In the 1940's a young girl named Betty Short was murdered, being cut in half, her organs removed and a smiley (which is a gash ear to ear) cut into her face. This is the extent to which the real story of the Black Dahlia and the novel by James Ellroy are similar.
Ellroy's novel follows the rise of Bucky Bleichert to Warrant's Officer in the Los Angeles police department. While teamed up with Lee Blanchard, they discover the mutliated body. Although trying to discover who murdered the Black Dahlia is a major issue during the novel, it is not the primary focus of the story. Bucky and Lee's relationship, as well as Bucky's relationship with Kay Lake (who lives with Lee). It is very much a character driven story that plays itself out through the Black Dahlia murder case.
While the case of the Black Dahlia does play an integral part of the story, the journey to discover the killer is not the entire story. In fact, I wouldn't even consider the main plot. In my opinion, Bucky's development as a character, his figuring out who he is in light of everything that is going on around him, his character development. That's what's really important.
Overall I enjoyed the story. It was a bit gruesome when it described the young girl's mutilated body, and while I would have preferred to not read that part of it, I guess that it is pretty pivotal to the story. What I think that I enjoyed the most about this entire book was the fact that everything ties together. There are small details that are mentioned that seemingly have no connection to the entire story other than develop a charater trait. But by the end, all of those small details are some how tied to everything.
Moral of the Story: Historical fictions get the reader to research the real event and then become obsessed with it...if only for a short period of time.
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