The Black Dahlia
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Narrated by:
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Stephen Hoye
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By:
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James Ellroy
About this listen
In this fictionalized treatment of a real case, Bucky Bleichert and Lee Blanchard, both LA cops obsessed with the Black Dahlia, journey through the seamy underside of Hollywood to the core of the dead girl's twisted life.
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Burke's newest client is a woman named Flood, who has the face of an angel, the body of a high-priced stripper, and the skills of a professional executioner. She wants Burke to find a monster for her - so she can kill him with her bare hands. In this thriller, Andrew Vachss's renegade private eye teams up with a lethally gifted avenger to follow a child's murderer through the catacombs of New York, where every alley is blind and the penthouses are as dangerous as the basements.
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Noir!
- By Snoodely on 03-06-14
By: Andrew Vachss
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The Black Marble
- By: Joseph Wambaugh
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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He is a damned good cop -- a burned-out homicide detective wrapped around a Smith & Wesson .38 and a vodka bottle. She is his partner -- twice divorced, nursing a grudge against men, obsessed by the awful temptation of love.
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Really bad
- By JEFF on 05-17-10
By: Joseph Wambaugh
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Casanegra
- A Tennyson Hardwick Story
- By: Blair Underwood, Tananarive Due, Steven Barnes
- Narrated by: Richard Allen
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
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Performance
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In this hot and steamy mystery, Tennyson is an actor struggling to hang on to his career and redeem his sex-for-pay history, which estranged him from his family, especially his father, a decorated LAPD captain who raised Tennyson to call him "Sir". Now, in the wake of his father's sudden stroke, Tennyson has to save himself from taking the fall for a murder. In the process, he discovers his hidden talents - the hard way.
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What's The Beef?
- By James Gordon on 11-24-07
By: Blair Underwood, and others
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A Drink Before the War
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With novels like Mystic River and Shutter Island, Dennis Lehane has dramatically altered the landscape of the crime thriller—while boldly overstepping the boundaries that have long separated mystery from literature. Now two of his sensational early novels have been combined in a single volume—two gritty and mesmerizing masterworks of suspense featuring the private eye duo of Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro.
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White Bread
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 06-30-12
By: Dennis Lehane
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Whiskey Sour
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Lieutenant Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels is having a bad week. Her live-in boyfriend has left her for his personal trainer, chronic insomnia has caused her to max out her credit cards with late-night home shopping purchases, and a frightening killer who calls himself "The Gingerbread Man" is dumping mutilated bodies in her district.
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Like the book but GRAPHIC details
- By Kari on 10-31-09
By: J. A. Konrath
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Big City, Bad Blood
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- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
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Disillusioned newspaper reporter-turned-private detective Ray Dudgeon doesn't want to save the world; he just wants to do an honest job well. But when doing an honest job threatens society's most powerful and corrupt, Ray's odds of survival make for a sucker's bet.
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Quintessentially Chicago
- By Eva Gannon on 09-21-09
By: Sean Chercover
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Land of Shadows
- A Detective Elouise Norton Novel
- By: Rachel Howzell Hall
- Narrated by: Je Nie Fleming
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Along the ever-changing border of gentrifying Los Angeles, 17-year-old Monique Darson is found dead at a condominium construction site, hanging in the closet of an unfinished unit. Homicide Detective Elouise "Lou" Norton's new partner, Colin Taggert, fresh from the comparatively bucolic Colorado Springs police department, assumes it's a teenage suicide. Lou isn't buying the easy explanation. For one thing, the condo site is owned by Napoleon Crase, a self-made millionaire...and the man who may have murdered Lou's missing sister, Tori, 30 years ago.
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New Crime Fiction Series
- By Marymacviolin on 08-15-20
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The Blue Hour
- Merci Rayborn, Book 1
- By: T. Jefferson Parker
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
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Tim Hess is a semiretired veteran cop staring at a death sentence - his own. Detective Merci Rayborn, young enough to be his daughter, is brash, impatient, and not someone from whom Hess wants to be taking orders. He certainly isn't planning on falling in love with her. Together, they must track down a psychopathic killer who's been abducting beautiful young women from the malls of Orange County.
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Outstanding book, exceptional reader
- By Jan on 03-24-10
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Killing Critics
- By: Carol O'Connell
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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NYPD sergeant Kathleen Mallory - computer genius, street fighter, provocative waif, peerless investigator, manipulative beauty - is the gorgeous, near-sociopathic heroine of this knife-edged suspense novel. Along with old pals, Ricker, Coffey, and faithful admirer Charles Butler, Mallory is determined to solve the brutal "art as death" murder of an untalented but highly touted artist-critic.
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2 Stars is generous
- By P. Chavez on 10-14-12
By: Carol O'Connell
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Try this title for a change of pace
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Haughting. I did cry. A good cry.
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Nobody plays accordion like Dick Contino. His skilled fingers can find beauty in even the schmaltziest Borscht Belt favorites, and with his matinee-idol looks he could be a real star. Right now, though, he’s slumming it as the headliner in a Grade Z teenybopper picture called Daddy-O. He’s too good for this movie, and finishing it is going to take him to a very dark place. Daddy-O and Dick Contino are both real, their stories dredged out of the past by James Ellroy, a master of historical crime fiction. In Dick Contino's Blues he takes us to B-List Hollywood in 1957 - a time when movies were cheerful and dirty secrets lurked just off camera.
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Noir in the 21st century
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From the outside, Hollywood starlet Lana Turner seemed to have it all—a thriving film career, a beautiful daughter, and the kind of fame and fortune that most people could only dream of. But when the famous femme fatale began dating mobster Johnny Stompanato, thug for the infamous west coast mob boss Mickey Cohen, her personal life became violent and unpredictable. Lana's teenage daughter, Cheryl, watched her beloved mother's life deteriorate as Stompanato's intense jealousy took over.
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Not what you think…
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By 1920, the movies had suddenly become America's new favorite pastime and one of the nation's largest industries. Never before had a medium possessed such power to influence; yet Hollywood's glittering ascendancy was threatened by a string of headline-grabbing tragedies - including the murder of William Desmond Taylor, the popular president of the Motion Picture Directors Association, a legendary crime that has remained unsolved until now.
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Everybody's a dreamer...
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A brand new BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of a classic Raymond Chandler mystery featuring private eye, Philip Marlowe. Los Angeles PI Philip Marlowe is working for the Sternwood family. Old man Sternwood, crippled and wheelchair-bound, is being given the squeeze by a blackmailer and he wants Marlowe to make the problem go away.
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WARNING: NOT THE COMPLETE NOVEL
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A dying millionaire hires private eye Philip Marlowe to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, and Marlowe finds himself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder are just a few of the complications he gets caught up in.
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I miss Ray Porter
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What listeners say about The Black Dahlia
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Jane
- 09-23-06
An oddly compelling story
Filled with spooky noir nuances, outrageous storylines and complex characters, this is a don't miss book. That's not to say that it doesn't have it's flaws. There are some plot points that make very little sense, and some of the story is downright gory. However, as a whole, it makes for great listening, full of old Hollywood lore and 40's detective lingo.
I purchased and downloaded this well before the film release, fully intending to have it listened to before I saw the movie. I'm actually glad that I didn't read the book before the movie, because while the movie stands on it's own as entertainment, it is nothing next to the book. It's lengthy and requires your full attention, but I think you will find it's worth it.
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16 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- zmlode
- 11-08-15
Slow to get into, but still fantastic.
Brilliant performance. Thoroughly enjoyed the afterword. Loved the historic setting of Los Angeles in the forties. Some very good twist and turns. Highly recommend.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Randy Salinas
- 12-10-23
Not a good listen
The book was ruined by the audio. Not sure if it was the performance or it just being read aloud. Some things just made me hate the recording
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- Dogs Land
- 09-20-24
Good enough story and presentation.
The racial slurs were rampant, and I am no prude about language that pertains to the story. But this was way over the top. I understand it was about a different time, but some trimming is in order.
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Performance
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- Floyd
- 04-05-18
Noir both spectacular and personal
I normally will read 2 or 3 books at a time. As soon as I started The Black Dahila, I hadn't picked up anything else. Set in post war Los Angeles, like the rest of the LA Quartet series, the story focuses on a particularly horrific murder and investigation surrounding it. Far from a garden variety procedural story, Black Dahila is a deep dive into the very personal trauma of all the characters impacted by the murder. From the victim, to the detectives detailed to the investigation (McEllroy focuses on two in particular) and to the women in those detectives' lives. Again, modern day readers may be jarred by the racism and sexism so casually prevalent in the story. I would argue that 21st century humans aren't any more evolved that our 1950s counterparts; we just dress up our flaws differently. McEllroy takes all the post war shine off America and takes into lives of deeply flawed and incredibly strong people, some of whom are evil and others who are fighting to find the rightness in their world. Again, great book!
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2 people found this helpful
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Performance
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- Trooper T
- 03-11-14
The Black Dahlia will pull you in
What made the experience of listening to The Black Dahlia the most enjoyable?
The Narrator voice matched the story
What did you like best about this story?
Based on fact
What about Stephen Hoye’s performance did you like?
His voice added to the story
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
I dare you to watch Black Dahlia
Any additional comments?
As you read this book you will find yourself asking for more
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Laurent F. Rains
- 03-12-24
Classic Noir
Loved this creepy love triangle so much. More even on my second listen. 1940s LA comes alive.
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Overall
- Kindle Customer
- 03-21-11
Black Dahlia
I woudn't recommend this book for anyone who cannot handle violence in their literature . . . that being said, the book was very compelling and didn't just cover the tragedy of the murder of a young woman; it also gave us a look at the darkness of the lives of our main characters. Being able to get a picture of what drove the characters to be portrayed in the manner they were helped the book flow better and gave insight to their actions. After reading this book I was driven to do internet searches and learn more about the true crime that occured - I had never heard of the Black Dahlia before. I did feel a little lost in the final chapters of the book as I felt they skipped around a lot; however I did walk away from the story feeling like justice was served in the story (and hopefully in real life). I have recommended this book to several of my friends.
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14 people found this helpful
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Overall
- psykoace
- 04-23-08
GREAT BOOK
Let me say I am a rabid fan of James Ellroy.
His genius is that he goes into his characters souls and he understands the human soul very well.
Be aware that his mother was murdered in much the same way The Dahlia was murdered. This should give you more insight into of his characters feelings for The Dahlia.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Zap Smith
- 03-30-17
Bland delivery
Being a big fan of the genre, voice and era James Ellroy's writing has come to define and having heard all the blasting the film version of this book took for not playing faithful to its source material, I came to The Black Dahlia with high hopes that were met with varying levels of satisfaction. Fans of the dark underbelly running beneath the sunny streets of Hollywood that Ellroy's words paint so well won't be disappointed, but those looking for much of a story to chew on might. I was a little surprised that the movie took so much heat for being unfocused and hokey, since the book could lose all of Kay Lake and the ridiculous boxer-lab technician turn and retain much of its grit, charm and coherence. But the winding, sometimes mundane tale has plenty of big moments that remind you the big fault with this version of the story is NOT the author. After listening to Craig Wasson's rendering of L.A. Confidential, I gave that version a lot of crap for the cliche impressions to which most of the characters were reduced. Well, I wish as much life was breathed into The Black Dahlia. Hoye is a good narrator - he'd be an excellent history or science genre voice - but he comes off too cultured and soft for most of the machine gun patter of Ellroy's prose. Overall if you like L.A. Confidential, Ellroy or have a passing interest in The Black Dahlia you'll probably read this book and not be too disappointed.
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