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Summary: Last of the LA Quartet
Review: This book is the last, and worst, of the LA Quartet, but let me hasten to add that White Jazz only suffers by comparison to the earlier works. Black Dahlia, the first in the series, may be the best novel of the 20th century. Read Hollywood Nocturnes first to get an idea of Ellroy's prose, then dive into Black Dahlia. Killer on the Road is an excellent stand-alone novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but not his best
Review: Yes, I loved this book. It's got the usual Ellroy hallmark of big plots, dark characters and that obsession with the dark side of 50's/60's LA. Not as good as LA Confidential which is a masterly piece of work, but still a vital read, if only to finish off his classic LA Quartet.The writing style is the test to whether you enjoy any of his books. If you can't get to grips with it then I suggest you get something a bit lighter, but if you feel up to the challenge then I promise you a riveting read.
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Summary: Ellroy stripped bare
Review: I really liked the style this novel was written in and I agree that it should not be a reader's introduction to Ellroy. His rat-a-tat-tat narrative and dialogue is at it's most efficient and elliptical. True, it is sometimes hard to follow. But never in a frustrating way. My god, I read too many reviews on this site that slight a book for being hard to follow. This is hard to follow and I'm thankful for it. It challenged me, forced me into a closer reading. If I have any criticism of the book it is that the style overwhelms some of the characters. By the end, I wanted the main character's behaviour to reflect the manic, fragmented tone of the story he is narrating... it never quite got there for me. Still, it's one of Ellroy's most engrossing books. Better than Black Dahlia, not as good as LA Confidential.
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Summary: If you can stay on it's quite a ride
Review: This is a great, almost experimental, work of noir fiction. Like Ellroy's other great books in the L.A. series, the protagonists are all either good/bad guys or bad/good guys. No one is simple and nothing is straightforward, but if you can hold out and get into the spirit of the prose - which is no mean feat - the story becomes a rollercoaster of driven excitement. Ellroy always experiments with language and stylistic devices in setting his story properly in time and place, but this book is somewhat extreme in that regard and reading it requires some attention and a willingness to surrender to the language. The pace of this book, both in terms of stylistic intensity and in densley plotted action, is more hurried and frenetic than previous Ellroy novels. The territory and characters, though, should be familiar to anyone who has read The Black Daliah or L.A. Confidential. This is some great writing for all those who like their crime fiction on the gritty and harsh side of truth.
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Summary: Stream of consciousness - in your face - all happening NOW!
Review: James Ellroy hit a grand slam!!! This stream of consciousness novel puts the reader inbetween the "protagionists" eyes and grey matter. The style is stream of consciousness which makes every event seem like it is happening now and right before your eyes! The book is full of violence, and racial bias because James Ellroy writes the book from the perspective of a disturbed, yet intelligent cop who himself is a violent criminal and on the make for a particular mobster. One could say the story is about redemption, about a man recounting all of his past sins and the prices that were paid. Either way, it puts the reader into a space he has never been. This book is the best novel I have ever read.
Rating: 
Summary: re-hashed characters, annoying prose style
Review: I hated this book. Why? The style Ellroy wrote in made it difficult to follow exactly what was going on; his typical prose is great, but here it's almost like a play script. Except, he'll take away the notice of who is speaking, and it breaks up the rhythm of the read. You have to go back and figure out who is saying what in a multi-person dialogue. It's annoying. This experiment bothered the hell out of me. Secondly, why are all his plots and characters roughly the same? The protagonist: an ethnic German cop or ex-cop, usually brutal, usually corrupt. The main bad guy? Always a mastermind highly corrupt cop. Throw in depraved sicko sexuality to taste. The setting is always L.A., but that's Ellroy's signature and I like that. In short, this is the worst Ellroy novel I've read but I still had to finish it.
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Summary: Oh yeah baby . . .
Review: White Jazz smokes and smokes. There ain't nuthin' wrong with this number. Nuthin'!
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty exciting..but...
Review: White Jazz was intense and lived up to all my Ellroy expectations...the only problem is that that description only applies to the last 160 pages! Having loved the Black Dahlia and American Tabloid, I picked up White Jazz. It took me three tries to get past page 200 before it was a story worth reading. If you love Ellroy, go for it. Newcomers, ABSOLUTELY do not make this your first taste... Something more to Ellroy's credit is that I found Klein to be a fascinating character (unlike some of the reviewers)...he was bad, real bad, but human and you can't ask for much more than that in good fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Ellroy Does it Again!
Review: Blip,blip,blip, dig James Ellroy and his Craaazy books! I just finished White Jazz and loved every moment of it! Murder, intrigue, suspense, it's all here! Very dark, but if you dig Ellroy, you'll dig his darkness.
Rating:
Summary: Very dark, but extremely well-written
Review: This is a great novel about the big themes of guilt and confession, love and hatred, death and redemption. Ellroy has perfected the writing style he also used in books like "L.A. Confidential", and sometimes you suddenly stumble about heart-breakingly beautiful lines that show his literary talent. The only draw-back might be that you don't care about the protagonist the way you cared about the characters in L.A. Confidential. A thrilling, absorbing novel, but certainly not for faint-hearted readers. To all others: plunge into the darkest depths of human souls and enjoy this roller-coaster ride of a book.
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