Rating: 
Summary: I don't know that I will finish it...
Review: I picked up this book for several reasons: its length, the fame of its author, the blurb on the back. And it is the feeling that I am missing something that is compelling me onwards. But I find the stacato sound of his writing to be very offputting. If I were to write the review as he write his novel, it would be thus:Porter didn't think the book was good. Porter regretted picking it up. Porter won't finish. Life is too short, Porter thought. So, if you like the spray of bullets that are his words, then go for it. Otherwise, pick up something smoother. On Green Dolphin Street is a good option.
Rating:
Summary: Writing is even more hard to follow
Review: To those who read American Tabloid be prepared that the machine gun style writing continues but its pace increasese..the plot was great but I could only read this in doses because the writing style got to me after awhile..too bad because this is one book i would have loved to sit doewn and read for hours instead of in 1/2 hour periods.
Rating: 
Summary: A masterpiece
Review: If one has chronologically (and as breathlessly as I have) followed the plots Ellroy has been weaving in (practically) all his novels, this book comes as a kind of apotheosis. At the peak of his art, Ellroy is a master of words, fiction (or should one say facts?), and of the English language,
Rating: 
Summary: A painful read
Review: Apparently Mr. Ellroy never graduate elementary school because he hasn't learned writing skills beyond the style of "See Spot. See spot run." This excruciating and exhausting novel is written entirely in fragmented sentences that force the reader to fill in all the gaps. It is without comparison the worst novel I have ever read. He never develops any characters or even attempts to build an interesting story for the reader, instead forcing them to constantly work to put all the pieces together. It is beyond my imagination why he has written as many books as he has. This is my first, and last, Ellroy novel.
Rating:
Summary: Pure Poetry
Review: I began reading "The Cold Six Thousand" without realising it was part of a trilogy. Bam! The style of Ellroy's prose hit me and I didn't want to lay the book down. Amazing writing. It's clean, invigorating and absolutely brilliant . It makes YOU think. That's what I love about it. I've worked as an editor for years (currently for a Thai newspaper, which explains why I missed out on "American Tabloid") and a screenwriter in Hollywood (the reason I got the hell out of LA) and I've been force fed so much purple prose and "cinematic" description that most novels cloy me like cheap incense. But this book.... Ellroy doesn't f--k around. Bang! Here's your image: YOU fill in the blanks. The book works your mind so much more than your average "the sun flamed the sky's azure cast as Jesse's hurtling corvette crisscrossed the abandoned hightway...." prose pumped out by writers doing literary and mental push ups. I immediate fell for the originality of "The Cold Six" and didn't want to put it down; that is until I found out it was the follow-up to "American Tabloid". Then I faced the decision of stopping my read and buying "Tabloid" to put things in the right order, which I did. Well, a chapter or two into "Tabloid" I realised I was hungering to get back to "The Cold Six Thousand's" terse, wondrous poetry. Many feel that "Tabloid" is a better book but, for now, the writing of "The Cold Six" has me locked in. Those who say they're not getting character development or plot because of the lean sentences must need to be spoon-fed "raven black hair" tossing. Ellroy is an amazing stylist and now I'm convince our finest contemporary novelest. E Annie Proux, eat your heart out. Ellroy writes from a real idiom that rings true, not pretentious. A marvellous book that will only gather more accolades with as time passes. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Not For the Faint of Heart
Review: Though born in the 1960s, I do not feel enamored of the times. Mr. Ellroy gave me a good understanding of the feelings and issues of the 1960s. The reader should put aside the complicated plot and amazing number of characters to consider the The Cold Six Thousand as social commentary on the Kennedy brothers, M.L.K., and J. Edgar Hoover. This alone makes interesting reading. There is also the lives of the fictional characters. Mr. Ellroy puts the X-Files to shame with his vast conspriacies and complicated subplots. To the author's credit, the three main characters, (Ward, Pete, and Wayne) have serious flaws yet remain likeable and sympathetic for the most part. [If one can say such a thing about murderers, drug dealers, and blackmailers.] Where ever your moral compass points, you will want to know what happens to these 3 characters. To get to the end, you will have to read some rather graphic sections. The Cold Six Thousand is a complicated book. Do not be afraid to keep notes on the characters, as one other reviewer suggested. It also helps to have a basic understanding of the events of 1963-1968. Mr. Ellroy deftly weaves historical and fictional characters together making the need for a "scorecard" even greater. I recommend this book, but not for the faint of heart. Mr. Ellroy provides an interesting, involved, and entertaining story about the 1960s.
Rating:
Summary: As good as American Tabloid
Review: As a sequel of sorts to American Tabloid, I think it is just as good as its predecessor. An exquisitely crafted plot and a very engaging read. If you like a little pulp in your fiction, you'll like this book. My only complaint is that there were too many references to what went on in Tabloid. If you've read Tabloid, it is a wee bit tiresome. But if you haven't, then it probably adds a lot to your understanding of the characters.
Rating:
Summary: I'm done
Review: The first James Ellroy book I read was American Tabloid. I loved it. It was interesting, different, engaging.
After finishing it I went on an Ellroy bender: Black Dahlia, White Jazz, Hollywood Nocturnes.
I had to put this one down halfway through...something I rarely do. Why?
The book is long. The plot is TOO convoluted, the prose is choppy. Almost Dick & Jane like.
The author does not paint a vivid picture with the use of short sentences...with such brevity, it's impossible to create characters...as a result the characters become interchangable.
In American Tabloid, I knew who Kemper Boyd was and why he was different than Pete Bondurant or Ward Littell. In this book Wayne Tedrow, Jr, could be Ward Littell. Most of the supporting characters (The "Kadre," for instance) are completely indistinguishable.
Don't get me wrong, Ellroy's writing style has always been "tight" but I never noticed it as much as I did here. It interfered with the story.
I'm probably done reading Ellroy because of this book, which is a shame. Try American Tabloid, Black Dahlia, or White Jazz.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Ellroy writes quick and short. Short sentences, short words. 700 pages of short sentences, short words. Read a 700 page outline. You'll get the idea. I got bored. I got frustrated. I skipped pages. Wooden characters. Lots of n-word. Lots of Klan killing, krusading, and konspiracies. All the konspiracies of the 60s wrapped up in one big novel. Jedger Hoover likes rabbit code names. Keep a notebook to keep your rabbits straight. Only the kharacter of Jedger Hoover comes through krystal klear like the voice of Satan. Brilliant. Worth the read for only that.
Rating:
Summary: Great follow up to American Tabloid, but...
Review: The Cold Six Thousand is the follow-up to James Ellroy's JFK assassination book American Tabloid. It picks up right where Tabloid left off--November 22, 1963--and tracks the lives of Pete Bondurant, Ward Littell, and Wayne Tedrow as they live the tumultuous 60s. Cold Six explains the conspiracy behind the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr & Bobby Kennedy, just as Tabloid did. Notorious figures such as Howard Hughes, J. Edgar Hoover, Carlos Marcello, and dozens of others shape the world of the three central characters. I picked up American Tabloid because it explained the best conspiracy theory about the Kennedy assassination through a fictional setting. Ellroy's unflinching take on the early 60s drew me in, and his writing style shaped the world all the better. Cold Six, though, lacks the focus of Tabloid. Broadly speaking, Tabloid was just about the Kennedy assassination; this plot drove the narrative quite well. You knew the ending, but you enjoyed the ride. Cold Six doesn't have that simple a plot; the assassinations of King & Kennedy don't have as much ink about conspiracies devoted to them as JFK's assassination does. Because of this, Cold Six sort of has a meandering narrative. There is less of a drive in the story; events just seem to be ad-libbed by Ellroy. Ellroy's writing style drew me into American Tabloid; it was brutal, it was intense, it was perfect for the story. In Cold Six, his writing style is taken to the extreme; half of the sentences are run-ons, some are just words with slashes to separate them. At times Cold Six felt more like a police report than an actual narrative of the 1960s. Ellroy also seems to be fond of discussing bathroom habits; whenever something bad/intense happens, a character will always go to the bathroom in his pants. It gets gross after a while. Tabloid had one problem to it--there were too many characters. Cold Six has this problem as well. Ellroy doesn't know when to stop adding new people to keep track of; when the Black Rabbit nonsense enters the picture, things get even more complicated. Despite all these problems, though, I still rather enjoyed Cold Six. It's intense, and Ellroy doesn't shy away from scenes of graphic violence. It's also extremely engrossing; you'll want to read the whole thing in one sitting. You probably won't, though: weighing in at close to 700 pages, this was probably the longest book I've ever read. I hope the third doesn't have the problems this one does. In sum, The Cold Six Thousand is a great book, but it could have been edited a bit.
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