Praise for Black Dahlia Avenger "The most haunting murder mystery in Los Angeles county during the 20th century has finally been solved in the 21st century." --Stephen R. Kay, L.A. County Head Deputy District Attorney "Los Angeles is the construct of its mythologies good and bad, fact and fiction. The legend of Elizabeth Short is one of the most enduring. But now Steve Hodel has come to put the Black Dahlia painfully to rest. With the tenacity and patience of the veteran homicide detective he once was, Hodel goes from odd coincidence to rock solid conclusion. Taking us on the intriguing and unsettling journey every step of the way, Hodel's investigation is thoroughly and completely convincing. So too is this book. As far as I am concerned, this case is closed. Elizabeth Short's legend is now shared with a killer who has been pulled from the shadows of time and into the light. Everybody counts or nobody counts, and that includes the people shrouded in our myths. Steve Hodel knows this. And now we do, too." --Michael Connelly, bestselling author-The Narrows, and Harry Bosch mystery series "Crime was rampant as musicals in Los Angeles in the postwar years-this is the age of Bugsy Siegel, the founding of Las Vegas, Mickey Cohen and gun battles on Sunset Boulevard….and it’s the age of film noir….George Hodel, I think is fit company for some of noir’s most civilized villains-like Waldo Lydecker in Laura, Harry Lime in The Third Man, or even Noah Cross in Chinatown." --David Thomson, The New York Times Book Review "We can only glimpse who Betty Short was--but now we know who killed her, and why." --James Ellroy, from his Foreword "[Steve Hodel] gives us a fascinating family psychodrama; we watch his image of his father morph from flawed but lovable ladies' man to monster." ---Newsweek "[Hodel] has written an intensely readable account….So what’s the final verdict on Black Dahlia Avenger? It’s accounts of cover-ups and civic corruption are all too believable, and much of the circumstantial evidence it presents against George Hodel is persuasive….Has Steve Hodel solved the case? I think so." --Jon L. Breen, The Weekly Standard "The book has been described as ‘Hannibal Lecter meets L.A. Confidential meets Chinatown,’ but even that Hollywood characterization doesn’t do it justice. Former Los Angeles police detective Steve Hodel has written one of the most compelling true-crime books of all time." --Seattle Weekly "An ex-L.A. cop uncovers a painful answer to the notorious 1947 Black Dahlia slaying...Hodel appears to have solved one of the most sensational murders in the history of Los Angeles." --People Magazine "[Hodel] makes a strong case that the Black Dahlia was part of a larger series of ritual murders that went on for years. This unsparing, chilling account of the actions of a perfect psychopath grips to the end." - Toronto Globe and Mail "Hodel tells the story well and with incredible objectivity . . .a real-life tale of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." - Richmond Times-Dispatch "This remarkable book will keep readers riveted from the first page to the very last." --Tuscon Citizen "In this 2003 case study, Hodel declares the case is solved. e offers irrefutable evidence piled fact upon fact as only the mind of a professional detective can present. The Black Dahlia Avenger is packaged as neatly as a court deposition." --St. Augustine Record "Black Dahlia Avenger is a fascinating and horrifying tale of 1940s Los Angeles-as Steve Hodel says, a real-life L.A. Confidential." --San Jose Mercury News "The story boasts all the glamour and sinister mystique of film noir." --The Daily Telegraph (London) "Readers must hang on tightly as Hodel hurtles along on his compelling parallel journeys of discovery-a return to the melodramatic days of old Hollywood and a simultaneous plunge into the dark roots of his own family tree." --London Free Press "Black Dahlia Avenger is the best nonfiction book about L.A. crime I have ever read. Former LAPD detective Steve Hodel's journey into the heart of a brutal crime and into the dark places of his soul stayed with me after I read it. Black Dahlia Avenger has it all: suspense, intrigue, bizarre sex, moral ambiguity, all set against a backdrop of the L.A. of Mickey Cohen, Bill Parker, and Tony Cornero. The words 'compelling' and 'riveting' though accurate, do not do justice to this nonfiction tour de force." --Gerald Petievich, author of The Sentinel and To Live and Die in L.A.