The Black Dahlia: The first book in the classic L.A. Quartet crime series

James Ellroy

Oct 2011 · L.A. Quartet Book 1 · Random House

About this eBook

Los Angeles, 15th January 1947. A beautiful young woman walks into the night and meets a horrific destiny.

Five days later, her tortured body is found drained of blood and cut in half. The newspapers call her 'The Black Dahlia'. For two cops, what begins as an investigation becomes a hellish journey that takes them to the core of the dead girl's twisted life.

And soon professional curiosity spirals into obsession...
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'A mesmerising study of the psycho-sexual obsession... extraordinarily well written' - The Times
'The outstanding crime writer of his generation' - The Independent
'A wonderful tale of ambition, insanity, passion and deceit' - Publishers Weekly

Ratings and reviews

My Ellroy journey starts here, I picked this up after playing Rockstars LA Noire because all the references to this story in the game and I am glad I did. Such an amazing read, its got a great lead character loads of twists, every time I thought I had the killer nailed it would take a turn and I would be completely wrong. The more I read the darker the plot became, the more I couldn't put this down, definitely has made me an Ellroy fan and I can't wait to pick up another one of his books.

Apart from being a great crime novel, I particularly loved such beautiful flow of emotions. The first paragraph is so chillingly romantic that I can only think of the obsession under which ellroy was under.however this book precedes my favourite book of all time" the big nowhere " which happens to be the best in this quartet.

This book oh my😭 beautifully written. Ellroy has ruined me for other authors in this genre.

About the author

James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. He is the author of the acclaimed 'LA Quartet': The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz. His most recent novel, Blood's a Rover, completes the magisterial 'Underworld USA Trilogy' - the first two volumes of which (American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand) were both Sunday Times bestsellers.