The Monkey's Raincoat

Rating:
Summary: Well, I'll be a monkey's raincoat
Review: Oh, yeah. OOOOHHHH, yeah. I had reservations when I started this book (it was forced into my hand with "Read this rather than that Kundera existential [stuff])", so I had little choice. I don't like cute in my detective novels, I like 'em noir and so hard-boiled they bounce knee-high when dropped on the coroner's floor.

But Crais gets it right. Sarcasm, not smarm. Wit, not twit. And lots of guns and knives and really good killings that nice southern girls shouldn't read, but they do.

I'll spare you the plotline, as the other, wiser reviewers have taken care of that for me. Suffice it to say that Elvis is a great protagonist, one I want to know more about, or grab a bourbon with if he were only non-imaginary. I read it in a day.

And now I'm running out now to get the others in the series.

Rating:
Summary: Why this book was called "The Monkey's Raincoat"
Review: After hearing Robert Crais' books praised, I started off with his first Elvis Cole book, "The Monkey's Raincoat." What a great book! Very entertaining and I loved all the sarcastic humor. I am on to the second book now, "Stalking the Angel." Here's the reason for the title: At the front of the book, a poem is quoted that reads
"Winter downpour
Even the monkey
Needs a raincoat"
-Basho

I think this refers to Elvis providing the protection, a metaphorical "raincoat", that his client needs in her time of distress, her emotional "downpour." Or, maybe he just thought it was a cool poem! You can never tell with Robert Crais! Enjoy
the book!

Rating:
Summary: Go with this Monkey
Review: Robert Crais sets a high mark with this first of a series. Like James Burke's first, "Black Cherry Blues," Crais introduces us to a great set of plots, stories, sub-plots and events. The characters are interesting, homeric yet ordinary, offset eachother nicely. Joe Pike says little but Crais' writing is so crisp and intense that we always "feel" his presence.

For all of his hard bitten ways and for all of Elvis Cole's wit in the face of evil, we come to learn that they hold toughness, loyalty and honor above all, not unlike the great "heros" of the genre, Spenser, Robicheaux, Kenzie, Marlowe and Davenport.

This book got me hooked on the rest of the series and I've never come up dry with Robert Crais.

But what is the Monkey's Raincoat?

Rating:
Summary: Definitely Dark...The Color of Noir
Review: I may have missed something crucial, and I'll feel really dumb if I did, but I'm not sure why this novel is called 'The Monkey's Raincoat.' That mystery aside, its time to focus on the one at hand....

Ellen Lang is a housewife that has lived a sheltered life. Then one day, her aspiring Hollywood producer husband goes missing. Their son goes missing with him. On the advice and insistence of her pushy friend, Mrs. Lang goes to see Elvis Cole, the detective that never wants to grow up.

Cole is a wise-cracking detective with a thing for Disney characters. His experiences in Viet Nam, to sound redundant, lead to his decision to never grow up. Nevertheless, Cole engages in Yoga, in psychotic fashion, enjoys a good beer, and hangs out with an unnamed cat, and occassionally, his partner Joe Pike, who is a bit on the extreme side of things.

Cole takes the case and sets out to find Mort Lang. It doesn't take long for Lang to turn up dead. Not long after that, Mrs. Lang goes missing. Cole, and the reader, smells a rat. Deciding not to give up on his client, Cole doggedly pursues this case.

This is definitely crime/noir fiction. It is also very, very dark. Despite, and sometimes because of, Cole's wisecracks, there is a fair amount of violence. When Pike finally gets around to making an appearance in the novel to help Cole out, the violence only escalates. This isn't a complaint, but more of a warning of what to expect.

Crais writing reminds me of Dennis Lehane. Both authors seem to favor a protagonist with a quick wit thrown into a dark setting. I'd highly recommend both. I plan on picking up the next novel in the Elvis Cole series. We'll see if it is as dark, or darker than the first.

Rating:
Summary: Introducing Jiminy Cricket
Review: Possibly one of the most delightful moments for a crabby old reader and reviewer of mystery stories is to discover an excellent author whom he has somehow missed. Of course, in this case it is also a bit embarrassing. Robert Crais is the author of, among other things, 'L.A. Requiem,' indicating that this reviewer is not only unobservant, but a bit stubborn as well. I am not always a fan of the hard-boiled detective/hero genre, and most of those I don't like seem to live around Los Angeles.

Deciding to break with a long tradition (for me), I ordered this book, the first in the Elvis Cole series, for my trial dip. I was ill prepared for a small but potent bombshell that won its author several awards and nominations. Gasping for breath, I settled in for an unexpectedly wild and enjoyable ride.

Elvis Cole is the anti-detective incarnate. In an office filled with Disney memorabilia, shared with an invisible partner, Cole meets with new client Ellen Lang and her best friend Janet Simon. The problem - Ellen's husband Mort and her son Perry have disappeared. Ellen is a difficult client, but Mort definitely was not a perfect husband, and Cole proceeds on the assumption that this is a straightforward parental snatch and run.

Cole discovers Mort's girlfriend is missing as well, and that his business partners in the film business are a bit sleazy, but he is caught by surprise when this suddenly becomes a murder case. The badness mounts as Cole finds his clues lead from film moguls to the top of the narcotics trade. Soon Cole, on a grim search for the boy, is having his strings pulled by people who would just as soon kill him as look at him. With unusual adeptness, the detective switches from Jiminy Cricket quotes to guns and fists. Joined by his partner, Elvis Cole goes to war.

The success of this genre of detective fiction rises and falls on the quality of main characters. Between John MacDonald, Raymond Chandler, Robert Parker, etc., etc., original plots are hard to come by. So a unique character like the wisecracking, 1966 Corvette driving Elvis Cole is too precious to waste. If you are looking to breathe some fresh air on your musty old mystery shelves, don't even consider passing this one by.

Rating:
Summary: The Monkey's Raincoat
Review: An impressive debut that will have private-eye aficionados comparing Elvis Cole with such established fictional ops as Spenser, Jacob Asch, Harry Stoner, and Albert Samson. Cole is an L.A.-based sleuth with a smart mouth, a flair for the martial arts, and a borderline sociopath for a partner. He's hired to find a missing husband, a failing Hollywood agent. Routine? Not after the missing hubby turns up dead, the widow and young son are kidnapped, and a big-time drug czar demands that Cole return two kilos of missing cocaine. Crais' characters command attention, and his dialogue is unerring. Cole is simply the most mesmerizing new PI in years

Rating:
Summary: How did I miss this one for ten years?
Review: After reading "The Monkey's Raincoat" just ten years after it was published, I realize I've been wasting a lot of time. I should have picked up this little wonder the day it hit the stands. Elvis Cole is hot! Even hotter is his partner, the mysterious Joe Pike. And, they have an adventure on their hands. Someone has kidnapped a woman and her son and wants to exchange them for two kilos of lab-grade coke. The kidnapper thinks Elvis has the coke and figures to make the swap and then off Elvis, the woman, and the child. Problem: Elvis doesn't have the coke, he's never even seen the coke, and wonders how the kidnapper would come to such a conclusion.
To get the woman and her child back, Elvis asks for the assistance of his friend and partner, Joe Pike. And when the two of them decide to give the kidnapper a really bad day, the story just gets beter and better.
I've been reading Crais backward, chronologically, and it's taken me a while--since finding the novels of this really entertaining author--to work my way back to "The Monkey's Raincoat". To find someone so good, so early in his career, is a real treat. I loved it!

Rating:
Summary: ONE FUN READ
Review: I picked this up on a whim only because it was bought by people who also bought books by James Lee Burke(who I might add is one of the greatest writers around today). After reading what it was about and some other reviews I bought it.
I guess there is not much else to add tha no one else had said. The story moves along pretty quick, the charcters are very well rounded, not one dimensional like in some other books...That I loved. I read this one sitting and laughed out loud more than a few times.
Pick it up and give it a try.

Rating:
Summary: Debut of a Wanna-Be Tough PI
Review: Elvis Cole doesn't think there'll be much trouble from his new case. Ellen Lang just wants her son Perry back from her husband. The biggest problem is going to be working with Ellen, who seems helpless and doesn't want to get her husband into any trouble. But first, her home is broken into and searched. Then her husband is found. Dead. Who killed him and why? And where is Perry? Elvis is going to have to work fast if he's going to rescue the boy.

This book is a definite departure from the cozies I normally read. Still, I couldn't put it down. The plot moved quickly, and the tension built steadily until the end. The characters were well developed. I loved Elvis and his partner Joe, both tough on the outside but with big hearts just under the surface. And the wisecracks kept me chuckling through most of the book.

While I'm not ready to jump ship to PI novels exclusively, this was certainly a pleasant departure. I'll be checking in on Cole and Pike's further adventures.

Rating:
Summary: Another Great Elvis Book
Review: You can never go wrong with an Elvis Cole book. He is funny, interesting, and cool. This was very good. One of my favorites in the series. If you have never read an Elvis Cole book you may want to read L.A. Requiem first. It was my first read of this series and it got me hooked. Requiem is by far the best of them all.