La dalia negra

B de Bolsillo

by James Ellroy

No cover — James Ellroy: La dalia negra (Spanish language, 2015)

531 pages

Spanish language

Published Nov. 21, 2015

ISBN:: 978-84-9070-104-1
OCLC Number:: 908084229

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(11 reviews)

"El 15 de enero de 1947, en un solar de Los Angeles, apareció el cadáver desnudo y seccionado en dos de una mujer joven. El médico forense determinó que la habían torturado durantes días. Elizabeth Short, de 22 años, llamada la Dalia Negra, llevará a los detectives a los bajos fondos de Hollywood, para así involucrar a ciertas personas adineradas de Los Angeles. Ambos están obsesionados por lo que fue la vida de la Dalia Negra, y, sobre todo, por capturar al individuo que la asesinó."

"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. 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."--Publisher's description.

34 editions

emfiliane reviewed Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

Review of 'Black Dahlia' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Some books are just practically impossible to reduce to stars, and I feel that way about The Black Dahlia.

The thing is, I know I'll be reading the rest of the Quartet, if only because LA Confidential is one of the best movies I've ever seen, and I know there's plenty more. So I can't stop, obviously. But the sheer vile brutality the first half revels in is just too much at times; I should have at least checked reviews to steel myself to the endless casual racial epithets and casual cop violence I was immediately thrown into. Bucky's superiority complex and self-loathing that went along with it could grate at times, but Ellroy took no pains whatsoever to try to convince you that he was a hero, merely one of the least horrible of a whole cast of monsters.

The second half tightened up significantly, losing the violence for shock's sake, bring a greater pathos and a much more substantial lone gumshoe story.

The ending was disappointing; aside from being too neat and tidy to match the grisly tone of the beginning, it was just a grand conspiracy unraveled over the course of the final few chapters, ensuring that everything makes sense and nobody keeps a secret by the end.

It was a good book and it was a terrible book. I'm still really mixed up about it. In that respect, as least it's memorable.