Jon Taylor’s Reviews > The Black Dahlia > Status Update

Dulange - a truly awful creep of a man. Today’s equivalent would be that Tait bloke. All muscles and misogyny. Very satisfying when Bucky punched him out. Elroy’s view of men is dark. And the manipulation of the press is another really interesting facet to this, along with Elroy’s historical details (Fatty Arbuckle).

The psychology here is interesting. Bucky has become as obsessed as Blanchard was. The confusion on Madeleine and Betty (with Kay thrown into the mix) is weird, unsettling.

Grimy, sleazy and disturbing. Blanchard is losing his mind and Bucky is withholding information. No idea how this is all going to work out and fear it will be grim.

All this gritty guy stuff - I can’t work out how Ellroy feels about it. Is he living out a fantasy of his own. Can’t feel like the sort of man he writes about as an author can he? I wonder how much of the interrogation of Red was his own insecurity? Or is he judgement-free, a presenter of the facts, for better or worse?

We are drawn into the world of the girl, Elizabeth Short. We meet the father, a small, sleazy man with short-man syndrome. Lee is unravelling. Bucky and Kay are circling. Bobby de Witt is out there. And Loew is politicising.

This is unnervingly real - I remember seeing a documentary about Ellroy where he talked about this book in connection with the disappearance of his mother, I think, and I have to keep reminding myself that, although informed by that event, this is fiction. Christ, it’s grim. The 2 lead characters are working men of the 40s and not easy to like.

The boxing match was excitingly told. The level of detail in the police routines is impressive but I hope we get the plot moving soon.