Recommendations based on The Cold Six Thousandby James Ellroy

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. American Tabloid

    by James Ellroy
    A riveting crime drama set in the 1950s, featuring a complex web of characters and their dark and twisted agendas.

    "Shakedowns" covers just 26 days, introducing the three principal characters, and establishing their relationships, history, and career trajectories. Pete Bondurant is a former LASD deputy; he ... (Wikipedia)

  2. The Black Dahlia

    by James Ellroy
    A 1940s Los Angeles detective story, exploring the depths of a gruesome unsolved murder.

    On January 15, 1947, the torture-ravished body of a beautiful young woman is found in a vacant lot. The victim makes headlines as the Black Dahlia—and so begins the greatest manhunt in California ... (Goodreads)

  3. L.A. Confidential

    by James Ellroy
    An epic crime noir set in 1950s Los Angeles, exploring the dark underbelly of the city.

    The story is about several Los Angeles Police Department officers in the early 1950s who become embroiled in a mix of sex, corruption and murder following a massacre at the Nite Owl coffee shop. The ... (Wikipedia)

  4. Naked Lunch

    by William S. Burroughs
    Surrealist exploration of addiction, delusions, and reality.

    Naked Lunch is a non-linear narrative without a clear plot. The following is a summary of some of the events in the book that could be considered the most relevant. The book begins with the ... (Wikipedia)

  5. Junky

    by William S. Burroughs
    A gritty, autobiographical account of a man's descent into the underworld of addiction.

    Before his 1959 breakthrough, Naked Lunch , an unknown William S. Burroughs wrote Junky , his first novel. It is a candid eye-witness account of times and places that are now long gone, an ... (Goodreads)

  6. Season of Mists

    by Neil Gaiman
    A supernatural journey through various mythologies and realms, a quest to reclaim a lost soul.

    This collection begins with an Endless family meeting, wherein Desire taunts Morpheus about his intolerant treatment of a former lover, the African queen 'Nada' ("Nada" is "Nothing" in Spanish ), ... (Wikipedia)

  7. Transmetropolitan, Vol. 1: Back on the Street

    by Warren Ellis
    A journalist navigates a dystopian world, exposing corruption and social injustices.

    After years of self-imposed exile from a civilization rife with degradation and indecency, cynical journalist Spider Jerusalem is forced to return to a job that he hates and a city that he loathes. ... (Goodreads)

  8. Mason & Dixon

    by Thomas Pynchon
    Epic tale of two surveyors in colonial America, exploring the boundaries of knowledge and identity.

    Charles Mason (1728-1786) and Jeremiah Dixon (1733-1779) were the British surveyors best remembered for running the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland that we know today as the Mason-Dixon ... (Goodreads)

  9. The Kindly Ones

    by Neil Gaiman
    A dark fantasy featuring a morally ambiguous protagonist on a quest to save his family.

    The Penultimate volume to the phenomenal Sandman series: distraught by the kidnapping and presumed death of her son, and believing Morpheus to be responsible, Lyta Hall calls the ancient wrath of the ... (Goodreads)

  10. The Doll's House

    by Neil Gaiman
    A dark fantasy exploring the cruelty and power of fairy tales, and the consequences of secrets.

    As part of a manhood ritual, an old man in the desert tells a younger man an ancient story, detailing the tragic love between Dream and Queen Nada. Fearing the consequences of loving an immortal, ... (Wikipedia)

  11. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

    by Max Brooks
    A collection of interviews recounting tales of the zombie apocalypse.

    It has been nearly twenty years since the start of the apocalyptic worldwide pandemic known as the Zombie War, and about ten years since the war has ended in humanity's victory. The framing device ... (Wikipedia)

  12. Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West

    by Cormac McCarthy
    A violent and bloody western epic, exploring the depths of human depravity.

    An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, Blood Meridian brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the "wild west." ... (Barnes & Noble)

  13. The Complete Stories and Poems

    by Edgar Allan Poe
    A collection of dark and mysterious stories and poems, exploring the depths of the human condition.

    This single volume brings together all of Poe's stories and poems, and illuminates the diverse and multifaceted genius of one of the greatest and most influential figures in American literary ... (Barnes & Noble)

  14. Transmetropolitan, Vol. 7: Spider's Thrash

    by Warren Ellis
    Spider Jerusalem, a gonzo journalist, uncovers a conspiracy involving the President of the United States.

    The hammer has come down on him but outlaw journalist Spider Jerusalem has managed to stay one step ahead of his detractors - I.e. the President of the United States and his authoritarian lackeys in ... (Goodreads)

  15. Glengarry Glen Ross

    by David Mamet
    Cutthroat competition in a real estate sales office, where survival of the fittest is the only way out.
  16. Transmetropolitan, Vol. 10: One More Time

    by Warren Ellis
    Spider Jerusalem returns to the City to finish his final column, but finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy that threatens to destroy everything he loves.

    The final volume in the saga of outlaw journalist Spider Jerusalem written by comics superstar Warren Ellis. At last, it’s the final showdown between Spider and the absolutely corrupt President of ... (Goodreads)

  17. Cities of the Plain

    by Cormac McCarthy
    Two cowboys in love struggle to survive in a changing world. Their bond is tested when they encounter a violent pimp and his young prostitute.

    The story opens in 1952. John Grady Cole (the protagonist of, All the Pretty Horses, ) and Billy Parham (the protagonist of, The Crossing, ) work together on a cattle ranch south of Alamogordo , New ... (Wikipedia)

  18. Crash

    by J.G. Ballard
    A dystopian novel exploring the surreal and chaotic landscape of a near-future Los Angeles.

    The story is told through the eyes of narrator James Ballard, named after the author himself, but it centers on the sinister figure of Dr. Robert Vaughan, a "former TV-scientist, turned nightmare ... (Wikipedia)

  19. Women

    by Charles Bukowski
    A collection of stories exploring the lives of various women and their relationships with men.

    Women focuses on the many dissatisfactions Chinaski faced with each new woman he encountered. One of the women featured in the book is a character named Lydia Vance; she is based on Bukowski's ... (Wikipedia)

  20. Consider Phlebas

    by Iain M. Banks
    A thrilling space opera about a galactic war between two powerful civilizations.

    The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans ... (Goodreads)

  21. We3

    by Grant Morrison
    An animal trio's fight for freedom after being transformed into cyborgs.

    A powerful tale from the ALL-STAR SUPERMAN team of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. Morrison and Quitely deliver the emotional journey of WE3-three house pets weaponized for lethal combat by the ... (Barnes & Noble)

  22. The Forever War

    by Joe Haldeman
    A soldier's story of the horror of war and its consequences in the far future.

    The monumental Hugo and Nebula award winning SF classic— Featuring a new introduction by John Scalzi,The Earth's leaders have drawn a line in the interstellar sand—despite the fact that the fierce ... (Barnes & Noble)

  23. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1

    by Alan Moore
    A band of Victorian-era misfits join forces to protect the British Empire.

    In 1898, one year after her encounter with Dracula , Mina Murray has divorced her husband and now works for the British government. She meets with MI5 agent Campion Bond (the grandfather of James ... (Wikipedia)

  24. A Legacy of Spies

    by John le Carré
    A former spy must confront the consequences of his past actions.

    Peter Guillam, staunch colleague and disciple of George Smiley of the British Secret Service, otherwise known as the Circus, is living out his old age on the family farmstead on the south coast of ... (Goodreads)

  25. A Confederacy of Dunces

    by John Kennedy Toole
    A satirical tale of an eccentric slacker's misadventures in New Orleans.

    Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found, here, "A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles ... (Goodreads)

  26. The Big Sleep

    by Raymond Chandler
    Private eye investigates a complex case involving a wealthy family and blackmail.

    Private investigator Philip Marlowe is called to the home of the wealthy and elderly General Sternwood, in the month of October. He wants Marlowe to deal with an attempt by a bookseller named Arthur ... (Wikipedia)

  27. Farewell, My Lovely

    by Raymond Chandler
    A hard-boiled detective's adventures as he investigates a complex case of murder and corruption.

    Private detective Philip Marlowe is investigating a dead-end missing person case when he sees a felon, Moose Malloy, barging into a nightclub called Florian's, looking for his ex-girlfriend Velma ... (Wikipedia)

  28. Foucault's Pendulum

    by Umberto Eco
    A humorous and wild historical conspiracy thriller set across Europe.

    A man named Casaubon , is hiding in the Musée des Arts et Métiers after closing. He believes that a secret society has kidnapped his friend Jacopo Belbo and are now after him, and will meet in the ... (Wikipedia)

  29. Gorky Park

    by Martin Cruz Smith
    A thrilling murder mystery, set in the Soviet Union, uncovering secrets and conspiracies.

    The story follows Arkady Renko , a chief investigator for the Moscow militsiya , who is assigned to a case involving three corpses found in Gorky Park , an amusement park in Moscow. The victims - two ... (Wikipedia)

  30. Regeneration

    by Pat Barker
    Story of WWI soldiers & their experiences of trauma, set amidst the backdrop of a psychiatric hospital.

    The novel begins as Dr W. H. R. Rivers , an army psychiatrist at Craiglockhart War Hospital , learns of poet Siegfried Sassoon 's declaration against the continuation of the war. A government board ... (Wikipedia)