The Cold Six Thousand

By: James Ellroy

Narrated by: Craig Wasson

Length: 24 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, White Jazz, American Tabloid....

James Ellroy's high-velocity, best-selling novels have redefined noir for our age, propelling us within inches of the dark realities of America's recent history. In The Cold Six Thousand, his most ambitious and explosive novel yet, he puts the whole of the 1960s under his blistering lens. The result is a work of fierce, epic fiction, a speedball through our most tumultuous time.

It begins in Dallas. November 22, 1963. The heart of the American Dream detonated.

Wayne Tedrow Jr., a young Vegas cop, arrives with a loathsome job to do. He's got $6,000 in cash and no idea that he is about to plunge into the cover-up conspiracy already brewing around Kennedy's assassination, no idea that this will mark the beginning of a hellish five-year ride through the private underbelly of public policy.

Ellroy's furiously paced narrative tracks Tedrow's ride: Dallas back to Vegas, with the Mob and Howard Hughes, south with the Klan and J. Edgar Hoover, shipping out to Vietnam and returning home, the bearer of white powder, plotting new deaths as 1968 approaches....

Tedrow stands witness, as the icons of an iconic era mingle with cops, killers, hoods, and provocateurs. His story is ground zero in Ellroy's stunning vision: historical confluence as American nightmare.

The Cold Six Thousand is a masterpiece.

Please note: This 2001 recording represents the technology of the time when it was produced. This is currently the best available source audio from the publisher.

©2001 James Ellroy (P)2001 Random House, Inc. Random House AudioBooks, A Division of Random House, Inc.

Tedious

This novel feels like a stale re-tread of American Tabloid. The plot feels almost identical and bordering on tedious: Cuba invasions, Kennedy assassination plots, Mafia, Hoffa, Hughes etc. James Ellroy's adrenaline rush inducing style in American Tabloid now feels like a frustrating migraine. No new ground is being covered here.

Narration disaster

Any additional comments?

I have to confess to not listening to the whole book. That's the problem...I couldn't stand to listen to Wasson's narration anymore. It's like really bad film noir or that guy from the original Twilight Zone impersonating William Shatner. Awful. I had to give the story at least a 3 because, it might be OK. Heck, it might even be great. But I couldn't stay with it long enough to find out. I've never quit a book before, but I guess there's a first time for everything.

Don't waste your money...

This is positively the most boring monotone, uninspired reading I have ever come across. Sentences consist of few words. No dialog. The reader just drones on and on in the same monotone narrative. I assume the writer thinks that he is on to some new, hip, grungy, rap style. Ridiculous. Don't waste your money. Should be rated as 0 stars out of 5...

It kept putting be asleep

I tried several times to listen to this book, but it kept making me nod off.....and I was driving. Need I say more. I can't say if it was the narrator or the book that made me so sleepy. Maybe I should try listening to it next time I have trouble going to sleep

Be forewarned! This is a tough listen .

This one was a big disappointment. As hard as I tried I couldn't finish it. I have loved Ellroy in the past, but this one was completely impossible to sit through. Almost total narration with hardly any dialogs. Character development was weak and he plays lose with facts. I drive a lot and listen to 2 dozen books a month and this was one of the hardest to wrap my mind around (even though I love this kind of story).

Why is the audio quality so poor?

Did they record this over the phone or something? The story is typical late Ellroy which is awesome, and the narrator gets the job done, but you gotta be kidding me with this audio quality.

Lost interest

Ellroy writes in such a choppy uninteresting way. Thought I wouldn't mind since Craig Wasson is narrating, but couldn't finish the first chapter!

Third person style very offputting.

What would have made The Cold Six Thousand better?

Use James Elroy's traditional storytelling style and not speak in the third person.

Has The Cold Six Thousand turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Craig Wasson?

Narrator was OK - material is the problem

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Overall concept and approach could be interesting but was so offput by the third person narrative I could not complete the book.

Any additional comments?

I am big James Ellroy fan.

okay

This is supposed to be a continuing account from the first book, but after a while it starts going off into all different directions and is at times confusing trying to keep up with the story line. and the narrator Craig Wasson doesn't have that pazas as Brain Cox in the first book. too bad i can't return this title. I've gotten thru most of the book but i can't listen to anymore.

Terrible Audio

The narrator is not good, and the audio quality is very poor. Overall, it seems very poorly produced. Where's the guy that read American Tabloid? Much, much better!