I discovered after reading the book that it was based from an actual unsolved crime from the 1940s.
Book Synopsis from Good Reads:
The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
On January 15, 1947, the torture-ravished body of a beautiful young woman is found in a Los Angeles 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: Warrants Squad cops, friends, and rivals in love with the same woman. But 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.
My Review on Good Reads:
2 of 5 stars
Personal opinion; this is a man's book all the way. While the description may seem like an intense and somewhat gory period mystery, it was more just senseless violence with no actual "good guys" to be found.
The story is mildly interesting, that and the fact that I read it while I was in the hospital and bored when they weren't sticking needles in me, is why I read the whole LONG book. The book is very dark, the language very strong and the stereotypes very sexist, racist and cliche. Add to that there was not one likable character in the story. Maybe a guy who is into violence for the sake of violence as a pissing contest between men in positions of power and sex as something to do when there's nothing else to do with easily accessible women who always say "yes" will find it a good read. As a woman who enjoys mysteries with sometimes perverse and violent serial killers and detectives who search for them using their brains, I wasn't impressed.
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