L.A. Quartet #1

The Black Dahlia

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: 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.

Genres mysteryfictioncrimenoirhistorical fictionthrillertrue crimemystery thrillerdetectivehistorical

348 pages, Paperback

First published September 1,1987

Series

L.A. Quartet

Literary awards

deutscher krimi preis, premio pepe carvalho,

Places

los angeles california, california,

This edition

Format: 348 pages, Paperback
Published: August 16, 2006 by Mysterious Press
ISBN: 9780446698870
ASIN: 0446698873
Language: English

Characters More characters

About the author

james ellroy

Lee Earle "James" Ellroy is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a telegrammatic prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, staccato sentences, and in particular for the novels The Black Dahlia (1987) and L.A. Confidential (1990).