the killer. Ellroy had never seen the police file of his mother’s murder until he decided to write this book in the mid-1990s. After fifteen months of investigation, the crime remained unsolved, and any potential suspects are believed to be dead. Continuing investigation After the final page of the memoir, there is a page that allows information to be sent pertaining to the investigation. It states: "The investigation continues. Information on the case can be forwarded to Detective Stoner either through the toll-free number, 1-800-717-6517, or his e-mail address, detstoner@earthlink.net." Critical reviews The reviews for My Dark Places were quite positive. "Both a harrowing autobiography and a disturbingly fixed love story...blunt, graphic, and oddly exhilarating." —San Francisco Chronicle. "Strange and perversely fascinating....[My Dark Places] is part thriller, part screech of pain, part botched exorcism.... It is also a profoundly pessimistic meditation on the ubiquity of evil.... A candid chronicle of growing up weird under the sentence of unexpressed grief." —Newsday. "A dazzling memoir that reads half like a romance, half like the logbook for a homicide investigation.... My Dark Places is remarkable." —A. M. Homes, Bazaar. "A masterpiece.... Incredible, fascinating detail.... Ellroy is never anything but honest: All the scars are exposed... and best of all, it is all written in that familiar Ellroy style, each sentence like a finger jabbed in your chest.... This is a mesmerizing book." —Men's Journal. Ellroy's My Dark Places was a Time Best Book of the Year, as well as a New York Times Notable Book for 1996. Publication history Blakeney, Gloucestershire: Scorpion Press, 1996. Signed, limited edition. London: Century Books, October 1996. First trade edition. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, November 1996. First American edition. For this edition, Ellroy signed (or rather initialed) 50,000 blank pages that were bound into each copy of the first printing. London: Arrow, June 1997. First British trade paperback. New York: Vintage, August 1997. First American trade paperback. () References External links https://www.jamesellroy.net/ 1996 non-fiction books American biographies Non-fiction novels of investigative journalism Non-fiction novels about murders in the United States Literary memoirs Books by James Ellroy American autobiographies Century (imprint) books Works about the Black Dahlia case