Yesterday I finished reading The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy, a noiry kind of mystery novel based on the true "Black Dahlia" case, the unsolved, gruesome murder of a young woman in Hollywood in the 1940s.
This book was really engrossing, and made me want to read more James Ellroy (Ellroy also wrote LA Confidential, among others). I've always really liked older mystery stuff, but hadn't found any modern writers that I could really get into. Ellroy is more gritty and character based that who-done-it Sherlock Holmesy, and that is the kind of mystery writing that I like. It also made me want to read some of the many true-crime books about the real Black Dahlia case. I can be a sucker for a good true crime book...
3 comments:
You should read his non-fiction book "My Dark Places". Its about Ellroy's mother's unsolved murder, his childhood, his later life, and the investigation that he paid for after he got rich. I read it a long time ago, and I thought that it was good back when I read it. I think that his mother's murder is still unsolved.
I really like Walter Mosley, who writes the Easy Rawlins mysteries. Easy is a black part-time private eye in LA, and the stories cover the late 40s/early 50s through the 60s, I think. Great books, well-developed characters (even the minor ones), diverse stories, african-american point of view. _Devil in a Blue Dress_ is probably his most famous book because a movie was made of it. Denzel was in the lead, so now, when I read them or listen to them on tape (don't laugh: i do this so that i can embroider at the same time), i always think of Denzel, which is never a bad thing.
Josh mentioned that Ellroy's mother had been murdered, and that the killer was never found, which is interesting because a lot of The Black Dahlia has to do with one of the detective's guilt/obssession with the unsolved dissapearance of his sister...
And,
I've never read any Walter Mosley, but I have seen the movie version of Devil in a Blue Dress and I really liked that. Yes, you can't go wrong with Denzel thoughts.
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