Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: Tough, hard-boiled, noir, ... excellent

Ellroy's noirish story of two cops and their search for the killer of the Black Dahlia is a superb fictionalized account of a real life unsolved mystery. The story has an unsettling documentary feel about it and what emerges is an oftentimes brutal and disturbing portrait of tough, obsessive cops and their no holes barred approach to detective work. Ellroy's debt to Ross MacDonald is very apparent in the plot resolution, although you will not find any characters that approach the nobility of Lew Archer, Philip Marlowe or even Harry Bosch. Ellroy's characters tend to fall prey to their own destructive obsessions. This is a great read, and I encourage fans of Jim Thompson, Chandler, Macdonald & Michael Connelly to read this book.