Book 19: "The Black Dahlia" by James Ellroy
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 19:18![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittiwakeIt was tenuous, circumstantial, and theoretical, probably just another lie or half-truth or thread of useless information. A loose end unraveled by a coming-from-hunger cop whose life was build on a foundation of lies. Which was the only good reason I could think of to pursue the ghost of a chance. Without the case, I had nothing.
There are obsession, jealousy and murder, crooked policemen, mysterious disappearances and love triangles, plus some very damaged people in this story based around a famous murder in Los Angeles in 1947.
As I have zero interest in boxing, the initial chapters about the boxing match between two policemen who happen to be ex-professional boxers held no interest whatsoever. However, once Bleichert was promoted to become Blanchard's partner in Central Warrants, the story really started moving, and it wasn't long before they were seconded to work on the high profile Black Dahlia murder case.
With a hundred pages left to read, I was quite enjoying it but not enthralled, but everything is wrapped up very satisfyingly by the end.
Slang words that I had to look up on Google:
Bunco - a swindle, fraud or confidence trick, but in this case it is the police department that investigates them
cooze - c*** / promiscuous woman
goose eggs - nothing / zero
grasshopper - drug user *
sawbuck - 10 dollar bill
lowballing - offering less than the true value for something
shine - black man
twist - girl
And one I did know, but only from watching a recent episode of "My Name is Earl":
shiv - a weapon made by a prisoner from whatever he can get his hands on.
* Grasshopper has a lot of different slang meanings but drug user fitted the context. I always wondered what 'grass' had to do with telling tales to the police, but it must be short for grasshopper as I discovered that in British slang a grasshopper is a police informant, from rhyming slang "grasshopper, tell a copper".
There are obsession, jealousy and murder, crooked policemen, mysterious disappearances and love triangles, plus some very damaged people in this story based around a famous murder in Los Angeles in 1947.
As I have zero interest in boxing, the initial chapters about the boxing match between two policemen who happen to be ex-professional boxers held no interest whatsoever. However, once Bleichert was promoted to become Blanchard's partner in Central Warrants, the story really started moving, and it wasn't long before they were seconded to work on the high profile Black Dahlia murder case.
With a hundred pages left to read, I was quite enjoying it but not enthralled, but everything is wrapped up very satisfyingly by the end.
Slang words that I had to look up on Google:
Bunco - a swindle, fraud or confidence trick, but in this case it is the police department that investigates them
cooze - c*** / promiscuous woman
goose eggs - nothing / zero
grasshopper - drug user *
sawbuck - 10 dollar bill
lowballing - offering less than the true value for something
shine - black man
twist - girl
And one I did know, but only from watching a recent episode of "My Name is Earl":
shiv - a weapon made by a prisoner from whatever he can get his hands on.
* Grasshopper has a lot of different slang meanings but drug user fitted the context. I always wondered what 'grass' had to do with telling tales to the police, but it must be short for grasshopper as I discovered that in British slang a grasshopper is a police informant, from rhyming slang "grasshopper, tell a copper".
