The Cold Six Thousand

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With its hypnotic rhythms and edgy intensity, this novel feels like a narrative from a hyperactive Dr. Seuss, driven by a hunger for violence. It explores the chaotic aftermath of the JFK assassination, asserting that absolute power corrupts absolutely. The story moves through Las Vegas, Vietnam, Cuba, and Memphis, weaving a tapestry of complicity, greed, and fear connecting three main characters: Ward Littell, a former FBI agent entangled with the mob and Howard Hughes while admiring the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King; Pete Bondurant, a hitman and anti-Communist who navigates between Vegas casinos and CIA heroin labs in Saigon; and Wayne Tedrow Jr., a young Vegas cop sent to Dallas in late November 1963 to eliminate a black pimp, struggling with his violent tendencies. J. Edgar Hoover serves as the master puppeteer, manipulating events with a blend of visionary zeal and pragmatism. His darkly comic predictions about LBJ and Cuba reflect the novel's tone. Weighing in at 700 pages, the narrative may seem excessive, but it captures the dual impulses of idealism and corruption in American culture, giving life to conspiracy theories while poking fun at our belief that such knowledge can effect change.