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| Author | James Ellroy |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Jacket design by Paul Gamarello Jacket illustration by Stephen Peringer Art direction by Barbara Buck |
| Language | English |
| Series | L.A. Quartet |
| Genre | Crime fiction, noir, historical fiction |
| Publisher | The Mysterious Press |
Publication date | September 1987 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover & paperback), audio cassette, audio CD, and audio download |
| Pages | 325 pp (1st ed., hardcover) |
| ISBN | 0-89296-206-2 (1st ed., hardcover) |
| OCLC | 15517895 |
| 813/.54 19 | |
| LC Class | PS3555.L6274 B53 1987 |
| Preceded by | Killer on the Road (1986) |
| Followed by | The Big Nowhere (1988) |
The Black Dahlia (1987) is a crime fiction novel by American author James Ellroy. Its subject is the 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short in Los Angeles, California, which received wide attention because her corpse was horrifically mutilated and discarded in an empty residential lot. The investigation ultimately led to a broad police corruption scandal. While rooted in the facts of the Short murder and featuring many real-life people, places and events, Ellroy's novel blends facts and fiction, most notably in providing a solution to the crime when in reality it has never been solved. James Ellroy dedicated The Black Dahlia, "To Geneva Hilliker Ellroy 1915-1958 Mother: Twenty-nine Years Later, This Valediction in Blood." The epigraph for The Black Dahlia is "Now I fold you down, my drunkard, my navigator, My first lost keeper, to love and look at later. -Anne Sexton."
This book is considered the one that gained Ellroy critical attention as a serious writer of literature, expanding his renown beyond the crime novels of his early career.[1][2] The Black Dahlia is the first book in Ellroy's L.A. Quartet, a cycle of novels set in 1940s and 1950s Los Angeles. He portrays the city in this period as a hotbed of political corruption and depravity. The Quartet continues with The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz.
- ^ Phillips, Keith (Dec 1, 2004). "James Ellroy". Onion A/V Club.
- ^ Tibbetts, John C.; James M. Walsh (September 1999). Novels into Film: The Encyclopedia of Movies Adapted from Books. Checkmark Books. ISBN 0-8160-3961-5.