Sunday, 20 September 2015

The Black Dahlia – James Ellroy



My mother started reading this book after she gave birth to me, and threw it away freaked out after a few pages. Later she blamed the decision on hormonal imbalance and declared the book one of the best she ever read. This novel by Ellroy made me seriously reconsider the greatness of Chandler and Hammett, as I don’t think the two can even compare to Ellroy.

Having watched L.A. Confidential (but without having read the book) I knew Ellroy could weave intricate plots mixing real-life characters and events to anchor them to the reality of 1940s and 1950s LA, but I wasn’t expecting to be this drawn into a book of his this quickly. Having found the intricacies of a movie like Chinatown excessive and borderline laughable, I would have never thought I would have enjoyed so much the twists towards the end of the novel.

And, oddly enough, even the sort-of-sweet and somewhat romantic epilogue manages not to be cheesy.

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