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.
"A masterpiece." —People
"Brutal and at the same time believable." —New York Times
“Turgid with passion, violence, and frustration . . . imaginative and bizarre.” —Los Angeles Times
“A riveting 1940s noir Hollywood setting, full of period flavor and investigative detail.” —Boston Herald
“Ellroy distills the introspective style, slang, and racism of the ’40s roman noir. . . . His characters, individuals all, are beautifully shaded, and he captures the mind-numbing detail of police work.” —Chicago Sun-Times
“High-intensity prose. Reading it aloud could shatter your wineglasses.” —Elmore Leonard
“An absolute masterpiece and Ellroy’s finest work to date . . . played out against a beautifully dark, moody ’40s L.A. jazz score. The ultimate novel noir.” —Jonathan Kellerman
“James Ellroy has taken this unsolved murder, put his own savage spin on the story, and turned it into compelling fiction . . . fascinating reading, since Ellroy seemingly cannot write a dull line.” —Hartford Courant
“Ellroy has brilliantly poised the story between beauty and gross ugliness, honor and corruption, sense and loyalty, knowledge and ignorance. This is a big novel, ambitious in theme and content, and it’s the finest of its kind.” —Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine
“The Black Dahlia meets the primary criterion of a good mystery read—you can’t put it down. . . . Ellroy is the master of a very difficult craft.” —The San Diego Union-Tribune
“Fine attention to detail and dead-on sense of the period. . . . Ellroy has established himself as one of the finest practitioners of noir fiction.” —The Plain Dealer
“Ellroy kept me glued to the chair. . . . His ear for 1940s speech is flawless.” —Newsweek
JAMES ELLROY was born in Los Angeles. He is the author of the Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy: American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, and Blood’s A Rover; and the L.A. Quartet novels: The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz. He is also the author of two other Freddy Otash novels, Widespread Panic and The Enchanters. He was awarded the 2022 Los Angeles Times Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement. He lives in Colorado.
View titles by James Ellroy
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
"A masterpiece." —People
"Brutal and at the same time believable." —New York Times
“Turgid with passion, violence, and frustration . . . imaginative and bizarre.” —Los Angeles Times
“A riveting 1940s noir Hollywood setting, full of period flavor and investigative detail.” —Boston Herald
“Ellroy distills the introspective style, slang, and racism of the ’40s roman noir. . . . His characters, individuals all, are beautifully shaded, and he captures the mind-numbing detail of police work.” —Chicago Sun-Times
“High-intensity prose. Reading it aloud could shatter your wineglasses.” —Elmore Leonard
“An absolute masterpiece and Ellroy’s finest work to date . . . played out against a beautifully dark, moody ’40s L.A. jazz score. The ultimate novel noir.” —Jonathan Kellerman
“James Ellroy has taken this unsolved murder, put his own savage spin on the story, and turned it into compelling fiction . . . fascinating reading, since Ellroy seemingly cannot write a dull line.” —Hartford Courant
“Ellroy has brilliantly poised the story between beauty and gross ugliness, honor and corruption, sense and loyalty, knowledge and ignorance. This is a big novel, ambitious in theme and content, and it’s the finest of its kind.” —Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine
“The Black Dahlia meets the primary criterion of a good mystery read—you can’t put it down. . . . Ellroy is the master of a very difficult craft.” —The San Diego Union-Tribune
“Fine attention to detail and dead-on sense of the period. . . . Ellroy has established himself as one of the finest practitioners of noir fiction.” —The Plain Dealer
“Ellroy kept me glued to the chair. . . . His ear for 1940s speech is flawless.” —Newsweek
JAMES ELLROY was born in Los Angeles. He is the author of the Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy: American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, and Blood’s A Rover; and the L.A. Quartet novels: The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz. He is also the author of two other Freddy Otash novels, Widespread Panic and The Enchanters. He was awarded the 2022 Los Angeles Times Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement. He lives in Colorado.
View titles by James Ellroy
