All Nathan Heller wants to do is get some publicity for the new Los Angeles branch of his A-1 Detective Agency and then get on with his honeymoon. Instead the reporter he is with stumbles over a body. This is not any murder case. The woman's body has been cut in half and carefully arranged. Thus begins the most disturbing Nathan Heller novel to date. The body that they have discovered is none other than the Black Dahlia. This is one of the most sensational murders in the history of Los Angeles. Before it is all over they will encounter the heavily corrupted police force, mobsters, thieves, and the most sadistic killer that Heller has ever had to face. All the while he is helping to solve the case he keeps one important piece of information to himself: he knew the victim. Along the way Heller rubs shoulders with old friends and makes some new enemies.After the last two rather disappointing novels it feels like the old Heller is back. The story doesn't feel stretched and belabored like the previous two. The hardest part of this book is the discussion of the actual slaying. The Black Dahlia case was a horrendous murder. Hearing details about the sadistic killing is can be just a little unsettling. It's a great book and an excellent chapter in the Nathan Heller saga.
Semi-spoiler alert: The tale opens in a vacant lot where Nate Heller and a reporter are looking over a body of a young woman. The flies are buzzing around the corpse (or actually the two halves of the corpse), which is also gruesomely mutilated. Things get worse from that point because Heller realizes that he knows the woman and he can't say anything about that.This story takes place just after WW II in Los Angeles where Heller has decided to expand his Chicago-based A-1 Detective Agency. He has also just married a woman with whom he has had a tempestuous on-and-off romance going through several previous stories. There a lot of things that hang over Nate like a dark cloud --- and that cloud doesn't go away as the story rolls out. For me, the mystery of the "Black Dahlia"......an unsolved crime is just too bleak, too tortured, too convoluted, to be satisfying. But, Collins makes it work and his ability to take you back to this period in Los Angeles' history is remarkable as you make the clubs, see the movie stars and take in the ambiance.
