Re: RARA-AVIS: Ellroy's Dahlia

James Rogers (jetan@ionet.net)
Sat, 18 Apr 1998 22:29:03 -0500 (CDT) At 10:17 PM 4/18/98 -0500, you wrote:
I thought there was too much late-plot
>complication/revelation, I couldn't find any glaring improbabilities.
>Maybe it was a case of a classic-style mystery ending (ie, the # of
>separate revelations) in a subgenre (hb or noir) where the unraveling is
>usually more in terms of the justice done, than the culprit fingered.
>Dahlia had both, believeably driven by a detective's obsessions.
>
>I don't have references on Ellroy or his sources. Folks in their 60s tell
>me they remember a case...or are they simply remembering the A. Ladd
>movie, The Blue Dahlia (1946)? Was there a Dahlia case? Similar? Anyone
>charged and convicted?
>
>
I agree that the last part of the book was a
little over the top. Spoiled it a bit, but the first four fifths were so
good I was ready to forgive it anything.
The Black Dahlia case was a 1940s murder, relatively faithfully
documented by Ellroy. It is unsolved and has generated a plethora of
theories. There is an almost unblelievably gruesome website devoted to it,
with the starring role given to the disfigured and bisected corpse from the
morgue shots ("I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille"). Don't have the URL
anymore. The name was a newspaper derivation from the Alan Ladd flick "Blue
Dahlia" (script:Raymond Chandler).

James
James Michael Rogers
jetan@ionet.net

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