The Black Dahlia cover art

The Black Dahlia

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The Black Dahlia

By: James Ellroy
Narrated by: Jeff Harding
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About this listen

A neo-noir crime novel from the legendary crime novelist James Ellroy.

Los Angeles, 15th January 1947: a beautiful young woman walked into the night and met her horrific destiny. Five days later, her tortured body was found drained of blood and cut in half. The newspapers called her 'The Black Dahlia'. Two cops are caught up in the investigation and embark on a hellish journey that takes them to the core of the dead girl's twisted life....

©1987 James Ellroy (P)2016 Isis Publishing Ltd
Crime Fiction Fiction Historical Modern Detectives Movie, TV & Video Game Tie-Ins Police Procedural Tie-in Mystery Emotionally Gripping
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What listeners say about The Black Dahlia

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  • Overall
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absolutely brilliant

having only ever seen the movie I went into this not expecting too much. I was so wrong, brilliant story, brilliant narration and so much better than the movie in every way, a great book

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Would have profited from some editing.

I was absolutely grabbed by the brilliant beginning and the middle, very atmospheric and full of life-like personages, but the story should have ended a three chapters earlier to make this book almost as good as "LA Confidential".

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Great!!

fantastic story little bit of a choir at the beginning of the story but once it kicks in you won't be able to press pause

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Robotic Narration

Terrible narration, read in such a robotic manner.
It's a shame because the actual story is interesting although very unrealistic.
Narration has put me off listening to the quartet , back to basics and buy the paperback versions.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great story

Enjoyed the story more than the performance, plenty of twists and turns but the performance lacked a little drama to truly entertain.

Enjoyable none the less.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Scottish accent?

I know it’s a small thing and not really the fault of the audiobook producer but there is no such thing as a Scottish accent. Jeff here does an alright job of of an Aberdeen accent but needs some work z🤣

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Ellroy is a phenomenal story teller, keeping the reader hooked through many an unexpected twist and turn. The choice of Jeff Harding to narrate is absolutely exquisite: his style, his voices, his characters matching the crime noir to perfection

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

The Black Dahila - good read but some parts quite disturbing & some readers light not like the choice language in book

The Black Dahila - good read but some parts quite disturbing & some readers light not like the choice language in book
Jeff's narration great as always

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

had this in my wishlist. Awful narration ruined it

could've been so much better had the narrator not been so awful. Ruined it for me. Accents were terrible.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Superb

Somehow I'd missed this classic up till now.
It's the pinnacle of the genre though, and I'm glad I got round to it.
A very intricate tale with realistic characters no one would dare to write into a modern novel .

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