9. The Promise by Robert Crais

listened to on Audible
Elvis Cole #16, Scott James & Maggie #2
2015, Putnam Adult
408 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 1/18/18
Goodreads rating: 4.19
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary LA

First line/s:   "The woman stood in the far corner of the dimly lit room, hiding in the shadows like a fish in gray water."

My comments:  Excellent mystery, written from several points of view.  Of course, the warm and funny Elvis Cole (no p-o-v from Joe Pike in this one, but he is present) in the first person, and then four others in the third person:  the bad guy, "Mr. Rollins,"  a highly secretive government-operative-type-friend-of-Joe-Pike's named Jon Stone (who was a pleasant  surprise), Police officer Scott James (who we met first in his own novel, Suspect), and finally, his German shepherd police dog, Maggie.  I love driving around LA with them, and I gulped down this novel in a day.

Goodreads synopsis: Elvis Cole and Joe Pike are joined by Suspect heroes LAPD K-9 Officer Scott James and his German shepherd, Maggie, in the new heart-stopping thriller from #1 New York Times-bestselling author Robert Crais. 
          Loyalty, commitment, and the fight for justice have always driven Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. If they make a promise, they keep it. Even if it could get them killed.
          When Elvis Cole is secretly hired to find a grief-stricken mother, he’s led to an ordinary house on a rainy night in Echo Park. Only the house isn’t ordinary, and the people hiding inside are a desperate fugitive and a murderous criminal with his own dangerous secrets.
         As helicopters swirl overhead, Scott and Maggie track the fugitive to this same house, coming face-to-face with Mr. Rollins, a killer who leaves behind a brutally murdered body and enough explosives to destroy the neighborhood. Scott is now the only person who can identify him, but Mr. Rollins has a rule: Never leave a witness alive.
          For all of them, the night is only beginning.
          Sworn to secrecy by his client, Elvis finds himself targeted by the police even as Mr. Rollins targets Maggie and Scott. As Mr. Rollins closes in for the kill, Elvis and Joe join forces with Scott and Maggie to follow a trail of lies where no one is who they claim — and the very woman they promised to save might get them all killed. 

65. Suspect by Robert Crais

Scott James & Maggie #1 (they will reappear with Joe Pike & Elvis Cole)
listened to CD while driving (around Tucson and on Lake Havasu/Flagstaff trip)
performed by Macleod Andrews
2013, G. P. Putnam's Sons
312 pgs
7 unabridged cds (8:34)
Adult mystery
Finished  11/14/16
Goodreads rating: 4.14 - 15,709 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary LA

First line/s:  "Maggie's tail thumped the dirt hard.  This was a game they played often, so Maggie knew what was coming, and lived for the joy of this moment."

My comments:  I was looking for a good mystery from an author I know and trust for my car trip.  I know and trust Robert Crais - I love both Elvis Cole and Joe Pike.  This was a "standalone" about a young LA police officer and his dog.  I almost didn't take it.  I'm not a so-called animal lover (I can't say I even particularly like dogs), and I usually run... fast and far... from literature that gives an animal a major role.  But since Robert Crais is tried and true for me, I decided to go for it.
      This is a long introduction to a short review.  From the very first words I was hooked.  The narration was beautifully done, I liked the two protagonists, the plot, the pacing, and all the twists and turns.  The best part?  Getting a little insight into why man and dog have always had such close bonds.  This is something I've never totally understood.  So I got a great mystery and a little insight. It looks like both Scott and Maggie will appear in a Elvis & Joe mystery, too.  Excellent, I look forward to seeing them again.

Goodreads synopsis:  LAPD cop Scott James is not doing so well. Eight months ago, a shocking nighttime assault by unidentified men killed his partner Stephanie, nearly killed him, and left him enraged, ashamed, and ready to explode. He is unfit for duty...until he meets his new partner.
          Maggie is not doing so well, either. A German shepherd who survived three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan sniffing explosives before losing her handler to an IED, her PTSD is as bad as Scott's.
           They are each other's last chance. Shunned and shunted to the side, they set out to investigate the one case that no one wants them to touch: the identity of the men who murdered Stephanie. What they begin to find is nothing like what Scott has been told, and the journey will take them both through the darkest moments of their own personal hells. Whether they will make it out again, no one can say.

18. Chasing Darkness - Robert Crais

#12 Elvis Cole/Joe Pike

audio read by James Daniels

8 unabridged discs, 7 hours

2008, Brilliance Audio

288 pgs.

Adult Murder Mystery

Finished 3/27/14

Goodreads Rating: 4.14

My Rating: 4.5 (Loved it)

PBS - now it's my turn to send it off into the great unknown -

Setting:  LA (or course!)

My comments:   I really enjoy Robert Crais' writing.  A lot.  He writes believable mysteries that keep me guessing. I love Elvis Cole. He's fun and funny.  I want to learn more about Joe Pike, but I like that he's kept a bit mysterious.   You can read this series in any order - I have and it works just fine. Bring 'em on!

Goodreads Review  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 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?
Shut out of the investigation by a special LAPD task force determined to close the case, Elvis Cole and Joe Pike desperately fight to uncover the truth about Lionel Byrd and his nightmare album of death -- a truth hidden by lies, politics, and corruption in a world where nothing is what it seems to be.:

Series Synopsis - Robert Crais

Robert Crais

born June 20, 1953
raised in Louisiana 
adopted - only child
I'm guessing he now lives somewhere in the L.A. area

Robert Crais has written (or helped write) scripts for many tv cop series and has penned many unproduced (and a few produced) tv pilots.  

He writes with tongue-in-cheek humor and puts a huge value on friendship.  His mysteries have everything I look for - I need to be kept guessing.  And his photos make him look gorgeous.  A nice plus!

Robert Crais has quoted that he doesn't think his books need to be read in order.  I agree.  I've skipped around with them and have had no trouble at all.  I WILL read them all, though.  I adore Elvis Cole and am super fascinated by Joe Pike.

He says he will not sell the movie rights to Elvis Cole.

Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series:
1 - The Moneky's Raincoat (1987) The title comes from a Basho haiku included in the front of the book
2 - Stalking the Angel (1989)
3 - Lullaby Town (1992)
4 - Free Fall (1993)
5 - Voodoo River (1995)
6 - Sunset Express (1996)
7 - Indigo Slam (1997)
8 - L. A. Requiem (1999)
9 - The Last Detective (2003)
10 - The Forgotten Man (2005)
11 - The Watchman (2007)
12 - Chasing Darkness (2008)
13 - The First Rule (2010)
14 - The Sentry (2011)
15 - Taken (2012)

Non-Series novels:

Demolition Angel (2000)

Hostage (2001) (Made into a 2005 film starring Bruce Willis)

The Two Minute Rule (2006)

Suspect (2013)

24. Taken - Robert Crais

#15 in Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series
Audio read by Luke Daniels (He's really good.  My only wish is that sometimes Joe Pike didn't whisper all the time....)
7 unabridged cds
(7:47)
Brilliance Audio, 2011
However, looks like it was published in 2012
$32.99 TPPL
352 pages
Rating:  4.5 Super storytelling

Setting:  some LA, but most of the action takes place in the desert near the Dalton Sea, Indio/ Coachella/Palm Desert/Palm Springs in southern California

Written in an interesting way - the point-of-view switches, as does the time.  It might go from Elvis Cole in the current time to Joe Pike six days later to the kidnapped couple in the time between.  Keep you on your toes.  I didn't think, at first, that I was going to like it but I did.  Elvis Cole's sections are always in the first person, all the rest of the characters aren't, just in descriptive mode.

This time, Cole and Pike are assisted by , a government mercenary who'll try anything and follows orders from Joe Pike really well.  I see him a tall, cute, blonde, always laughing, nothing bothering him.  His hidden military/government credentials seem to be able to get him out of any predicament.....I bet he's going to show up again.

Elvis is hired by Nita Morales, a mom whose college daughter Christa and her boyfriend, Jack Berman,  have mysteriously disappeared.  She is afraid they've eloped, but this is very far from the truth...they've been kidnapped, in the wrong place at the wrong time when a group of coyotes who were transporting people from all over the world across the border are hijacked by really bad guys called bajadores. These are bandits that steal from bandits.   Life has no meaning to them.  They're just plain mean and heartless---I hate the thought that there really are people in the world like this!

31. The Watchman - Robert Crais

Read by James Daniels
Unabridged Brilliance Audio
8 Discs/9 hours
2007
Rating: 5

Some people call this Joe Pike #1. It's all Joe Pike, even though Elvis Cole is there, helping, working, being Elvis. So I agree, this is not Elvis Cole #11, it's Joe Pike #1.

Joe is hired to "take care" of/be a body guard for a young, cocky, LA heiress (think Paris Hilton) named Larkin Barkley, and he takes his job very seriously. Samrt - very smart- hitmen are after her. And of course, nothing is as it seems. The wonderful thing about Joe Pike is that no matter what he gets himself into, you KNOW that he's going to be okay and come out the winner, so you don't have to get too too nervous. Lots of people die. He never hesitates and he is more-than smart. So is Elvis Cole. This story takes us into the previous life of Pike, except it's in bits and pieces, not one fluid story. I love the way it's written. Many points of view. But I reiterate, it's all Joe's story. And I loved it. Go Joe!

29. Indigo Slam - Robert Crais

Read by David Stuart
1997
Unabridge CD/Brilliance Audio
7 CD's - 7 hours
Rating: 4.5

I should probably rate this a 5, but there was just a little too much shoot-em-up action for me at the end. I just love these characters, though. Elvis Cole, private detective, who has a Pinnochio clock and Disney figurines in his office, lives in an A-Fram, and drives a yellow 1966 Corvette. Joe Pike, his powerful, smart, and deadly "sidekick". Lucy Chenier, his lady-love, a lawyer from Louisiana who is trying to obtain a job in LA. And this case's protagonists, three children looking for their father. It turns out their father is a counterfeiter fleeing the Russian mob. He's also avoiding the US Marshalls, who, in trying to protect them three years before, botched it. He no longer trusts them.

So we have these three interesting kids: Terry, 15, the mother hen, who has her GED and drives, Charles, 12, a foul-mouthed kid who uses his mouth to cover up all his uncertainties, and 9 year-old Winona, innocent and happy. At the end it looks like Elvis may be left as guardian to the kids, so it'll be interesting to see if Crais mentions them in future books.

Lots of twists and turns - i'm getting so I can predict them pretty well ! -- a zillion ways for the good guys to die but they never do -- a lot of humanity and just a little tender down-home lovin' make a really good read.

I read an article where Robert Crais and Elvis Cole are compared to Robert B. Parker and Spenser. They love their cities, (LA and Boston) you can follow them around in your mind because they give a lot of good directions and locales, they both have tough sidekicks (Joe Pike and Hawk) and significant lady loves (Lucy Chenier and Susan Silverman). They each even have a pet they talk about all the time (a cat in LA, a dog in Boston). They are both even good cooks, though, thank goodness, Elvis isn't quite as philosophical as Spenser. I guess it's time for the latest Spenser, huh?