Cat's Musings

The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

Content Warning: Suicide, SA, Murder, Domestic Abuse, Homophobia, Racism

Happy 2026, folks. I'm going to talk a little bit about the last book I read of 2025 - noir story called The Black Dahlia. Pay special attention to the content warnings. Without further ado:

I got really into audio books in graduate school. I was commuting back and forth between Bryan, TX and Huntsville on a daily basis - about an hour drive.

At this same time, I had become obsessed with film noir as a result of what I still consider the best entry into the Rockstar Games' catalogue: LA Noire. I read the classic Maltese Falcon and a few Philip Marlowe books. I had done a summer exploration of film noir through Turner Classic Movies.

But after clearing out some of the classics, I shifted to the sub-genre of neo noir. It was here I found the Black Dahlia by James Ellroy. Intrigued, I spent my audible credit for the month and downloaded it. I was driving up to Chicago that winter break, so I would need some long audio to keep me company. It was my introduction to the author.

I was hooked. I finished about half of it on the drive up and still had about an hour left on my drive back. It was two in the morning, so I remember parking in my university's parking garage with the windows rolled down, looking at the night sky as I finished it up.

The Black Dahlia is a book that sits shamefully in the gutter. It is steeped in sleaze and grime more than any other story I've read. Its highs are very high, and the lows make you feel dirty reading it. It follows the story of Dwight 'Bucky' Bleichert and his partner, Lee Blanchard. Both popular and promising cops and former boxers, whom have some nasty skeletons in their closets.

It is my favorite book to read. It's not my favorite story. It doesn't have my favorite characters. But the emotional struggle you go through is like ten rounds with and in-his-prime Lee Blanchard. And like Bucky's inability to escape the Dahlia, I am unable to escape this book.

I've done my most recent re-read in the past two or three weeks since I finished Shadow of the Fox. I can't recommend this book, but if the StoryGraph page intrigues you, go for it. The content warning should not be heeded lightly.

Spoilers below the royalty free image of a detective.

It doesn't take a lot of detective work to know that spoilers are ahead.

A Study of Man

The Black Dahlia is not a straightforward crime novel. The crime and its victim are a lens by which the author explores how one's flaws can be their demise. If you go into it expecting a procedural, you'll be disappointed.

Our protagonist is Dwight 'Bucky' Bleichert. His destructive flaw is that he is craven. This isn't to say he is coward - he's not afraid of violence. He was a light heavy weight boxer, where he cleaned up and gained an impressive fight record. However, he refused to move up to heavyweight where he would face more serious competition, and quit boxing when he faced a real threat. This wasn't out of fear of being harmed, but fear of losing what pride he had.

This is a perfect way to describe many of Bucky's failings. He's willing to capture dangerous criminals, yet he initially doesn't want to pursue the Dahlia case because it was too high profile. He wants glory, but doesn't want risk.

The moment he gives in to this aspect of his nature are when he is the most despicable later in the book, especially after Lee's death. When he grows bored, and disgusted by living in a home paid for with Lee's criminal earnings, he re-ignites his affair with Madeleine Sprague, the daughter of a corrupt real estate baron. He even suppressed evidence to be with her. His wife, Kay, rightfully leaves him at this point.

However, the moments he stops caring about personal glory and risks his neck to get genuinely good work done are the highlights of the book. Shortly after Lee disappears to Mexico, Bucky begins to fall under the influence of Fritz Vogel. In an LAPD full of casual and overt racism, blatant sexism, and rampant corruption, somehow Fritz manages to be one of the worst. After Bucky discovers that Fritz hid evidence he had on the Dahlia case to protect his son's detective career, he begins to build a case against Fritz and his son. He had planned to go smart and slow, to get Vogel removed without scandalizing his police career.

However, Bucky learns about the cruelty Fritz inflicted on innocent prostitutes and he decides to axe his future career as a detective by arresting Fritz's son for the crimes he has committed. He is viewed as a traitor by the LAPD, but Fritz commits suicide and his son's reputation is tarnished without his dad's influence. But Bucky is satisfied that a dangerous and cruel man is off the streets.

He later solves the Dahlia murder and throws away any chance of a future with the LAPD in order to deal what little justice he can do to the Spragues, solving the Dahlia murder, and getting some measure of closure for Elizabeth Short. He reveals he was suppressing evidence, drags the Spragues into the paper. Madeleine is committed for murdering Lee Blanchard. Her father's reputation is further destroyed.

A Dirty Secret

This book is very problematic. Quite a few liberties are taken with the life of Elizabeth short. Ellroy paints her as an 'easy' woman, sexually manipulated and destroyed by Hollywood, including participating in a stag film and occasional prostitution. This might have been the case, but we simply don't know if it is true, and it rubs me the wrong way as Elizabeth Short wasn't a fictional character, but a real young woman whose life was tragically cut short.

The racism is also rampant. Homophobia is common. It would not be faithful to the LAPD if it wasn't there, but the regular usage of racial slurs does get uncomfortable.

Reread

James Ellroy's novels are full of sleaze. I've read some of his other ones. They're just too bleak, the protagonists too unlikable for me to enjoy. I've even DNF'd one of them. But the Black Dahlia's unrelenting grime mixes with a few points of light to hook me in to the end. I love this book, and hate so much about it.

I've listened to the audible release two or three times. I read it on kindle when I lived in Korea. This most recent reread was my third time purchasing this book, this time on Libro.fm.

I will probably revisit it again in a few more years.

Thanks for reading~

#rambling #reading