This is the first in the Elvis Cole series and I thought it was great. Fast read with great characters - Elvis and Joe compliment each other.

Back Cover Blurb:
Ellen Lang has lost something very valuable indeed - her husband and young son. The case seems simple enough, but PI Elvis Cole and his sociopath sidekick Joe Pike aren't thrilled by the prospect of another straightforward domestic....
But all is not what it seems. Their search down the seamy side of Hollywood's studio lots and sculptured lawns soon lands Elvis and Joe deep in a distinctly non-Disney world of drugs, sex and murder. Things are looking up - and soon everybody, from cops to starlets to crooks, has declared war on the good guys. For Ellen, Hollywood isn't Funtown any more. For Elvis, it's a good living. He hopes. ( )

4 read fav author list ( )

Genre: Private Investigator, #1 Elvis Cole mystery

First Line: "I'm sorry, Mr. Cole, this has nothing to do with you."

Several years ago people began mentioning Elvis Cole to me. Hmm...my last name, my mother's favorite singer.... I duly filed away the information. The people doing the mentioning probably thought I'd blown them off, to which I would reply: Just because I don't lay rubber the second you mention an author I might like doesn't mean I'm not paying attention. Sometimes I think part of my brain is an aquifer; it takes time for some of these authors to percolate down to the Do Something Level. I finally reached the Do Something Level with Elvis Cole, and now I've got a big smile on my face knowing what I've got in store for me.

Elvis Cole is a private investigator with a shadowy partner, Joe Pike. Joe isn't around all that much, which suits most people just fine. Let's face it-- the man scares people to death, and according to Elvis, "Pike thinks Clint Eastwood talks too much." Elvis has a life that suits him just fine. A Vietnam vet, his hero is Peter Pan, and he thinks very highly of Jiminy Cricket. (So do I. Jiminy taught me how to spell encyclopedia.) I also have to admit that the Pinocchio clock he has on his office wall fascinates me. Peter Pan...Jiminy Cricket...Pinocchio...when Ellen Lang walked into his office to hire him to find her missing husband and son, I knew that I was about to embark on a rather unusual investigation. I was led to a viper's den of criminals, drugs and sex, but I feared not, for Cole and Pike were with me.

By the time I finished, I had some new friends in Elvis and Joe. (I have a healthy respect for Joe, but he doesn't scare me. Yet.) The investigation itself isn't all that complex or unusual, but it moves quickly and taught me to pay attention to small clues and subtle nuances. The real reason why this book is such a standout rests squarely on the shoulders of Elvis Cole. It's as though, once he made it out of Vietnam in one piece and decided he wanted to be Peter Pan, his decision stripped away several layers of adult apathy and cynicism. This man can eat ice cream, watch an obnoxious customer torment the counter girl...and be incapable of pretending it isn't happening. When Mr. Obnoxious is persuaded to leave, Elvis leaves his business card with the girl. "If anyone ever bothers you...let me know."

And that's the strength of Elvis Cole--he cares. If that's what happens when a person decides to be Peter Pan, I say we should all start flapping our arms and taking flying lessons. In The Monkey's Raincoat, Robert Crais has set his stage with two superb characters in Cole and Pike, and I just happen to have Acts Two (Stalking the Angel) and Three (Lullaby Town) waiting in the wings.

Now if I could only find myself one of those Pinocchio clocks.... ( )

An entry in the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series.

In Cole's office is a limp, beaten-down woman, Ellen Lang, whose husband Mort and her 9 year old son Perry are missing; she wants Elvis to find them BUT she doesn't want the police involved in any way. Elvis does his best under the restrictions laid out by Ellen. Not only does he have very little luck but the Lang house has been ransacked professionally and without intending to, Ellen involves the police. The case turns nastier as it begins to be clear that somehow or another, the disappearances are linked to drugs.

I would classify this novel as soft-boiled private eye as opposed to hard-boiled police procedural. Cole in many respects reminds me of Lehane's Patrick Kenzie of the Kenzie/Gennaro series; published in 1987, Cole is the predecessor. Both are the lighter, self-deprecating wisecracking detectives, rather than the hard-edged cynical type--much easier to like.

The writing is not dated, despite the 20 years that have passed, speaking very well for the book. There are some quaint anachronisms, such as Cole writing a report on a typewriter! Other than that and the models of some of the cars, the writing holds up really well.

Cole and Pike are both appealing characters in different ways, Cole the more human, Pike because he is, so to speak, a softer psychopathic type. There's enough there to keep curiosity about what happens to the characters at a good enough level to want to read another book in the series.

The plot is very good and fans of such things will be more than content with the great attention paid to details about guns and ammunition. The locale, the Los Angeles Greater Metropolitan area, is adequately described.

A very good book in what seems to be an interesting series so far. Recommended. ( )

I started this series with #7, but decided to swing back to the beginning. I like Elvis Cole. In some ways he's like your typical P.I., but he actually has a sense of humor. Plus, he feeds his cat beer and has a bit of an obsession with Disney characters. I have noticed that he has a bit of a habit of getting too involved with his clients, but I think that's what makes him special. I liked the mystery behind this one (a little bit of murder, a little bit of drugs, a little bit of kidnapping), but I wonder if Elvis and Joe are coming out of it a little too scott-free in the end. ( )