黑色大理花 (1987)

《黑色大理花》（英语：The Black Dahlia）是1987年的新黑色犯罪小说，作者是美国作家詹姆斯·艾尔罗伊，其灵感来自真实的伊丽莎白·萧特谋杀案。《黑色大理花》是艾洛伊的洛城四部曲第一本著作，设定于1940年代与1950年代的洛杉矶，描绘了政治腐败和堕落的温床。洛城四部曲继续的作品是《绝命之乡》、《铁面特警队》和《白色爵士》。詹姆斯·艾洛伊以《黑色大理花》献给 "To Geneva Hilliker Ellroy 1915–1958 Mother: Twenty-nine Years Later, This Valediction in Blood."，题词则是 "Now I fold you down, my drunkard, my navigator, My first lost keeper, to love and look at later. —安妮·塞克斯顿"。

改编电影

《黑色大理花》被改编成同名电影，由布赖恩·德帕尔马执导，于2006年上映。

The Black Dahlia (1987) is a crime fiction novel by American author James Ellroy. Its subject is the 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short in Los Angeles, California, which received wide attention because her corpse was horrifically mutilated and discarded in an empty residential lot. The investigation ultimately led to a broad police corruption scandal. While rooted in the facts of the Short murder and featuring many real-life people, places and events, Ellroy's novel blends facts and fiction, most notably in providing a solution to the crime when in reality it has never been solved. James Ellroy dedicated The Black Dahlia, "To Geneva Hilliker Ellroy 1915-1958 Mother: Twenty-nine Years Later, This Valediction in Blood." The epigraph for The Black Dahlia is "Now I fold you down, my drunkard, my navigator, My first lost keeper, to love and look at later. -Anne Sexton."

This book is considered the one that gained Ellroy critical attention as a serious writer of literature, expanding his renown beyond the crime novels of his early career. The Black Dahlia is the first book in Ellroy's L.A. Quartet, a cycle of novels set in 1940s and 1950s Los Angeles. He portrays the city in this period as a hotbed of political corruption and depravity. The Quartet continues with The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz.

The novel was adapted to film in 2006, and into a graphic novel in 2013.

Synopsis

In 1946, the Los Angeles Police Department arranges a boxing match between patrolmen Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert and Lee Blanchard as a publicity stunt. The fight is promoted as "Fire versus Ice", reflecting their contrasting boxing styles and personalities. Bucky is cautious and reserved, racked with guilt over his betrayal of two Japanese-American friends (resulting in their wartime internment) and involvement in violently suppressing the Zoot Suit Riots. By contrast, Lee is outgoing and jovial, already famous for catching the notorious bank robber Bobby De Witt. Lee is openly cohabiting with De Witt's girlfriend, Kay Lake, in violation of LAPD policy, after having met her at the trial.

Bucky and Lee are promoted to plainclothes jobs in the Warrants Division and are subsequently partnered together. Bucky quickly forms a close bond with Lee and Kay, seeing them as a surrogate family. Kay becomes attracted to Bucky and attempts to seduce him, revealing that her relationship with Lee is platonic, but Bucky nevertheless rebuffs her advances in order to avoid upsetting the harmonious friendship between the three of them.

In January 1947, the hideously mutilated body of Elizabeth Short is discovered. The killing, which the press dub "Black Dahlia," reminds Lee of the unsolved disappearance of his younger sister Laurie, prompting him to volunteer himself and Bucky for the investigation. Another detective, the thuggish Fritz Vogel, is in cahoots with Assistant DA Ellis Loew, who hopes to use the case to launch his political career. Vogel and Loew repeatedly try to frame innocent men in order to close the case quickly. Bucky is initially resentful of his and Lee's involvement in the case but gradually becomes obsessed with Short as he learns about her chaotic and unhappy life.

One line of enquiry leads Bucky to Madeleine Sprague, a spoiled socialite who closely resembles Short and was involved in a lesbian relationship with her. In exchange for Bucky suppressing evidence about her involvement, Madeleine has sex with him, causing him to fantasize that she is Short. Bucky meets the rest of Madeleine's family, consisting of her tyrannical father Emmett, an amoral property developer; her sickly mother Ramona; and her sister Martha, an aspiring artist. He also learns about George Tilden, an old friend of Emmett's who was badly disfigured in a car crash and subsequently became a reclusive handyman on Emmett's estate.