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One of the most shocking crimes of the last century involves the unsolved 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short, a woman the press dubbed the Black Dahlia. There have been a lot of movies, books, and theories involving the case. Elizabeth Short came to Hollywood to become famous, and that she did. Unfortunately it was as a corpse. To this day, there has been a lot of interest in this unsolved case, bringing in a lot of imitators and copycats. Now, it has crossed the pond over to England where a young woman has been murdered in the same exact way and manner as the Black Dahlia. The only difference is that Louise Pennel gets a new nickname, The Red Dahlia. This crime is now Detective Inspector Anna Travis's headache. During the first half of the book, the author delves into the story of the Red Dahlia and the investigation. The police become too involved in the story, grasping at all the straws that they are given and discovering that witnesses lie which makes things more complicated. The killer is taunting the police in a similar fashion as the alleged Black Dahlia killer all those years ago. However, the case of the Red Dahlia is as they say in Alfred Hitchcock parlance, a MacGuffin. The crime is a tool, a plot device that motivates the characters and/or advances the story. It all starts when the police get a lead on a specific suspect to the crime. It is there where the whole tone of the book takes a dramatic turn, bringing us another story. The book goes through too many directions and readers might feel cheated with the way the story goes. Character development is relatively weak during the Red Dahlia-phase of the case, although more energy is put in when it comes to the possible suspect. The crime becomes a bit anti-climatic because we are made to focus on something else. Lynda La Plante may have written some terrific novels in the past. THE RED DAHLIA is not one of them.
Reviewed by Angel L. Soto, May 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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