Wednesday, September 30, 2026 · 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Medford Public Library — 111 High St., Medford, MA
William J. Mann’s Black Dahlia: Murder, Monsters, and Madness in Midcentury Hollywood has been praised by reviewers for offering the first account of the notorious crime that’s more focused on the victim than her killer. Critics lauded Mann’s ability to reconstruct the life of Elizabeth Short without exploiting her tragic death. The Wall Street Journal highlighted his skill in capturing the “historical environment that surrounded the crime… Mr. Mann conveys the era’s disillusionment and its rising tideof violence and misogyny.” Such context, the Journal noted, “is crucial to an understanding of Short’s life—which [Mann] reconstructs with compassionate acuity.” The Washington Post wrote, “Mann deftly sifts through the sensationalized journalism, preconceived notions, myths, and misunderstandings surrounding the case to uncover the truth about Elizabeth Short like no book before.” The Los Angeles Times focused on Mann’s effort to dismantle the pop-culture mythos surrounding Short, quoting the author: “Elizabeth is very, very different from the ‘Black Dahlia.’ They’re separate entities, and we need to acknowledge that to comprehend what happened both before and after the murder.”…