Books: The Black Dahlia

Historical fiction, to me, always seemed like a dicey proposition. While it's not a universal goal, most writers strive to create stories that are plausible, so for a long time I thought that using a real event as a template was a mild form of cheating. I've discovered, though, that there are some genuinely gripping historical novels out there, like "The Black Dahlia" by James Ellroy.

It's one of Ellroy's L.A. crime novels. The story is centered around the real-life murder of Elizabeth Short, a highly sensationalized case that took place against the seedy backdrop of post-WWII Hollywood. Two partners on the police force are thrust into the investigation, which starts to affect the entire city as well as their friendship.

The political and social ramifications of the gruesome killing are interesting, but the real strength of "The Black Dahlia" is the authentic narrative voice it manages to capture. Ellroy uses fairly good '40s police slang, so you're never really jarred out of the milieu by some anachronism. I guess the moral of the story is, if you're going to rewrite history, do it carefully.