THE COLD SIX THOUSAND
James Ellroy, , read by Craig Wasson. . Random, $49.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-375-41915-7
Clipped, stylized, hard-nosed and repetitive, this novel cuts like a dark, 24-hour Beat poem and sounds like Jack Webb on crack. Ellroy's latest noir tale is full of his trademark violence, sex and rough language. Readers follow five years in the life of Las Vegas police officer Wayne Tedrow Jr., who begins the novel making a trip to Dallas to kill a pimp for $6,000. From there, Tedrow is inadvertently mixed up with practically every cultural and political event and figure of the 1960s: Vietnam, Cuba, the Kennedy assassinations, Oswald, Ruby, Sirhan Sirhan, James Earl Ray, Sonny Liston, mobster Carlos Marcellos, Martin Luther King Jr. and J. Edgar Hoover. Craig Wasson does an excellent job of translating the written page into a day-length rap of short phrases, peppering listeners with rapid cuts and jabs until they are exhausted yet exhilarated.
Reviewed on: 08/06/2001
Genre: Audio
Compact Disc - 978-1-4450-5046-1
Hardcover - 688 pages - 978-0-679-40392-0
MP3 CD - 978-1-4450-5047-8
Open Ebook - 688 pages - 978-1-4481-0858-9
Other - 978-1-4450-5049-2
Paperback - 688 pages - 978-0-09-953783-0
