Rating: 
Summary: Good Book. I will read the others.
Review: I ran across this book sort of by accident, but once into it, I couldn't put it down. I have not read this author before, but I like what I read. Crais seems to have the ability to write a tight story that moves from point A to point B at a good pace. The characters are (mostly) fleshed out well, and got me genuinely interested at what would happen to them.Some may complain that this is run of the mill detective stuff - and it certainly has its share of cliches - but who cares? It's a tight story that moves well and keeps you guessing just enough to be interesting. That's exactly what I want from a detective book. Four stars. I will read the other Cole novels.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book. I will read the others.
Review: I ran across this book sort of by accident, but once into it, I couldn't put it down. I have not read this author before, but I like what I read. Crais seems to have the ability to write a tight story that moves from point A to point B at a good pace. The characters are (mostly) fleshed out well, and got me genuinely interested at what would happen to them. Some may complain that this is run of the mill detective stuff - and it certainly has its share of cliches - but who cares? It's a tight story that moves well and keeps you guessing just enough to be interesting. That's exactly what I want from a detective book. Four stars. I will read the other Cole novels.
Rating:
Summary: A VERY LOW FOUR!!!
Review: I rated this a four but really thought about a three. I really like Crais as a writer, I like Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. However, I hate that Elvis has and is involved with Lucy Chenier. In my openion it takes away from the books. It was the same in Voodoo River and now this one. In fact this book was nearly half over before I thought it got down to the business at hand. Cole is hired by a high priced Attorney to find out if Angela Rossi, a detective, planted evidence against his client. Cole not only finds out but proves who did the killing and who actually did fool with the evidence. I liked the character of Angela Rossi and Ray Depente was brought back for a few pages. I hope both of these are in future books but Cole and Lucy together, I can do without. Cole and Pike are compared to Spence and Hawk and I agree but I don't think Hawk would have missed getting the shooter behind the car.
Rating: 
Summary: Crais goes on automatic pilot
Review: I recognize that it's tough to keep pumping out "fresh" whodunnit detective novels as part of a lengthy series, so I'll cut Robert Crais some slack here. The book is certainly a quick and engrossing read and there are enough little twists and turns (especially early on in the plot) to keep a reader turning the pages. Crais is a gifted wordsmith and he adds just enough Los Angeles "local color" to provide the novel an interesting sense of place along with its story line.
HOWEVER--there is a fair amount of padding and gimmickry here, including the "troubled but made-in-heaven love relationship" with his lawyer sweetie from Louisiana. This sideshow is not only derivative (reminds me too much of Robert Parker with Spenser's endless rhapsodizing about "Susan"), it really adds virtually nothing to the story.
The plot itself is, as other reviewers have pointed out, essentially O.J. warmed over with a few twists. Consequently, Crais has this time around taken the easy way out in crafting this novel through creation of a one-dimensionally "slimy bad guy" criminal defended by a "Green Machine" of Evil Rich Guy Svengali-like attorneys. Because of this, the essential plot line becomes discernible and predictable from a very early stage of the book; the rest is just filling in the paint-by-numbers.
Moreover, I found Crais' editorial slant on all things Los Angeles to be irritatingly self-righteous and to my mind, unjustified, i.e., that wealthy liberal Hollywood celebrity types are invariably hypocritical and degenerate, that accusations that the Los Angeles police might, in fact, tend toward racism and procedural sloppiness are all merely rhetorical, etc. And the ending, aimed at evoking a fist-pumping "Yessss!!" from the attorney-hating reader, is just plain hokey.
Crais remains an above-average crime novelist possessed of a distinctive enough voice to render his books worth perusing when one is in the mood for a quick, literary-junk-food type read. However, by this, his sixth Elvis Cole novel there has developed a formulaic, predictable quality to his work that leads me to wonder whether I'll bother to get to the subsequent volumes in this series.
Rating:
Summary: Trying to be funny but came short with lot of ???marks
Review: I've borrowed this novel from the local library, but as soon as I opened it, I've found many former readers have left a lot of question marks on the margine space on many pages. After I've read through, I've also found that the usually very annoying marks left behind by other readers were quite pardonable, because all the question marks were quite appropriate and reasonable. Crais obviously got almost all the police/detective stuff third-handly from the tube or the big screen. Like others, I just couldn't believe that Rossi still got to check the pulse of an already rotton decomposed corpse(???); Murderers almost always dumped the murder weapon with the body(??); leave it for the criminalist instead of the forensic team(?)....on and on. Especially when the dialogue written by Crais tried very hard to be funny and wisecracking, such as "Don't you have a gun?"..."A gun?"..."He should be wearing a gun. One of those things under the arm."..."A shoulder holster?"....even a worse coming next line: "A hat would be nice. Hats are romantic." Well, my gentle and tolerent readers, all of them, again and again, just reminded me of that Crais and his created hero, Elvis(Grizzly?) Cole, are just a pair of wannabes of Robert B. Parker and Spenser. The professionalism in this book is so thin and far-fetched just like Grafton's stuff, but if Crais likes to be himself and not so pretensious, just let the story flow, his potentiality is still there. Crais should not try to be a Parker's wonnabe but a better Michael Connelly, or just wannabe one level higher than of a better than the author of "MEG". Since Mystery stuff usually are all about homocides, murders, deaths, serial killers, kidnappings...and so on, that need a lot of persistent police and/or private detective investigations, and they are all about how to solve such cases, therefore, they are not funny at all in the least but solemnly serious. Trying to be funny in this genre is a deadly wrong and mi! sunderstood way of writing and marketing, especially for Mystery.
Rating: 
Summary: This is my favorite Robert Crais book I've read so far
Review: I've only read three Robert Crais books so far, but this one is by far my favorite. It's full of good writing along with a good story and an even better ending. Buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: In Every Detective Series, Some Are Better Than Others...
Review: I've read all but two of the Elvis Cole series and it's generally good throughout. This one was a little disappointing. For series fans, a lot more of Joe Pike's history with LAPD detective Angela Rossi could have been added here, and I think it would have fleshed him out a little. (We had to wait for LA Requiem for that.) There are a few geographic flaws which I found disconcerting as an Angeleno...San Pedro is not sixty miles from LA, maybe more like 16, which is a little like saying Brooklyn is twenty miles from Manhattan. The interplay with the Louisiana girlfriend lends a subplot which series fans will probably appreciate, but I can see where a casual reader might not get it. But I occasionally found myself thinking that this book seemed like it was written in a hurry, or didn't have the full interest of the author. Not up to the usual standard, which is pretty good. I'd recommend starting with The Monkey's Raincoat first - this is best as part of the series, not as good read independently IMHO. Better than many other mysteries rated at three stars in Amazon, just less desirable in comparison to the rest of the Elvis Cole series.
Rating:
Summary: In Every Detective Series, Some Are Better Than Others...
Review: I've read all but two of the Elvis Cole series and it's generally good throughout. This one was a little disappointing. For series fans, a lot more of Joe Pike's history with LAPD detective Angela Rossi could have been added here, and I think it would have fleshed him out a little. (We had to wait for LA Requiem for that.) There are a few geographic flaws which I found disconcerting as an Angeleno...San Pedro is not sixty miles from LA, maybe more like 16, which is a little like saying Brooklyn is twenty miles from Manhattan. The interplay with the Louisiana girlfriend lends a subplot which series fans will probably appreciate, but I can see where a casual reader might not get it. But I occasionally found myself thinking that this book seemed like it was written in a hurry, or didn't have the full interest of the author. Not up to the usual standard, which is pretty good. I'd recommend starting with The Monkey's Raincoat first - this is best as part of the series, not as good read independently IMHO. Better than many other mysteries rated at three stars in Amazon, just less desirable in comparison to the rest of the Elvis Cole series.
Rating:
Summary: A good read but not his best
Review: I've read all six of Crais' Elvis Cole novels starting with The Monkey's Raincoat. With but one other exception, I rate the rest of Crais' novels as 5 star reads (the other exception being Stalking The Angel, I dislike story lines where the hero is constantly being put in danger because of some fool). Sunset Express came close in the number and quality of great wisecracks but the denouement was somewhat unsatisfying (again probably because I was comparing it to his 5 star works). Elvis and Pike are the most intriquing detective characters I know of and I look forward to reading the next Crais effort.
Rating:
Summary: good read!
Review: I've read the entire Crais series of Elvis Cole books, and even though Sunset Express is not a brilliant read, it was still enjoyable,
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