Black Dahlia - James Ellroy

The novel "Black Dahlia" is set in the 1940s in Los Angeles, California. Taking place around WWII, the novel portrays the depraved and corrupt side of Hollywood and L.A. It lives up to its neo-noir label by truly darkening its setting. Granted, the subject of the novel, the murder of Elizabeth Short, is very dark in and of itself, Ellroy certainly takes it that extra step. Because the murder of Short has still not been solved to this day, and there isn't a lot of detail about the case, Ellroy was able to take liberties with the story and weave his own, very dark version. What starts with an investigation into a murder quickly twists and turns, revealing dark secrets about the characters involved and morphing into a pretty sick sequence of events leading to the death of Elizabeth Short. Ellroy's story does well to depict the darker side of the times by allowing the investigation to reveal secrets of the characters involved.