Chasing Darkness

Wow, I really am addicted to this series. Although I had the next book in order coming from a library, I stopped at my local branch to see what was in stock and found Elvis Cole #12. It was a fast, interesting read with a couple of unpredictable twists.

A fire is spreading through Laurel Canyon, so two cops are going door to door to alert people to the danger. A woman notes that a man with a bad foot hasn't left his place in days. When they break in, they discover him dead, gunshot wound to the head and a book with seven photographs of brutally murdered women in his lap. Detectives soon pay Elvis Cole a visit, blaming him for finding the alibi that set the man free after murder number five. Elvis is racked with guilt and tries to find show more out what he can about the murdered man and his album. Unfortunately, a LAPD chief has the investigation wrapped within a week. Elvis continues to dig, weaseling information in any way possible, from bribes to families to a little B&E.

This is one of the first times I've deliberately jumped around a series instead of reading each book as it came out or going back to read in order. It's interesting; the things that I enjoyed about book three are still here, but there's been a shift. Elvis is not quite as much of a charmer as he is in the earlier books, and seems uncharacteristically moody and affected by guilt. There are still moments where he is compassionate and gentle, but are fewer, as is the humor. I'll miss it if that's the case for subsequent books.

Plotting was interesting. Initially I felt as if Elvis' involvement hung on the thinnest of pretexts, but I ended up appreciating the various methods Elvis uses to remain involved, always a challenge when one's lead is a private detective. Crais had a couple of fat red herrings, one of which I fell for. I especially enjoyed being surprised because it felt reasonably plausible.

There were also some moments of solid atmospheric writing. I definitely had the feel of the dry heat and the L.A. landscape.

"Our office was a good place to be that morning. There was only the tocking of the Pinocchio clock, the scratch of my pen, and the hiss of the air conditioner fighting a terrible heat. Fire season had arrived, when fires erupted across the Southland like pimples on adolescent skin."

"The canyon behind my house was pleasant during the midday hours, with a slight breeze that brought out the hawks to search for rabbits and mice. Somewhere below, a power saw whined in the trees, punctuated by the faint tapping of a nail gun. Someone was always building something, and the sounds of it were encouraging. They sounded like life."

Another solid entry into a series with above average writing. Sadly, though this one did involve both a serial killer and a cat, Crais is smart enough to keep the focus on the mystery and the character interplay, not reliving each murder. Very enjoyable because of the plot twists and solid writing.

Rounding up from 3.5 stars because it deserves it on the P.I. Detective Scale show less

I'm not sure why, but before Chasing Darkness, I only read one other novel by Robert Crais. I read a fair amount of crime fiction and Crais is one of the better known authors in the genre so it is strange that I hadn't read anything by him.

For the most part I enjoyed the novel. I liked the Elvis Cole character and I appreciated that this PI actually does a reasonable amount of detecting. I find that a lot of the time the PI's in this type of novel tend to stumble onto the solution of a crime rather than actually solving anything.

I gather this is not the best example of the author's work (I have been meaning to read Monkey's Raincoat & LA Requiem - but haven't yet). I may not be a regular reader of the author, but even I can tell that show more Crais is just going through the motions here. The solution to this mystery when revealed has a pretty significant hole in its logic and there are some annoying unresolved issues that seem to have been forgotten by the author.

All in all, I found Chasing Darkness to be a quick, entertaining read. It's not great, but an enjoyable diversion. I plan to read one of his earlier novels so that I can experience Crais at his best. Even so, based on this effort and even if he is underperforming here (which I assume he is) he's still an author worth reading. show less

From Amazon:

It's fire season, and the hills of Los Angeles are burning. When police and fire department personnel rush door to door in a frenzied evacuation effort, they discover the week-old corpse of an apparent suicide. But the gunshot victim is less gruesome than what they find in his lap: a photo album of seven brutally murdered young women -- one per year, for seven years. And when the suicide victim is identified as a former suspect in one of the murders, the news turns Elvis Cole's world upside down. Three years earlier Lionel Byrd was brought to trial for the murder of a female prostitute named Yvonne Bennett. A taped confession coerced by the police inspired a prominent defense attorney to take Byrd's case, and Elvis Cole was show more hired to investigate. It was Cole's eleventh-hour discovery of an exculpatory videotape that allowed Lionel Byrd to walk free. Elvis was hailed as a hero. But the discovery of the death album in Byrd's lap now brands Elvis as an unwitting accomplice to murder. Captured in photographs that could only have been taken by the murderer, Yvonne Bennett was the fifth of the seven victims -- two more young women were murdered after Lionel Byrd walked free. So Elvis can't help but wonder -- did he, Elvis Cole, cost two more young women their lives?

My Thoughts:

Think you know "who done it"? You will guess again and again and again in this latest Elvis Cole/Joe Pike offering. As usual Crais's characters are filled with the energy of actual people who have to find a way through the utter chaos of life and to hopefully grow through the trial and tribulations that are placed in front of them. Elvis Cole is still his sarcastic self but a more serious side of his personality comes out in this novel, as he deals with the family members who hold him responsible for the deaths of their children and siblings. The ever silent and dangerous Joe Pike is still at Cole's side, but he plays a much smaller role this time around. The few scenes that Pike is in, however, are powerful and almost steal the show from our hard-working and wisecracking detective. All in all another excellent novel in this outstanding series. show less

It's fire season in L.A., and the authorities are going door-to-door to ensure homeowners have evacuated the area. But at one home they discover an apparent suicide. The victim is holding a scrapbook of photos of murdered women that only the killer could have had access to, however, P.I. Elvis Cole had definitively proved this man innocent of the crimes at a trial several years earlier. And the murders continued.

It was fascinating as the police walked Cole (and the reader) through the process to learn the evidence clearly implicated the suicide victim as the killer, yet Cole had absolute evidence to the contrary. So who's right? Now Cole, and his partner Joe Pike, have been shut-out of any further info from the authorities regarding the show more murder cases and must strike out on their own to solve this case. Both sides seem to be absolutely correct about the evidence - an excellent conundrum.

This is the 12th Elvis Cole/Joe Pike mystery. The author provides enough back-story to enable to reader to understand the characters and their relationships without having read the previous stories. The answer to this puzzle caught this reader by surprise and there were terrific red herrings along the way. show less

This was a fast and fun read, although not as much humor as many of the previous books.

In this story, a man that Elvis helped get off by proving he could not have committed the crime is later believed to be guilty, but Elvis doesn't believe it. There are a few things that make it unlikely, but the case seems to be signed, sealed and delivered. Even the lawyer that Elvis worked for at the time now believes the man did it. The police don't want Elvis to investigate at all, but he lives by his own rules. Besides, everyone thinks he got a killer off who killed again, and are not too happy about it, so he needs to clear his name. Several twists later, he figures it all out.

Lionel Byrd is found dead in his home, apparently of suicide, when Los Angeles' law enforcement officers are evacuating people due to fires in the area. The death in and of itself wouldn't be alarm-setting, but the photo album full of pictures of dead women is a problem.

Lionel had been accused of murdering one of the women, Yvonne Bennett, in the book a few years earlier. Elvis Cole found evidence that set him free. Now the Los Angeles police department is saying that Elvis got two more women killed by helping to set Lionel free in the first place - the two women murdered after Yvonne.

Elvis is SURE that the evidence he found three years ago was legitimate, and something hinky is going on. When more oddities start popping up, Elvis sets show more out to prove what actually happened once and for all.

Crais is back in true form with Chasing Darkness. The best statement I ever heard made about Robert Crais was, "Crais on a bad day is better than most writers on their best days." Let me assure you that Chasing Darkness WASN'T a bad day!

From page one, Crais starts building up a theme of corruption in reality. There are evils destroying the world around Elvis. First the fires are burning his city. Then he receives news that his exterminator has found termites at his house, corrupting the foundation. A ransacking break-in even results in Elvis' Mickey Mouse phone being broken. Crais has to glue him back together, but you can still see the cracks...the damage. And the corruption continues to build up to the ultimate level of law enforcement and the government.

As is the case with any Crais novel, the plot constantly feeds you twists and turns. It is pointless to try to predict the ending to a Crais novel because he'll get you. You are down to the last twenty pages or so and you know he's leading you down the final path...the one to the answers, and you know he's fed you enough information to figure out the "who done it" and then IT TWISTS AGAIN! GOTCHA!!

Crais is a master of the character. Have you ever noticed the theme with my reading preferences? One must have great characters for me to really connect. Crais' characters always manage to take up residence inside my head for days, sometimes weeks, after I've finished reading one of his books. They are so real for me that they become a part of my world in a sense. No matter how many of Crais' books I read, I never tire of hearing about Joe Pike. And something as simple as "[Pike's] machine picked up with a beep. Pike doesn't have an outgoing message. You just get the beep" says oceans about Joe. He didn't play a very big role in this novel, but when he is present, he fills the room.

Crais never needs a lot of words to build a character. John Chen in all his paranoia, returns in this novel and Crais describes him: "Chen was tall and skinny, and watching him get out of the wagon was like watching a question mark unfold. He studied the surrounding buildings as if he were checking for spies, then hurried to my car." Holy Cow! Who doesn't conjure up a vivid image from a description like that?

I found Crais allusions to The Wizard of Oz very fitting for this theme. They played right into the idea of reality and what one sees and believes. He's another author who doesn't waste a word when he's writing. It all works toward the theme of the book. Is it any wonder I had to finish this book in one day?

Chasing Darkness is another stellar performance from Robert Crais. show less

In this latest Cole novel I think Crais has gotten closer to the original voice he used in the early novels. The noir pastiche’s dialogue (both internal and external) crackled off the page and the action never stopped. Elvis seemed less awash in self-pity and inaction this time; more sure of himself like the old Elvis we’ve come to know. At the same time, he and Pike seem more like equal partners than they have in the past where Pike seemed to ALWAYS be bailing Elvis out and saving his ass. That’s why I think this one works a bit better than others.

Plot-wise it is interesting enough. Lots of stonewalling, distractions and double-crosses. I was a bit annoyed to find Starkey once again part of the investigation. She grates on my show more nerves something awful. At least this time she isn’t panting and pawing at Cole all through the story. Gah. Lucy made an appearance, though, leaving the door open to a larger role once again. Her I liked, but the kid, not so much so I hope she stays in Louisiana until he’s 25. show less