn't already been said or written. Ellroy captures the style, language and atmosphere of Los Angeles in the late 1940s, post World War Two. He brings the place to life and populates the novel with a blend of real and fictional characters. The seedy underbelly of a corrupt Los Angeles Police Department is juxtaposed alongside the infamous Elizabeth Short murder case and lots of political wrangling. As I have already stated, a masterpiece.