Rating: 
Summary: Elvis Woos Lucy in L.A.
Review: If you have yet to begin the marvelous Elvis Cole series by Robert Crais, you've got a great treat ahead of you! Few series get off to a stronger start than Mr. Crais did with The Monkey's Raincoat, which won both the Anthony and Macavity awards for best novel while being nominated for the Edgar and Shamus awards as well. Stalking the Angel followed powerfully with classic noir style of the 1930s hard-boiled detective up against evil moderated with wise cracks. Lullaby Town updated the 1930s detective stories about Hollywood, and kept the same cynicism about Tinsel Town. Free Fall looked hard at the corruptibility of the police and found them wanting. Voodoo River added a love interest for Elvis to make him more vulnerable and appealing. And the books just keep getting better from there in their characterizations, action, story-telling and excitement.Elvis Cole is the star attraction, the co-owner of The Elvis Cole Detective Agency. He's now 40ish, ex-Army, served in Vietnam, ex-security guard, has two years of college, learned to be a detective by working under George Feider, a licensed P.I. for over 40 years, does martial arts as enthusiastically as most people do lunch, and is fearless but not foolish. He's out to right the wrongs of the world as much as he is to earn a living. Elvis has a thing for Disney characters (including a Pinocchio clock), kids, cats, scared clients and rapid fire repartee. He drives a Jamaica yellow 1966 Corvette Stingray convertible, and usually carries a Dan Wesson .38 Special. His main foil is partner, Joe Pike, an ex-Marine, ex-cop who moves quietly and mysteriously wearing shades even in the dark . . . when he's not scaring the bad guys with the red arrows tattooed on his deltoids, which are usually bare in sleeveless shirts. Although he has an office with Elvis, Pike spends all of his time at his gun shop when not routing the bad guys with martial arts while carrying and often using enough firepower to stop a tank. Pike rarely speaks . . . and never smiles. A standing gag is trying to catch Pike with a little twitch of his lips indicating he might possibly be amused. But he's there when you need him. He drives a spotless red Jeep. Robert Parker's Spenser is the obvious character parallel for Elvis, but Spenser and Elvis are different in some ways. Cole is more solitary, usually being alone when he's not working. Cole is very much L.A. and Spenser is ultra blue collar Boston. Cole is martial arts while Spenser boxes and jogs. What they have in common is that they're both out to do the right thing, with money being unimportant. They both love to crack wise as they take on the bad guys. The bad guys hate the "humor" in both cases, and can't do much about it. The dialogue written for each is intensely rich. Mr. Crais has a special talent for making you care about his characters, especially the clients and their kids. You'll want to know what happens to them. With a lot of experience in script writing, Mr. Crais also knows how to set the scene physically and make you feel it. He may be out finest fiction writer about physical movement. He gives you all the clues to picture what's going on . . . but draws back from giving so much detail that you can't use your own imagination to make things better. On to Sunset Express, the sixth book in the series. The title refers life in the fast lane of the Southern California rich and famous. The book opens with a fast-moving prologue in which a murder victim is found in the hills just off Mulholland Drive overlooking L.A., the police follow up, and the murder weapon used to kill Susan Martin is found near her home. The husband looks to be good for the crime. But he's Teddy Martin, celebrity restauranteur to the stars. That's a problem. As Detective Sergeant Dan "Tommy" Tomsic observes, "It's easier to cut off your own . . . leg than convict a rich man in this state, detective." Elvis is hired by Martin's legendary defense attorney, Jonathan Green, to check out whether one of the detectives, Angela Rossi, may have planted the murder weapon at the Martin home. She checks out clean, and then Elvis is given suspect leads to follow up. One of the leads quickly turns up two dead suspects. Suddenly, Green and his associates are spending more time smearing Ms. Rossi and manipulating the press than they are finding the guilty parties. What gives? Angered, Elvis quits and looks to right the wrong. Unless you've been away on another planet for the last 20 years, you will notice some parallels to the OJ Simpson case. The plot is quite inventive in working out the details in another way, however. In fact, this story is very much in the John Grisham school of dirty lawyer tales. There's not much mystery here, but a lot of good plot and character development. I graded the book down for insufficient mystery. In this story, it's Lucy who becomes a more complex and interesting character. The main appeal of this book to me was Elvis sandwiching in a visit from Lucy Chenier, the Louisiana lawyer from Voodoo River, and her son, Ben. It made Elvis more real and appealing as a character. This book is structured like a short story (the initial crime investigation) and three connected novellas (Elvis working for the lawyers, Elvis entertaining Lucy and Ben, and Elvis working against the lawyers). After you finish the book, I suggest that you think about the dangers inherent in our society's cult of celebrities. Where could you improve your life by paying more attention to sound values than to what is popular on television? Donald Mitchell
Co-author of The 2,000 Percent Solution, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage
Rating:
Summary: Elvis Woos Lucy in L.A.
Review: If you have yet to begin the marvelous Elvis Cole series by Robert Crais, you've got a great treat ahead of you! Few series get off to a stronger start than Mr. Crais did with The Monkey's Raincoat, which won both the Anthony and Macavity awards for best novel while being nominated for the Edgar and Shamus awards as well. Stalking the Angel followed powerfully with classic noir style of the 1930s hard-boiled detective up against evil moderated with wise cracks. Lullaby Town updated the 1930s detective stories about Hollywood, and kept the same cynicism about Tinsel Town. Free Fall looked hard at the corruptibility of the police and found them wanting. Voodoo River added a love interest for Elvis to make him more vulnerable and appealing. And the books just keep getting better from there in their characterizations, action, story-telling and excitement. Elvis Cole is the star attraction, the co-owner of The Elvis Cole Detective Agency. He's now 40ish, ex-Army, served in Vietnam, ex-security guard, has two years of college, learned to be a detective by working under George Feider, a licensed P.I. for over 40 years, does martial arts as enthusiastically as most people do lunch, and is fearless but not foolish. He's out to right the wrongs of the world as much as he is to earn a living. Elvis has a thing for Disney characters (including a Pinocchio clock), kids, cats, scared clients and rapid fire repartee. He drives a Jamaica yellow 1966 Corvette Stingray convertible, and usually carries a Dan Wesson .38 Special. His main foil is partner, Joe Pike, an ex-Marine, ex-cop who moves quietly and mysteriously wearing shades even in the dark . . . when he's not scaring the bad guys with the red arrows tattooed on his deltoids, which are usually bare in sleeveless shirts. Although he has an office with Elvis, Pike spends all of his time at his gun shop when not routing the bad guys with martial arts while carrying and often using enough firepower to stop a tank. Pike rarely speaks . . . and never smiles. A standing gag is trying to catch Pike with a little twitch of his lips indicating he might possibly be amused. But he's there when you need him. He drives a spotless red Jeep. Robert Parker's Spenser is the obvious character parallel for Elvis, but Spenser and Elvis are different in some ways. Cole is more solitary, usually being alone when he's not working. Cole is very much L.A. and Spenser is ultra blue collar Boston. Cole is martial arts while Spenser boxes and jogs. What they have in common is that they're both out to do the right thing, with money being unimportant. They both love to crack wise as they take on the bad guys. The bad guys hate the "humor" in both cases, and can't do much about it. The dialogue written for each is intensely rich. Mr. Crais has a special talent for making you care about his characters, especially the clients and their kids. You'll want to know what happens to them. With a lot of experience in script writing, Mr. Crais also knows how to set the scene physically and make you feel it. He may be out finest fiction writer about physical movement. He gives you all the clues to picture what's going on . . . but draws back from giving so much detail that you can't use your own imagination to make things better. On to Sunset Express, the sixth book in the series. The title refers life in the fast lane of the Southern California rich and famous. The book opens with a fast-moving prologue in which a murder victim is found in the hills just off Mulholland Drive overlooking L.A., the police follow up, and the murder weapon used to kill Susan Martin is found near her home. The husband looks to be good for the crime. But he's Teddy Martin, celebrity restauranteur to the stars. That's a problem. As Detective Sergeant Dan "Tommy" Tomsic observes, "It's easier to cut off your own . . . leg than convict a rich man in this state, detective." Elvis is hired by Martin's legendary defense attorney, Jonathan Green, to check out whether one of the detectives, Angela Rossi, may have planted the murder weapon at the Martin home. She checks out clean, and then Elvis is given suspect leads to follow up. One of the leads quickly turns up two dead suspects. Suddenly, Green and his associates are spending more time smearing Ms. Rossi and manipulating the press than they are finding the guilty parties. What gives? Angered, Elvis quits and looks to right the wrong. Unless you've been away on another planet for the last 20 years, you will notice some parallels to the OJ Simpson case. The plot is quite inventive in working out the details in another way, however. In fact, this story is very much in the John Grisham school of dirty lawyer tales. There's not much mystery here, but a lot of good plot and character development. I graded the book down for insufficient mystery. In this story, it's Lucy who becomes a more complex and interesting character. The main appeal of this book to me was Elvis sandwiching in a visit from Lucy Chenier, the Louisiana lawyer from Voodoo River, and her son, Ben. It made Elvis more real and appealing as a character. This book is structured like a short story (the initial crime investigation) and three connected novellas (Elvis working for the lawyers, Elvis entertaining Lucy and Ben, and Elvis working against the lawyers). After you finish the book, I suggest that you think about the dangers inherent in our society's cult of celebrities. Where could you improve your life by paying more attention to sound values than to what is popular on television? Donald Mitchell
Co-author of The 2,000 Percent Solution, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage
Rating: 
Summary: Compelling Read
Review: Obviously based on OJ, and it will definitely make you look at his Dream Team differently. Crais has created wonderful characters in Elvis Cole, Joe Pike and the cat. I wish there was more cat in his books. The girl's okay. A little mediocre for someone like Elvis to be gaga over, though.
Rating:
Summary: Tough, clear cut plot
Review: Private detective Elvis Cole, is hired by a high profile, media savvy lawyer, Jonathan Green, as a special investigator in the murder case of the wife of a famous restuateur, Teddy Martin. Detective Angela Rossi, a career policewoman with ambitions of becoming the first woman Chief of detectives, has been accused of planting incriminating evidence against Martin to further her own career.When Elvis realises that he is being set up to blur the evidence, he quits but continues to work on the case with the police. This is a pacy, smart story with just enough humour to leaven out the violence.
Rating: 
Summary: Crais takes revenger on OJ
Review: Reading Free Fall and Voodoo River, I thought Crais was growing as an author (albeit I am several years behind copyright date). Sunset Express did not live up to my heightened anticipation. Crais may have been under pressure to pop out another in the series, and angry about the OJ mess, but that is not a formula for good writing. We have seen the jokes before ("Serbian-American humor" I am sure would be Elvis's comment. That's what he always says when anyone else tries to make a joke.) In Free Fall, Elvis wrangles information in trade for tickets to a concert; here Elvis wrangles information in trade for first-base-side-tickets to the Dodgers. In his next novel he'll probably wrangle information in trade to tickets to a NASCAR race, or a shuttle launching. Over and over Elvis says he is gonna shoot somebody. You can gain weight just by reading these books, with all their detailed descriptions of what is being eaten. I like Lucy, I am glad Elvis found her, and I enjoy the happiness of their being together, so who cares where her ex thinks she should stay on a business trip? In this day and age? Crais probably couldn't think of anything to write, so he probably threw that in to liven up the plot, wowie zowie, just like Alex Cross's loved ones always get some horribly frightening (but ultimately harmless) disease. The book is slow, not very interesting, okay ending. Roger keeps throwing these at me, so I keep reading them, and they are sort of fun on a free evening, but it's still Spense and Hawk for me.
Rating:
Summary: Catch this train!
Review: Robert Crais comes up with some interesting titles! The audio version with David Stuart is fine! It has the OJ premise and the romance is intensifying (A guy doing a women's voice just amuses me no end) Joe is there as always to back up Elvis and of course, Elvis' quips to Joe's reactions are so funny. Elvis really has a heart of gold and this is another good read.
Rating:
Summary: Wisecracking At Its Finest
Review: Robert Crais has done a wonderful job of writing in the Elvis Cole mystery series. The wisecracking private investigator is back for the sixth novel in his series. Cole is hired by the leading attorney for a multi-millionaire arrested for the murder of his wife. Cole is hot on the tail of the Los Angeles Police Department in suspecting that they have planted evidence in this murder case. As Cole and his "hired muscle" partner, Joe Pike, investigate further, the evidence starts to turn on the defense team. Things heat up with everyone wanting a piece of the self proclaimed "World's Greatest Detective." Throw in a surprise visit from Lucy, Cole's love interest, and you have an intense thriller. What always makes Crais' novels so great is his well-developed, interestingly complex characters. He weaves an amazingly intricate storyline around these characters with well-described settings, making for a complete book. This is another solid effort by Crais, and an excellent novel that is a pleasure to read. Enjoy the ride.
Rating:
Summary: Robert Crais Scores Big WIth This One
Review: The next title in the evergrowing line of Elvis Cole novels sure is the best so far. Elvis is still his old wise-cracking self even with all the publicity he gets during this case. This has more than your fair share of plot twists and surprises while Cole takes his path down the twisting road of lies. This is a great read for anyone that is just getting into the Mystery genre or has been reading them forever. Pick this book up, you won't be sorry.
Rating:
Summary: My favourite private eye
Review: The story started with the arrest of millionaire, Teddy Martin for the murder of his wife. His defense attorney, Johnathan Green asked Elvis Cole to investigate whether police officer Rossi tampered with the evidence that led to the arrest of his client. Cole was also asked to look into the callers of the hotline who may led them to the real murderers. The thrill of working for the high profile and popular Jonathan soon turned nightmarish as Cole uncovered things that indicated that Jonathan may not be as upright and honest as he claimed to be. It would be an uphill task for Cole to turn against the public¡¦s darling and bring him to justice. The story was promising, filled with sufficient question marks to keep the reader interested and yet not too complex for the reader to follow. I just felt that too much time may have been devoted to the Cole-Lucy romance and the ending a little bit too abrupt. I would love to see what really happened to Cole-Jonathan saga in the end. Nevertheless, Cole still remains my favourite private eye.
Rating:
Summary: A great crime novel!
Review: These Elvis Cole novels are always more than just detective novels. The characters are flesh and blood people, and the themes always resonate long after I've finished the book. I've read all of the Cole books, and am anxious for more! No one does it better than this!
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