The Black Dahlia
by James Ellroy
List Price:
Our Price: $3.94
You Save: $3.56 (47%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: James EllroyEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-09-01
ISBN: 0446618128
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Book Reviews of The Black Dahlia
Book Review: Noir revival
Summary: 5 Stars
Can pastiche be as good as the original product? The Black Dahlia proves that it can. This is a great thriller in its own right: set in L.A., it has the dream team of Lee Blanchard and Bucky Bleichert, two cops from the warrants bureau and both ex-boxers, investigate the torture and murder of a wannabe starlet and vamp (the 'black dahlia'). The investigation soon runs out of control, threatening to wreck the lives and sanity of our heroes, and the dream team isn't quite the dream team anyway. Twists and turns uncover corrupt cops, malevolent witnesses, and a wealth of sub-plots and wild goose chases that all but stamp out the killer's trace. The Black Dahlia never flags, however, and its last chapters are worthy of their elaborate setting up.
At the same time, there is no denying this is pastiche: neo-noir, the echo of a genre that flourished in the 1930-1950s. The novel is set just after WWII, 40 years before the date of its writing. It takes place in an L.A. that is again a hotpot of both glamour and vice. And it uses that same mix of hard-nosed pessimism, courage, and humanity that made Hammett's and Chandler's heroes. There are also differences. While Ellroy's style doesn't have the staccato of later novels such as American Tabloid, it is direct, eschewing Chandler's lushly ironic imagery. There is more violence and it is more graphic, especially the dahlia's gruesome murder. The sex scenes are too explicit to have been written in the 1940s. And the dahlia herself is more of a tramp, a more pathetic figure than were classic noir heroines. Nevertheless, if you have run out of Chandler to read, this is the way to go.
Summary of The Black Dahlia
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.Movie Tie-Ins Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Movie Tie-Ins Books
Primary Justiceby William Bernhardt
Ballantine Books; Published: 1995-01-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.00
Price in other shops:
Sacrifice (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 5)by Karen Traviss
Del Rey / Ballantine; Published: 2007-05-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.12
Price in other shops:
Eye of the Beholderby Marc Behm
Ballantine Books; Published: 1999-12-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $36.54
Notting Hillby Richard Curtis
Hodder & Stoughton; Published: 1999-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $39.56
Crazy in Alabamaby Mark Childress
Ballantine Books; Published: 1999-09-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops:
Atonementby Ian McEwan
Anchor; Published: 2007-11-27; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.00
Price in other shops:
The Time Machineby H.G. Wells
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2010-06-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.48
Price in other shops:
Less than Zeroby Bret Easton Ellis
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1987-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
24 Declassified: Cat's Clawby John Whitman
HarperEntertainment; Published: 2006-12-26; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.79
Price in other shops:
Everything Is Illuminatedby Jonathan Safran Foer
Harper Perennial; Published: 2005-08-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
The Maltese Falconby Dashiell Hammett
Vintage; Published: 1992-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.48
Price in other shops:
Blood's A Rover (Vintage)by James Ellroy
Vintage; Published: 2010-08-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.44
Price in other shops:
The Cold Six Thousandby James Ellroy
Vintage; Published: 2002-06-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.78
Price in other shops:
The Black Dahlia (Widescreen Edition)NBC Universal; Release date: 2006-12-26; DVD
Best price: $1.89
Price in other shops:
American Tabloid: A Novelby James Ellroy
Vintage; Published: 2001-04-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.63
Price in other shops:
White Jazz: A Novelby James Ellroy
Vintage; Published: 2001-04-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.09
Price in other shops:
Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia Murderby John Gilmore
Amok Books; Published: 2006-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.30
Price in other shops:
My Dark Placesby James Ellroy
Vintage; Published: 1997-08-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.10
Price in other shops:
L.A. Confidentialby James Ellroy
Warner Books; Published: 1997-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.98
Price in other shops:
The Big Nowhereby James Ellroy
Mysterious Press; Published: 1998-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops: