La Dalia Negra (Paperback)

from bunwat

This creeped me out and kind of not in a good way. Its an absorbing and convincing story of obsession and corruption and murder. I see why its spawned imitators and inspired movies. But these are not really enjoyable people to spend time with, and I kind of felt like I needed a shower to wash off...

from robertdatson

A story about a true event - the unsolved gruesome killing of Betty Short in 1947. It's written from the perspective of a policeman accidentally caught up in the case, and then revolves around his part in the investigation, along with his partner. Police life is described in uncomfortable detail,...

from TheAmpersand

There's a lot in "The Black Dahlia" that feels pretty familiar. It's set, like many film noir favorites, in a gritty, rapidly expanding postwar Los Angeles. It describes a man's world filled with cop talk, boxing matches and lots of dangerous, highly sexed dames. And, of course, it's based on the...

from ElectricRay

If, as a non-initiate, you stop and try to understand it, James Ellroy's writing style will have you completely bamboozled. The way to approach it is to barrel through it at a hundred miles an hour - that's the pace it was intended to be read at - and eventually everything will start making sense...

from JBreedlove

A rare 5 star review for a detective story. The book read like Raymond Chandler on steroids. Hard boiled 1940's dialogue with the sex and violence that RC inferred. More dense but less dependence on sense of place though the seedier parts of LA and Tijuana brought you in front and center. Threads...