What would have made Black Dahlia Avenger better?
To be completely fair, I only made it nine hours into the twenty hour story before quitting, but this story could definitely use actual evidence, or at least evidence given earlier in the story and with more substance than ‘the body was posed like a famous Man Ray photo and George Hill Hodel worshipped Man Ray, so this is ‘inescapable evidence’ that George Hill Hodel committed the murder’.
What was most disappointing about Steve Hodel’s story?
The first half of the book is essentially a character assassination. Steve Hodel does do a fantastic job explaining what a sick bastard his father was, but a sick bastard does not mean G. Hodel was in fact the Black Dahlia Avenger. The incest trial, the forcing young Steve to smoke an entire cigar, G. Hodel’s relationship history, the sex parties, sharing women with Fred Sexton is all very interesting, but after nine hours of that with VERY little evidence connecting him back to Elizabeth Short, I feel as though I’ve listened to a son only airing out his grievances about the man,
What about Kevin Pierce’s performance did you like?
Kevin Pierce always gives a fantastic performance, but this was not one of his best. I found it halting and a little unsure, as though he were reading the book for the first time or simply had a tough time getting through it.
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Black Dahlia Avenger?
MUCH of the beginning. Or at least tie in G. Hodel’s many issues with some evidence, so it doesn’t feel like I’m listening to nothing but sex scandals when it’s supposed to be a book about the murder of Elizabeth Short.
Any additional comments?
It’s a shame I couldn’t get through this, because based on the aftermath of the novel, a lot of people took this theory very seriously and found it solid, which leads me to assume that there must have been something worth hearing in the second half. But if I were a juror, just based on what I’ve listened to so far, I would have acquitted G. Hodel because it feels as though the ‘prosecutor’ is using emotional arguments in place of evidence.