RARA-AVIS: Ellroy's Dahlia

Bill Hagen (billha@ionet.net)
Sat, 18 Apr 1998 22:17:15 -0500 (CDT) Since we're getting ready to comment on an Ellroy book in May, I wanted to
share a first reading of his _Black Dahlia_, which I located after reading
some earlier posts on his novels. (It was hard to locate.)

It really held me--and my wife, who usually doesn't like hard-boiled. Must
say I can't understand why people say he takes so long to read, however.
You just push everything aside and read on! The lawn, the long-haired dog,
the carpet with the dog's long hairs--let 'em wait!

He really does a nice balancing act, between character interest and the
driving plot. While I thought there was too much late-plot
complication/revelation, I couldn't find any glaring improbabilities.
Maybe it was a case of a classic-style mystery ending (ie, the # of
separate revelations) in a subgenre (hb or noir) where the unraveling is
usually more in terms of the justice done, than the culprit fingered.
Dahlia had both, believeably driven by a detective's obsessions.

I don't have references on Ellroy or his sources. Folks in their 60s tell
me they remember a case...or are they simply remembering the A. Ladd
movie, The Blue Dahlia (1946)? Was there a Dahlia case? Similar? Anyone
charged and convicted?

Bill Hagen
<billha@ionet.net>

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