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Summary
Summary
On January 15, 1947, the torture-ravished body of a beautiful young woman is found in a 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. 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.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Narrator Hoye firmly nails young world-weary cop Bucky Bleichert in this audio version of Ellroy's 1987 crime novel. The flawed boxer-turned-lawman becomes obsessed with L.A.'s notorious unsolved 1947 torture-murder case, as well as the secret life of his missing partner, Lee Blanchard. Hoye proves a fine match for Ellroy's hardboiled prose, shuttling easily between hard and soft tones, crystallizing Bleichert's mix of cynicism, confusion, hurt and rage. Set in booming postwar Los Angeles, this tale of ambition, deceit and obsession builds to symphonic proportions. Throughout, Hoye skillfully modulates his narration to distinctly render each character corrupt cops, city officials, pimps, GIs, Mexican bar owners, prostitutes, society matrons and even the sound of a bullet piercing canvas. Hoye especially shines during heated police interrogations, able to shift his voice on a dime. The audio includes a new afterword from Ellroy, which might have delivered more punch had Ellroy read it himself. But in terms of this gritty, sprawling novel, Hoye was unquestionably the right man for the job. Simultaneous release with the Mysterious Press paperback movie tie-in (Reviews, Sept. 4, 1987). (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Guardian Review
'After the first death, there is no other." Dylan Thomas wrote that. It summarises my relationship with a young woman named Elizabeth Short. Betty Short lived from 1924 to 1947. Her life was unnotable up to the point of her death. She became canonised, dramatically misunderstood and celebrated solely due to the ghastly nature of her passing. The issue of "Who were you?" was grossly outstripped by the question "Who killed you?" My novel The Black Dahlia attempts to redress that moral imbalance - even as it exploits Short's death. 1947 Los Angeles. It was both a sleepy burg and supersonic boomtown. Radio was here. The movie biz was here. Nightclubs and jazz joints rocked around the clock. Allow me to again crib from Dylan Thomas. "After the first murder milieu, there is no other." Short was killed in the film noir epicentre at the height of the film noir era. The murder has remained unsolved for 67 years. This obscure young woman's horrifying end remains the cornerstone of a much-hyped time and place. It was the first death and the right death at the right time. The death occurred the year before I was born. I learned of it in the months following my own mother's murder. Elizabeth Short, meet Jean Hilliker. Betty died at 22. My mother died at 43. I grew up to write both their stories. Betty died at the start of LA's postwar boom. Jean died at its 1958 finale. These two women own me, inextricably. Both have hot-wired me to the history of Los Angeles. My novels portray the secret human infrastructure of large public events. They are historical romances to the core. My literary view was shaped by classical music more than crime fiction or noted dead women. The soundtrack for Jean and Betty's deaths falls between Bartok and Rachmaninoff. The narrative harbinger is Jack Webb's ode to the Los Angeles police department: The Badge This book hauntingly summarised the Black Dahlia murder case. I read it at age 11. Betty and Jean merged then. I was a lonely boy who lived to read, escape into music and tell himself stories. My first Betty and Jean stories were saviour fantasies. I rescued both women as their killers drew near. My childhood moved into a troubled adolescence and early adulthood. I harboured the crazy notion that I would tell Betty Short's story someday. And I did. The Black Dahlia was published in 1987. It served as the first novel of my LA Quartet. The book was meticulously researched and bore the psychic imprint of my quarter century's immersion. It was my seventh novel. Short was a story, a fixation, a human being I was working my way up to. I wanted to honour a woman who was too often harshly judged and morally condemned in the public record. I wanted to honour Jean Hilliker, my mother, by extension. The Black Dahlia is largely the tale of love in conflict with sexual obsession. Short is never seen alive. I built her character entirely from postmortem reminiscence. She is misinterpreted until the precise moment that my detective hero comes to understand that he is as one with her. A living man and a desecrated woman merge in the spiritus mundi. The subtext is entirely religious. My detective accords Short the gift of tender insight and unlocks his frozen heart as a result. The fictional denouement and naming of the killer recede at this spiritual juncture. Short has taught Officer Bucky Bleichert how to love. "After the first death, there is no other." 15 January 1947 precedes and predicts 22 June 1958. There is no Betty without Jean. My books derive from an inexplicable yearning. I long for times past and ask God for the wherewithal to unlock their secrets. I was not content to know Short solely in death and have placed her - bountifully alive - in my new novel, Perfidia. A living woman - yearned for and then scarcely known - led me to recraft Kay Lake, love interest and heroine of The Black Dahlia. From there, I beckoned Betty to Kay's new 1941 milieu. Betty and Kay do not meet in Perfidia. Betty and Kay cohere in the spiritus mundi My life's work entails frequent time travel. Short is now 67 years dead. Kay Lake lives on as a very old woman. Yearning forged The Black Dahlia then, as it forged Perfidia now. Yearning is a touchstone that allows me to view and rewrite history. James Ellroy will be in conversation with John Mullan at the Royal Institution in London on Monday. Tickets pounds 20. theguardian.com/guardian-live. - James Ellroy 'After the first death, there is no other." Dylan Thomas wrote that. It summarises my relationship with a young woman named Elizabeth Short. Betty Short lived from 1924 to 1947. Her life was unnotable up to the point of her death. She became canonised, dramatically misunderstood and celebrated solely due to the ghastly nature of her passing. The issue of "Who were you?" was grossly outstripped by the question "Who killed you?" My novel The Black Dahlia attempts to redress that moral imbalance - even as it exploits Short's death. 15 January 1947 precedes and predicts 22 June 1958. There is no Betty without [Jean Hilliker]. My books derive from an inexplicable yearning. I long for times past and ask God for the wherewithal to unlock their secrets. I was not content to know Short solely in death and have placed her - bountifully alive - in my new novel, Perfidia. A living woman - yearned for and then scarcely known - led me to recraft Kay Lake, love interest and heroine of The Black Dahlia. From there, I beckoned Betty to Kay's new 1941 milieu. Betty and Kay do not meet in Perfidia. Betty and Kay cohere in the spiritus mundi - James Ellroy.
Kirkus Review
Tim real-life unsolved ""Black Dahlia"" case (L.A., 1947), source material for several novels and films, get another go. round from hard boiler Ellroy (Blood on the Moon, Because the Night), in a long, earnest, overwrought novel that concentrates on the dark psychosexual hangups of two L.A.P.D. cops. The narrator is ""Bucky"" Bleichert, who, together with partner Lee Blanchard (his one-time pro-boxing rival), is assigned to work with Homicide when the mutilated body of trampy, pathetic, would-be actress Betty Short is found in a vacant L.A. lot. Blanchard is instantly obsessed with the Dahlia (as the papers soon dub Betty), because of guilt over his kid sister's bygone murder. Bucky becomes obsessed, too, especially once he starts sleeping with Dahlia lookalike Madeleine, a decadent rich girl who once had a lesbian fling with the Dahlia. Blanchard goes berserk, disappears, and later turns up dead in Mexico. Despite much triangular sturm, Bucky marries Blanchard's gift. And eventually, after the primary clues in the Dahlia case run dry (boyfriends, porno flicks), Bucky starts uncovering one nasty secret after another--corruption, perversion, coverups, family skeletons--until he finds the place where the Dahlia was tortured and butchered. . .and confronts the killer. Ellroy writes with undeniable energy, striving for down and-dirty textures and a raw emotional edge. But while some individual vignettes deliver the intended impact, the overall effect is unconvincing and shrill--with too many psychos per square chapter and too many lapses into stagily lurid narration. ("". . .My voice came back in racking fits, 'I'll get him for you, he won't hurt you anymore, I'll make it up to you, oh Betty Jesus fuck I will.'"") Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
A sensationalistic, true-life murder case that grabbed headlines in postwar Los Angeles is resuscitated in this stylish thriller. In 1947, the mutilated remains of a beautiful dark-haired woman are discovered, and a massive, seemingly hopeless manhunt brings two L.A. policemen together before forcing them apart. For cops Bleichert and Blanchard, both tough guys and both former middleweight contenders, the death of the ``Dahlia'' is disturbing and psychologically damaging. Blanchard traces the victim's past she was a lonely, scared runaway and is forced to relive the disappearance of his own sister many years ago. For Bleichert, the hunt leads to the upper echelons of Hollywood powerful fathers, nubile daughters, and long-suppressed family secrets. The author manages a gripping re-creation of LA street life in the 1940s, and his characters are powerfully written and terrifyingly real. The bare-bones plot, the slew of false conclusions, and the hazy evocation of the murder victim give the narrative a dreamlike atmosphere, ideal for a tale of immoral heroes and wasted lives. PLR. [CIP] 87-7952
Library Journal Review
Using the basic facts concerning the 1940s' notorious and yet unsolved Black Dahlia case, Ellroy creates a kaleidoscope of human passion and dark obsession. A young woman's mutilated body is found in a Los Angeles vacant lot. The story is seen through the eyes of Bucky Bleichert, ex-prize fighter and something of a boy wonder on the police force. There is no relief or humor as Bleichert arrives at a grisly discovery. Ellroy's powerful rendering of the long-reaching effects of murder gives the case new meaning. This should be a major book for 1987. JV (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
