Only in L.A.Elvis Cole
Created by Robert Crais
Only in L.A.
You haven't seen a P.I. like this one, I'll bet. He has a Mickey Mouse phone in his office, drinks his coffee out of a Spider-Man mug, quotes Jiminy Cricket and he claims he wants to be Peter Pan. And he's been known to drive a bright yellow 1966 Corvette. Oh, and he's named after the King, just in case you don't remember him. He's ELVIS COLE.
But before you call for the guys in the white coats, rest assured he's not quite the flake he seems to be. He packs a Dan Wesson .38 in a shoulder rig, has dabbled in more than one of the martial arts, and has survived the Vietnam war, not to mention several years as a private detective in Hollywood. He's earned a rep as a tough, conscientious, albeit somewhat unorthodox investigator. Very much an eye for the nineties and beyond, a sort of Spenser via Disneyland, a comparison Crais is perfectly at ease with. Elvis is, in fact, as much a smartass as his beantown contemporary and, like Spenser, he's in love with the city he lives in. He's also prone to pondering the moral ambiguities and hypocrisies of our times, valiantly striving to do the right thing. Elvis seems particularly concerned with abused and battered women and children. All very chivalric. Spenser, not to mention Marlowe, would be proud. (In fact, Robert Crais' contribution, "The Man Who Knew Dick Bong," was one of the highlights of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, a 1988 collection of Marlowe stories by contemporary writers.)
And like Spenser, Elvis has a partner who just happens to be a bit bigger, tougher and more at home with the use of violence and not too troubled by attacks of conscience. His so-called "sociopathic sidekick", Joe Pike, is an ex-Marine and part-time mercenary and gunshop owner. He's also a lot quieter than the usually running-off-at-the-mouth Elvis. According to Joe, Clint Eastwood talks too much. Together Cole and Pike make quite a team.
An excellent series, that has steadily improved. Unlike Spenser, Elvis has evolved over the series. Some of his more annoying traits have been toned down, allowing us to see the man underneath, and 1999's L.A. Requiem took it all up a giant notch. It's a big powerful book that tears into the heart of darkness that lies at the core of Joe Pike, and is simply one of the best P.I. novels of the decade. His new one, The Last Detective, promises to crawl into Elvis' head.
Before turning to novels, Crais wrote for television, most
notably for Cagney & Lacey, Miami Vice, Quincy,
M.E., The Equalizer
and Hill Street Blues (for which he received an Emmy nomination).
And so far, the Elvis Cole series has already nabbed an Edgar,
an Anthony, a Macavity and a Shamus. Can
the Nobel Peace Prize be far off?
Certainly, the enthusiastic critical and popular reponse to L.A. Requiem, with its multiple points-of-view and multi-layered plot have opened up the possibilities for Crais, as he cheerfully confesses. His subsequent novel, Demolition Angel (2000), is a stand-alone about a female member of the L.A.P.D. bomb squad, which has already been optioned for a film, with Crais writing the screenplay. And he already has plans for the next book in the Elvis series, one he pomises will do for Elvis what L.A. Requiem did for Joe. I tell ya, this Crais guy is worth watching...
TRIVIA
UNDER OATH
NOVELS
RELATED LINKS
Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to Bluefox808 for the nudge. And Kelly Levendor for the Bosch connection.
| Home | Detectives A-L M-Z | Film | Radio | Television | Web Comics | Comics | FAQs |
| Trivia | Authors | Hall of Fame | Mystery Links | Bibliography | Glossary | Search |
| What's New: On The Site | On the Street | Non-Fiction | Fiction | Staff | The P.I. Poll |
