620 reviews for:

Le Dahlia noir

James Ellroy

3.58 AVERAGE

dark tense medium-paced
dark mysterious medium-paced
dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Spellbinding


This is one helluva book.

This is a fictional tale based on the murder of Elizabeth Short, presenting the truth of '40s L.A. as a cesspool of crime and moral bankruptcy. Behind the glam of Hollywood(land) is a complicated web of individuals with their hidden lies and agendas. Perhaps that's why the real killer of the Black Dahlia was never convicted.

This was a roller coaster of a read before the afterword went for a last-minute punch. The author, haunted by the memory of his murdered mother, wrote this as a kind of a fucked up commemoration tainted by obsession. May those poor women rest in peace.

While Ellroy's prose is hard to follow and at some points boring, he created a book that went beyond my expectations. Reading the afterword, connecting his mother's rape and murder to the Black Dahlia murder made this book even more significant. This is an author that I'll be sure to read again.
dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
dark mysterious sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No