Indigo Slam

Three children walk into Elvis Cole's office and hire him to find their missing father. The trail leads form LA to Seattle and a group of Russian Mafia who counterfeit money. Searching for the father and dodging the Mafia hit men while looking after three children, keeps Elvis and his partner, Joe Pike, busy. The ending may a bit too pat but it sure is a fast, fun read.

Meanwhile, his girl friend, Lucy Chenier, is job hunting in LA. When her ex-husband interferes and sabotages her dream job application, Elvis has another problem to worry about. Fortunately, Lucy has the moxy to beat her ex at his own game and the novel ends with Lucy planning on moving to LA from New Orleans and the ex calling to warn Elvis that this isn't over. You can show more read how that works out for all concerned in the Crais' next novel, The Last Detective. show less

I've read everything in this series and really liked them all...so when needing a book for a challenge I revisited them. Elvis and Joe are perfect investing partners and perfectly good friends. What should be a simple missing person case spirals out of control bringing in the Russian mafia with the Feds close on their heels. Staying alive is a struggle...saving three kids looks beyond even Cole's and the world's toughest guy, Joe Pike's abilities. Robert Crais's skill as a story teller plus two wonderful characters combine to make this a good, if not great. Elvis Cole entry. This one was written 25 years ago and it hasn't lost anything over the years.

I enjoyed the premise of three children hiring a P.I. to find their missing father, and they turn out to be in the witness protection program (the reader knows this from the beginning, so not a spoiler) and mayhem ensues. Fairly typical plot, featuring gangsters and lots of shooting and chasing. Not exactly my usual cup of tea, but enjoyable from an 'it is what it is' perspective. Better written than most of this ilk. Plus I met Robert Crais at a conference last year and he couldn't have been nicer. Did you know he is vegan?

Fast, solid ride. A great beginning, where the reader witnesses the moment three children and their father leave their home in company with the U.S. Marshals. Cut to Elvis Cole in the office, being visited three years later by said children, who want him to look for their father. It's a nice way to build the sense of anticipation for the reader, waiting for Elvis to discover and explain what happened so long ago, but it turns out that was just the surface. The Space Needle on the cover implies Seattle, and it's true, there is a section in Seattle, but it's strangely limited. Most of the time is still in L.A.

Meanwhile, on the personal front, Elvis' S.O. Lucy is negotiating for a job in Los Angeles. Although Elvis finds his attention is show more split between his relationship issues and the children's case, Lucy's situation is generally a less interesting one. I appreciate that Crais didn't go into expected territory with the ex-husband, keeping attention more on the children's missing father. I understand wanting to give your main character a personal life, but at times the situation with Lucy is just distracting. I suppose he might be trying to counter the 'lonely private eye' trope.

The case escalates fast, somewhat unrealistically and into thriller territory, somewhat similar to the plotting pattern in Voodoo Blues. I found it worked less well for me than the last book, but I still enjoyed the story. Wrangling the children and their wayward father certainly made the case more challenging. I found one of the revelations at the end (mild spoiler) explaining the father's behavior to be mildly eye-rolling, but as Crais has earned a lot of leniency from me, I ignored it. It felt like a crutch, both with the earlier actions and with resolving the case lawfully. Still, overall, a pleasant way to spend the afternoon on a cold, rainy day. Tucked up in a comforter with two dogs as heating pads and a good story--what more could one want? show less

In the seventh novel featuring private investigators Elvis Cole and Joe Pike a young teenage girl attempts to hire Elvis to find her father. It is clear that she and her younger brother and sister are alone and her father has been gone for 11 days. Elvis declines but follows her home to be sure they are okay. He finds a neat, orderly home and no apparent cause for concern aside from the absence of the father. However, Lucy Chenier, his Baton Rough attorney girlfriend, is visiting and she insists on visiting the children when Elvis explains the situation to her. After a brief visit she insists that Elvis help find the missing father.

It turns out that the father (Clark) is a former counterfeiter and apparent drug user. He has been in the show more witness protection program after testifying against a Russian mobster but left the program and is now involved in another scheme involving Vietnamese loyalists. The brother of the Russian mobster wants Clark dead. Elvis has to find Clark, extricate him from his present situation, reunite him with his children, and secure their safety from the Russians and Vietnamese.

As in Voodoo River, in the end Elvis and Joe manage to pit the two gangs against each other. Meanwhile, Lucy is offered a job and begins making plans to move to L. A.

This is a solid addition to the Cole/Pike series. show less

From Amazon:

Life in the California sun suits Elvis Cole—until the day a fifteen-year-old girl and her two younger siblings walk into his office. Then everything changes. Three years ago, a Seattle family ran for their lives in a hail of bullets. Hired by three kids to find their missing father, Elvis now must pick up the cold pieces of a drama that began that night. What he finds is a sordid tale of high crimes and illicit drugs. As clues to a man’s secret life emerge from the shadows, Elvis knows he’s not just up against ruthless mobsters and some very angry Feds. He’s facing a storm of desperation and conspiracy—bearing down on three children whose only crime was their survival.

My Thoughts:

It seems that Robert Crais just show more can't write a bad or even mediocre book. From the witness protection program, to the Russian mob, to countefeiting, to child neglect.... Robert Crais throws all this into his newest Cole novel. It has a great plot and characters that are so lifelike, you immediately become enmeshed in their lives. The author never loses track of where he is going with the storyline or how he gets there. Anyone that thinks that a good mystery needs to involve serial killers, piles of bodies, and buckets of blood will soon find that Robert Crais, Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, show us what an excellent crime novel is all about. show less

I almost took off one star from my rating because it was too short, but that wouldn't be fair. But it went by way too quickly, and I'm worried I'll run out of them.

It was a typical Elvis Cole story, with some help from Joe Pike, my favorite sidekick with his humorous monologues and friendly banter. And if you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you. But he was good at keeping the kids in line - they (along with most people) are scared to death of him.

In this book, they butted heads with Russian gangsters out for revenge, SE Asians out to drive out the communists from their country, and local counterfeiters. All in a day's work for the world's greatest detective.