CANR
WORK TITLE: The Big Empty
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.robertcrais.com/
CITY: Los Angeles
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: CANR 318
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born June 20, 1953, in Independence, LA; married.
EDUCATION:Louisiana State University (mechanical engineering).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Novelist, television writer, filmmaker, and producer of television series, including In Self Defense and The Mississippi.
MEMBER:Mystery Writers of America (grand master, 2014).
AWARDS:Emmy Award nomination, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and certificate of commendation, American Women in Radio and Television, both 1981, for “The Second Oldest Profession,” an episode of Hill Street Blues; Humanitas Certificate, Human Family Educational and Cultural Institute, 1981, for “The World According to Freedom,” an episode of Hill Street Blues; Anthony Award, Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, and Macavity Award, Mystery Readers International, both 1987, and selection as one of the “100 favorite mysteries of the century,” Independent Mystery Booksellers Association, all for The Monkey’s Raincoat; Shamus Award for best novel, and cited among “best books of 1996,” Publishers Weekly, both 1996, for Sunset Express; Dilys Award, Independent Mystery Booksellers, 1999, for L.A. Requiem; Ross Macdonald Literary Award, Santa Barbara Book Council, 2006; Evening Standard award for best crime novel of the year, selection as one of “top ten best crime novels of the year,” New York Sun and South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and selected among “best books of 2006,” January magazine, all 2006, all for The Two Minute Rule; Barry Award for best thriller, Mystery News and Deadly Pleasures Mystery, and Gumshoe Award for best thriller, Mystery Ink, both 2007, both for The Watchman; Barry Awards, Best Mystery/Crime Novel of the Decade, 2020, for Suspect.
WRITINGS
Author of episodes for many television shows, including Baretta, ABC, 1977; Hill Street Blues, NBC, 1981; The Twilight Zone, Columbia Broadcasting System, 1986; Miami Vice, NBC, 1988; L.A. Law, NBC, 1992; and JAG, NBC, 1996. Also writer for other programs, including Cagney & Lacey, Cassie and Company, Men, The Second Family Tree, Quincy, M.E., Vega$, Riker, Joe Dancer, The Monkey Mission, Futuretales, Earth II, The Equalizer, and Partners in Crime.
Hostage was adapted for a film starring Bruce Willis, released by Miramax, 2005. Some of Crais’s novels have been adapted as audiobooks.
SIDELIGHTS
Robert Crais is more than a popular mystery novelist; he has also worked as a television writer whose credits include Cross of Fire, a movie about the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana starring Lloyd Bridges, David Morse, Mel Harris, and John Heard. However, Crais’s best-known creation is Los Angeles-based private investigator Elvis Cole. With the release of his first novel, Crais introduced readers to the wisecracking, tough Los Angeles detective who quickly earned Crais comparisons to legendary mystery writers such as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Robert B. Parker.
Cole’s first case, The Monkey’s Raincoat, concerns a murdered Hollywood agent, a double kidnapping, and an angry drug czar. Crais continued to explore the seamy side of Hollywood in his next Elvis Cole novel, Stalking the Angel. A valuable Japanese manuscript has been stolen from a Los Angeles businessman, and Cole’s search for the manuscript takes him to the streets of Little Tokyo, where he meets a group of Japanese gangsters.
Elvis Cole and his partner Joe Pike also tackle the cases of Lullaby Town, Free Fall, Voodoo River, and Sunset Express. In the latter, Cole must solve the murder of a millionaire’s wife while attempting to maintain a love life with Lucy Chenier and clear the name of a falsely accused detective. Pam Lambert wrote in People: “Drawing on brainpower, brawn, and lots of lip, [Cole and Pike] fight to do the right thing.” Wes Lukowsky described the book in Booklist as a “hip, funny, and thought-provoking novel.”
Indigo Slam features what Bill Ott in Booklist called a “bizarre Disneyland finale” complete with rival gangs, federal agents, a master counterfeiter, Joe Pike, and Elvis Cole. “As it unfolds in the author’s smooth and streamlined style, the story would have been strong enough to hold its own in the golden age of the mystery novel,” observed Dick Lochte in the Los Angeles Times Book Review. He continued: “But today’s readers crave personal involvement, and Crais provides a compelling subplot concerning the efforts of the woman Cole loves to move to the West Coast to be near him.” A reviewer in Publishers Weekly described the mystery as a “wild ride” as Crais sets up an ending that satisfyingly wraps up the case and piques the reader’s interest in Cole’s next undertaking.
L.A. Requiem, Crais’s eighth novel starring the successful character, was described by a Publishers Weekly critic as an expansion of the author’s narrative reach and a broadening of his characters’ horizons, “a mature work that deserves to move him up a notch or two—into Parker or Connelly country.” In this story, Cole and Pike take the case of the missing daughter of a powerful Hispanic businessman. They discover that the girl has been murdered and that her death may be linked to several other killings. “This is an extraordinary crime novel that should not be pigeonholed by genre,” wrote Lukowsky in Booklist. Crais reveals more of the mysterious Pike as well: “Crais gives the character all he’s got, and it’s so potent it even sobers up Elvis the eternal boy wonder,” wrote Marilyn Stasio in the New York Times Book Review.
Crais’s “Elvis Cole” novels with Joe Pike are “a first-rate example of the double-tough-guy series,” according to Ott in Booklist. With fast-paced adventures, slick Los Angeles scenery, plenty of weaponry, intrigue, police corruption, Vietnamese revolutionaries, Russian assassins, Japanese gangsters, and their fair share of brawls, the novels have proven very popular with enthusiastic mystery readers and reviewers alike.
Following a break from the series to write stand-alone novels, including Demolition Angel, Crais returned to books featuring Elvis Cole. In The Last Detective, Carol Strakey from Demolition Angel is enlisted by Cole to aid in a territorial squabble over which faction of contentious investigators should be in charge of Cole’s latest case. Crais pits his series protagonist, whose lover’s son has been kidnapped on Cole’s watch, against the woman’s ex-husband and his band of imported detectives. The Forgotten Man reunites Starkey with Crais standbys Cole and Pike when Cole learns that a recent murder victim may be his long-unidentified father. With Starkey’s aid, Cole sets out to uncover the truth on a case that takes him from one side of California to the other and leads him, not surprisingly, into danger. Entertainment Weekly contributor Jennifer Reese noted that some of the author’s plot lines tend toward the improbable and his writing seems to favor action over style, but she called The Forgotten Man a “lurid, fast-paced, solid B thriller” that could “see you happily through a transcontinental flight.”
In his series addition Chasing Darkness, Crais has Cole and Pike investigating a three-year-old murder case. The suspect in that crime, an unsavory character named Lionel Byrd, whom Cole had managed to prove innocent, is found dead, an apparent suicide. At the scene is a photograph album with pictures of seven women who have been killed over the years, the pictures taken just after their brutal deaths. Victim number five is the case that Cole had worked on. He established an alibi for Byrd, and with that evidence, Byrd’s lawyer was able to have the case dismissed. The Los Angeles Police Department is in the process of closing the case, happy to have a serial killer brought to justice, if even at his own hands. But Cole, torn by guilt, is not so sure. The events look suspicious to him, and soon he collects enough evidence to make it appear that the suicide might have been staged, and that Byrd’s death was only intended to cover up other crimes. As Cole pushes his investigation further, he enlists the aid of both Pike and ex-bomb squad member Detective Carol Starkey. A Kirkus Reviews contributor noted of this title: “It’s great to see Cole … back in action.” Lukowsky, writing again in Booklist, called Chasing Darkness an “intense and very satisfying thriller.” Lukowsky went on to note: “Crais is one of the very best, and this novel encompasses all of his strengths.” South Florida Sun-Sentinel contributor Cogdill felt this novel is “one of [Crais’s] most plot-driven.” Cogdill also noted that, “as usual, Crais shines in his vivid re-creation of L.A.” A New York Times Book Review contributor described Chasing Darkness as “bracing” and noticed that the author has not allowed his series to become stale, observing that the titles in the series “never coast on procedural protocol.” Similar observations came from Mostly Fiction reviewer Hagen Baye, who observed: “ Chasing Darkness will further advance Robert Crais’s stature as one of the finer crime fiction writers of our time—and of his Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series as one of the more fascinating private eye series.”
The Watchman launches the “Joe Pike” mystery series. In the novel Crais focuses on Cole’s partner, Pike, in an “intense thriller,” according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Larkin Conner Barkley is a young woman of privilege, an heiress with a taste for expensive cars and fast parties. However, her life suddenly changes late one night when she is involved in a car accident in Los Angeles that ensnares her in a secret federal investigation against a drug cartel and the focus of the investigation prompts the suspects to send a team to kill her. When neither the U.S. marshals nor a private security team can do an adequate job of protecting her, she and her family turn to Joe Pike. Pike, an ex-Marine, ex-cop, and ex-mercenary, is in debt and must pay off this obligation by taking on the protection of Barkley. The young woman, however, is highly visible and difficult to protect. In fact, immediately after Pike accepts the case, he and Barkley are targeted by the hit team, causing him to wonder if someone in the police department has betrayed him. Against all professional advice, Pike does what his instincts tell him to do: he drops off the radar and moves completely undercover with his charge. The one person he does stay in contact with, however, is his partner, Elvis Cole. Pike and Barkley are forced to hide in flophouses, fending off attacks by turncoat federal agents, barrio gangs, and the killers from the drug cartel. In the process, Crais reveals new dimensions of the taciturn Pike. The novel was generally well received by critics. A Publishers Weekly reviewer commented on Crais’s “breathless pace and rich styling,” while Entertainment Weekly contributor Bob Cannon found The Watchman to be “as good a psychological test case as it is a thriller.” Similarly, Booklist contributor Lukowsky termed the work a “stunningly emotional thriller.”
Pike takes the lead again in The First Rule and The Sentry. In the latter, Pike stops gang members from imposing a protection fee on a sandwich counter. The owners, Dru Rayne and her uncle, Wilson, are refugees from Hurricane Katrina. Pike and Dru begin to fall for one another, and Pike vows to protect her store from gang leader Venice Trece. Pike is soon joined by Cole, and together they reach a truce with the gang. Pike and Cole soon discover, however, that Dru and her uncle may not be telling the truth about themselves or their origins. Critics largely commended the story; “heartbreaking ironies, frustrated desires, and violent nonstop action make this a standout,” a Publishers Weekly critic declared. Rollie Welch, writing in Library Journal, was equally impressed, announcing: “Three cheers for testosterone! Stock up with multiple copies.” According to a Kirkus Reviews contributor, the novel is “a slickly plotted encounter with drug-dealing Bolivians and their strongmen.” Booklist contributor Lukowsky also proffered praise, dubbing The Sentry “a testosterone-fueled caper with tough guys doing hard things to bad people.” In Los Angeles magazine, Ann Herold wrote: “The action is swift—Crais is a master.”
Cole and Pike come together again in Taken. In this volume, they investigate the disappearance of Krista Morales and her boyfriend. Cole discovers that they have been taken by Mexican bandits called bajadores. Soon after, he is taken hostage. Pike is determined to make sure his friend is set free. Rob Taub, a reviewer on the Huffington Post Web site, remarked: “Crais keeps the reader off-balance with a timeline that bounces from present to past and back again, along with interesting, unexpected plot twists and a breathless pace.” Writing on the Florida Times-Union Web site, Elizabeth A. White commented: “ Taken is noteworthy for longtime fans of the series as representing the most revealing look to date at the relationship between Elvis and Joe and the depth of their commitment to one another.” An Irish Independent Online critic suggested: “The plot … manages to combine pulsating action with more than a dash of chilling social realism. Outstanding.” “This one has enough of everything—tension, banter, and head-banging—to keep fans happy,” noted Ott in Booklist. A California Bookwatch reviewer called Taken “a masterpiece of crime fiction.”
Scott James and his dog, Maggie, characters from the stand-alone novel Suspect, join Pike and Cole in The Promise. They band together to investigate what they believe may be a chemical engineer’s plot to sell explosives to terrorists. In an interview with Mark Rubinstein, a contributor to the Huffington Post Web site, Crais commented on his use of both first-and third-person point of view in the book: “I think it makes for a richer reading experience. To me, employing those writing techniques are the same as a painter using different colors. The backdrop of the novel is my canvas. I want the fullest possible experience for the reader, and a full writing experience for myself. I’m the artist who writes the stuff, but I’m also my own first reader.” Taub, writing on the Huffington Post Web site, commented: “Fans of his work will delight in the conglomeration of characters assembled in The Promise, while new readers will be introduced to a writer they’ll adore. Too many best-selling authors are content with writing formula novels, but Crais—like a fine wine—just keeps getting better with age.” “Crais, a master of fast-paced patter, keeps the pages turning with short chapters from the various character’s viewpoints; the most appealing coming from Maggie,” suggested C.F. Foster on the Florida Times-Union Web site. A Kirkus Reviews critic described the book as “not Crais’ deepest or thorniest mystery but another solid outing with a host of involving characters.” However, writing on the Washington Post Book World Web site, Patrick Anderson called The Promise “one of the most entertaining thrillers of the year.” Anderson added: “ The Promise is filled with suspense, surprises and ably drawn characters, but its most fascinating moments involve Maggie.” Library Journal reviewer Jeffrey W. Hunter remarked: “A skillfully convoluted plot evolves ever so slowly and culminates in a satisfying finish.”
Crais is also the author of nonseries work defined by first-person narration blended with multiple viewpoints and storylines, as well as flashbacks and literary elements. He reveals a new protagonist, Carol Starkey, in his novel Demolition Angel. Starkey worked with her former lover in the Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad until he was killed in an explosion that also horribly scarred her. In addition, it turned her into a seriously heavy drinker. Starkey encounters a bomber who makes explosive devices purposely designed to kill bomb technicians. Library Journal reviewer Roland Person wrote that the book is “fast-paced, authentic, [and] well written.” Crais “deserves further garlands for this stand-alone crime novel,” related a Publishers Weekly critic. Oline H. Cogdill wrote in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “Crais has taken his work to still another level with Demolition Angel and, in doing so, has again elevated the crime fiction genre.”
Hostage, another stand-alone novel, introduces Jeff Talley, a Los Angeles expatriate turned small-town police chief. Talley has left Los Angeles after leading a failed hostage negotiation only to find that he is embroiled in an even more complicated hostage situation in the town of Bristo Bay. Talley faces multiple villains: the original hostage-takers, who have unwittingly seized a crime-mob accountant and his family, and the mob leader’s hostage-takers, who hold Talley’s own family for ransom to prevent incriminating documents from falling into the hands of the police. “The narrative ticks with suspense,” observed a Publishers Weekly reviewer, despite “a couple of cheap turns obviously devised for the silver screen.” In his Booklist review, Lukowsky commented that Hostage is a good “way to pass the time on a sunny beach.”
With The Two Minute Rule, Crais introduces Max Holman, a career criminal whose better nature leads to his arrest after a botched bank robbery. Holman knows the two-minute rule well: a robber must be in and out of a bank within two minutes to avoid meeting the police. When Holman stops to help a heart-attack victim who collapsed during the heist, he stays for four minutes, giving the authorities plenty of time to catch him. Arrested by federal agent Katherine Pollard, Holman spends ten difficult years in jail. During that same decade, Pollard quits the Federal Bureau of Investigation and divorces her husband after he runs off with his secretary, but she still grieves when he dies. When Holman is paroled, he looks forward to starting his life over and reconnecting with his estranged son, a police officer. On the very day he is released, however, he learns that his son was killed, along with two other officers, in what sounds suspiciously like a setup. Meanwhile, Pollard struggles to make ends meet and support herself and her children as an impoverished single parent. Unwilling to accept the sketchy, unconvincing police explanation of his son’s death, Holman enlists Pollard’s reluctant aid in looking into a case involving cold-blooded murder, corrupt police officers, and the search for a notorious pair of thieves’ enormous but carefully hidden cache of money. Holman and Pollard are the “perfect odd couple” who keep Crais’s novel “personal and real as it builds to an exciting twist on the bank-robbing rule,” commented a Publishers Weekly critic. Lukowsky, writing in Booklist, called The Two Minute Rule Crais’s “best effort yet” among his nonseries thrillers.
Queried by an interviewer on the Shots Web site about his preference regarding writing stand-alone titles versus series books, Crais responded: “No preference. When I hook into a character I want to explore, I’m gone. My approach is the same either way.” The same interviewer asked Crais if he had any regrets about leaving script writing behind. Crais clearly has none: “I don’t enjoy the collaborative process. Hollywood demeans the writer. Pays well, so a lot of guys are willing to suck it up for the cash, but my writing means more to me than that. Novels give me the freedom to write whatever I want.”
A German shepherd named Maggie and a Los Angeles police officer, Scott James, are the main characters in Crais’s stand-alone novel Suspect. Both have experienced trauma and bear the emotional scars. James and Maggie investigate the killing of James’s former partner, Stephanie Anders. Crais told Rubinstein for the Huffington Post: “It was very important to me to make Maggie as realistic as possible. I created Maggie and Scott James in Suspect out of respect for the human-canine bond. Anyone who’s ever had and loved a dog knows what that’s like: the sense of loyalty, devotion, and the relationship the two develop.” In an interview with Carol Memmott, a writer on the USA Today Web site, Crais stated: “First and foremost I am a commercial writer … and I hope to entertain people. But having said that, I’m in love with the relationship between humans and dogs, and the more I learned about what our military working dogs are doing, I wanted to at least share with people what an important role these animals have in all our lives.”
“ Suspect is a bracing, emotionally satisfying novel that introduces us to one of the most striking partnerships in crime fiction,” asserted Dennis Palumbo on the Los Angeles Review of Books Web site. A Kirkus Reviews critic suggested: “It’s oddly affecting, with Crais ably capturing the bond between humans and canines without veering into sentimentality. A solid, muscular thriller, well-spun.” Ott, writing in Booklist, described the book as “a read-in-one-sitting thriller, plot-and character-driven in equal measures.” “Dog lovers … find this lukewarm tale of redemption inspiring,” predicted a critic in Publishers Weekly.
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Crais continues his “Elvis Cole and Joe Pike” series with the seventeenth book, Wanted, which finds the investigative team looking for a teenager engaged in high-end burglaries. Tyson Connor is stashing money away from burglaries in wealthy neighborhoods, until he steals a Rolex and a laptop with incriminating evidence from the wrong man. The wealthy victim hires two hit men, Harvey and Stemms, to go after Tyson. The boy’s mother, Devon, hires Cole and Pike to find her son, before the hit men, who are leaving a trail of bodies in their wake, can get to Tyson first. In Booklist, Wes Lukowsky enjoyed the surprisingly interesting “Tarantino-like conversations between Harvey and Stemms as they plan their next deadly steps. More fantastic reading from a perennial A-lister.” MBR Bookwatch contributor Gloria Feit noted how “the expected terrific writing and wonderfully-drawn characters are front and center… this novel is all Crais, all the time; what more could a mystery lover ask for?”
In the next book, A Dangerous Man, Joe Pike witnesses the attempted kidnapping of Los Angeles bank teller Isabel Roland and helps get the two perpetrators arrested. But after they are released on bail, the men are murdered and Izzy disappears. Investigating the case, Cole and Pike discover a plot involving the murder of Izzy’s Uncle Ted who was in witness protection, a corporate whistleblowing incident, and more dead bodies. Is Izzy an innocent victim or somehow involved. “Crais begins the story with deceptive simplicity but slowly ratchets up both the tension and the action with surgical precision,” declared a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Booklist critic Wes Lukowsky remarked: “Cole and Pike are carefully drawn, multilayered characters who’ve grown more complex through the years.” Writing the story from alternating perspectives of Cole, Pike, and the criminals, “Crais never loses control of his clean, clear prose or his ability to sketch fully fleshed characters in a few scenes,” according to a Kirkus Reviews writer.
Nineteenth in the series, Racing the Light, finds Cole and Pike hired by Adele Schumacher to find her missing son, Josh Shoe, a controversial podcaster and conspiracy theorist, who was about to expose an corrupt city official involved in a pay-for-play scheme. Adele has at her disposal a wad of cash and a personal bodyguard. Then Cole finds surveillance equipment from the Chinese intelligence in Josh’s apartment, and Josh’s adult actress girlfriend goes missing. Who is Adele, why is she mired in government conspiracies, and what will Cole do now that his estranged girlfriend, Lucy Chenier, is back?
Crais told Nancie Clare in an interview at CrimeReads how he used his experience with a health scare, Covid-19, and local Los Angeles corrupt council members to create Josh’s character as a marginalized dismissible podcaster: “Society views him as an oddity, an outcast…He sees himself as a warrior for justice and he’s willing to uncover the truth no matter what. It’s a single most driven compulsion… in many ways, he represented me and what I was experiencing and going through.” Reviewing Racing the Light in Booklist, Jane Murphy praised the “whirlwind of action, fisticuffs, and stray bullets, along with Crais’ usual dose of heart and humor.” A Publishers Weekly critic noted: “Crais maintains a humorous tone throughout. This long-running series shows no signs of losing steam.”
The twentieth book, The Big Empty, features Cole and Pike investigating the disappearance ten years ago of Tommy Beller, the father of young social media sensation, Traci Beller, who has a successful career baking muffins. Traci has the money to fund a proper investigation, never believing that her father simply walked out on his family. Cole visits shady characters Sadie and her daughter, Anya, who were the last to see Tommy alive. After goons give Cole a severe beating that lands him in the hospital, he traces them back to Sadie. A Kirkus Reviews contributor noted: “Crais draws the reader in via his protagonist’s casual, dryly humorous manner and the book’s relaxed ties to classic noir.” Booklist writer Jane Murphy declared: “the compelling tale is enriched by its true heart and humor.”
Speaking to Peter Larsen in an interview at Los Angeles Daily News Crais explained that Cole and Pike were born of the hardboiled fictional landscape that included Harry Bosch and Philip Marlowe: “Look, they’re all heroes,” he said. “They’re damaged, they’re dinged up. They’re different from those heroes written 70, 80 years ago. But the roots are there…They had an enormous impact on me. So Elvis is just the latest version of them. He’s my version of them.”
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BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 1, 1996, Wes Lukowsky, review of Sunset Express, p. 1124; May 1, 1997, Bill Ott, review of Indigo Slam, p. 1460; April 15, 1999, Wes Lukowsky, review of L.A. Requiem, p. 1470; April 17, 2000, Wes Lukowsky, review of Demolition Angel, p. 1292; July, 2001, Wes Lukowsky, review of Hostage, p. 1949; December 1, 2005, Wes Lukowsky, review of The Two Minute Rule, p. 6; January 1, 2007, Wes Lukowsky, review of The Watchman, p. 23; June 1, 2008, Wes Lukowsky, review of Chasing Darkness, p. 5; October 15, 2009, Wes Lukowsky, review of The First Rule, p. 5; December 1, 2010, Wes Lukowsky, review of The Sentry, p. 32; February 1, 2012, Bill Ott, review of Taken, p. 38; January 1, 2013, Bill Ott, review of Suspect, p. 49; November 15, 2017, Wes Lukowsky, review of The Wanted, p. 29; July 1, 2019, Wes Lukowsky, review of A Dangerous Man, p. 25; October 15, 2022, Jane Murphy, review of Racing the Light, p. 27; December 2024, Jane Murphy, review of The Big Empty, p. 109.
Bookseller, July 25, 2008, Philip Wicks, review of Chasing Darkness, p. 11.
California Bookwatch, May, 2012, review of Taken.
Entertainment Weekly, May 26, 2000, review of Demolition Angel, p. 68; February 18, 2005, Jennifer Reese, “State of Crais: Elvis Cole Has Reentered the Building in Robert Crais’ Lurid Thriller The Forgotten Man,” p. 80; February 24, 2006, Jennifer Reese, review of The Two Minute Rule, p. 67; March 2, 2007, Bob Cannon, review of The Watchman, p. 71; July 11, 2008, “It’s Thriller Time,” p. 77.
Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA), August 10, 2008, Amanda Morgan, review of Chasing Darkness.
Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2003, review of The Last Detective, p. 7; December, 2005, review of The Two Minute Rule, p. 1289; February 1, 2007, review of The Watchman, p. 8; June 1, 2008, review of Chasing Darkness; November 15, 2009, review of The First Rule; November 15, 2010, review of The Sentry; April 1, 2013, review of Suspect; October 1, 2015, review of The Promise; October 15, 2017, review of The Wanted; July 15, 2019, review of A Dangerous Man; September 1, 2022, review of Racing the Light; December 15, 2024, review of The Big Empty.
Library Journal, May 1, 2000, Roland Person, review of Demolition Angel, p. 152; February 15, 2005, Stacy Alesi, review of The Forgotten Man, p. 114; January 1, 2006, Stacy Alesi, review of The Two Minute Rule, p. 94; December 1, 2009, Michele Leber, review of The First Rule, p. 96; December 1, 2010, Rollie Welch, review of The Sentry, p. 99; November 1, 2015, Jeffrey W. Hunter, review of The Promise, p. 78.
Los Angeles, January 1, 2010, Ann Herold, review of The First Rule, p. 24; February 1, 2011, Ann Herold, review of The Sentry, p. 30.
Los Angeles Times Book Review, August 17, 1997, Dick Lochte, review of Indigo Slam, p. 9.
MBR Bookwatch, January 2018, Gloria Feit, review of The Wanted.
New York Times Book Review, June 20, 1993, Marilyn Stasio, review of Free Fall; July 11, 1999, Marilyn Stasio, review of L.A. Requiem; May 21, 2000, Marilyn Stasio, review of Demolition Angel; July 13, 2008, review of Chasing Darkness, p. 26.
People, April 15, 1996, Pam Lambert, review of Sunset Express, p. 42; July 7, 1997, Pam Lambert, review of Indigo Slam, p. 29; June 19, 2000, William Plummer, review of Demolition Angel, p. 55.
Publishers Weekly, March 4, 1996, review of Sunset Express, p. 57; April 14, 1997, review of Indigo Slam, p. 59; April 12, 1999, review of L.A. Requiem, p. 52; April 17, 2000, review of Demolition Angel, p. 53; July 9, 2001, review of Hostage, p. 43; January 27, 2003, review of The Last Detective, p. 240; January 24, 2005, review of The Forgotten Man, p. 221; January 9, 2006, review of The Two Minute Rule, p. 32: January 22, 2007, review of The Watchman, p. 160; May 19, 2008, review of Chasing Darkness, p. 31; October 26, 2009, review of The First Rule, p. 30; November 22, 2010, review of The Sentry, p. 42; December 24, 2012, review of Suspect, p. 36; June 24, 2019, review of A Dangerous Man, p. 148; September 5, 2022, review of Racing the Light, p. 78.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL), July 5, 2000, Oline H. Cogdill, review of Demolition Angel; July 9, 2008, Oline H. Cogdill, review of Chasing Darkness.
Toledo Blade (Toledo, OH), April 23, 2006, Sally Vallongo, “Walking between the Lines: Robert Crais Plays with the Divisions between Law and Lawless,” review of The Two Minute Rule.
Washington Post Book World, June 30, 2008, Patrick Anderson, review of Chasing Darkness, p. C8.
ONLINE
Agony, http://trashotron.com/agony/ (December 5, 2006), review of The Last Detective.
Blogcritics, http://blogcritics.org/ (February 28, 2007), Scott Butki, author interview.
Blogger News Network, http://www.bloggernews.net/ (August 2, 2008), Kevin Tipple, review of The Forgotten Man.
BookPage, http://www.bookpage.com/ (December 5, 2006), James Buckley, Jr., “Elvis Has Left the City,” author interview.
Bookreporter.com, http://www.bookreporter.com/ (December 5, 2006), Joe Hartlaub, reviews of The Last Detective and The Forgotten Man, and Maggie Harding, review of The Two Minute Rule; (January 9, 2009), Joe Hartlaub, review of The Watchman, and Ray Palen, review of Chasing Darkness.
CrimeReads, https://crimereads.com/ (November 14, 2022), Nancie Clare, “Robert Crais: Straight from the Heart.”
Florida Times-Union Online (Jacksonville, FL), http://jacksonville.com/ (February 14, 2012), Elizabeth A. White, review of Taken; (November 14, 2015), C.F. Foster, review of The Promise.
Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ (March 21, 2012), Rob Taub, review of Taken; (November 6, 2015), Rob Taub, review of The Promise; (November 10, 2015), Mark Rubinstein, author interview.
Irish Independent Online, http://www.independent.ie/ (May 13, 2012), review of Taken.
January, http://januarymagazine.com/ (March 17, 2009), Kevin Burton Smith, author interview.
Los Angeles Daily News, https://www.dailynews.com/ (January 16, 2025), Peter Larsen, “How Robert Crais Drags Elvis Cole and Joe Pike into the Darkness in ‘The Big Empty.’”
Los Angeles Review of Books, https://lareviewofbooks.org/ (August 12, 2013), Dennis Palumbo, review of Suspect.
Mostly Fiction, http://www.mostlyfiction.com/ (October 11, 2008), Hagen Baye, review of Chasing Darkness.
Mystery Crime Fiction Suite 101, http://mysterycrimefiction.suite101.com/ (June 30, 2008), Sandy Mitchell, review of Chasing Darkness.
Robert Crais Home Page, http://www.robertcrais.com (September 15, 2016).
Shots, http://www.shotsmag.co.uk/ (January 9, 2009), “Robert Crais.”
USA Today Online, http://www.usatoday.com/ (January 21, 2013), Carol Memmott, author interview.
Washington Post Book World Online, https://www.washingtonpost.com/ (November 30, 2015), Patrick Anderson, review of The Promise.*
ROBERT CRAIS: A BIOGRAPHY
Robert Crais is the author of the best-selling Elvis Cole novels. A native of Louisiana, he grew up on the banks of the Mississippi River in a blue collar family of oil refinery workers and police officers. He purchased a secondhand paperback of Raymond Chandler’s The Little Sister when he was fifteen, which inspired his lifelong love of writing, Los Angeles, and the literature of crime fiction. Other literary influences include Dashiell Hammett, Ernest Hemingway, Robert B. Parker, and John Steinbeck.
After years of amateur film-making and writing short fiction, he journeyed to Hollywood in 1976 where he quickly found work writing scripts for such major television series as Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, and Miami Vice, as well as numerous series pilots and Movies-of-the-Week for the major networks. He received an Emmy nomination for his work on Hill Street Blues, but is most proud of his 4-hour NBC miniseries, Cross of Fire, which the New York Times declared: "A searing and powerful documentation of the Ku Klux Klan’s rise to national prominence in the 20s."
In the mid-eighties, feeling constrained by the collaborative working requirements of Hollywood, Crais resigned from a lucrative position as a contract writer and television producer in order to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a novelist. His first efforts proved unsuccessful, but upon the death of his father in 1985, Crais was inspired to create Elvis Cole, using elements of his own life as the basis of the story. The resulting novel, The Monkey’s Raincoat, won the Anthony and Macavity Awards and was nominated for the Edgar Award. It has since been selected as one of the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.
Crais conceived of the novel as a stand-alone, but realized that—in Elvis Cole—he had created an ideal and powerful character through which to comment upon his life and times. (See the WORKS section for additional titles.) Elvis Cole’s readership and fan base grew with each new book, then skyrocketed in 1999 upon the publication of L. A. Requiem, which was a New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller and forever changed the way Crais conceived of and structured his novels. In this new way of telling his stories, Crais combined the classic ‘first person’ narrative of the American detective novel with flashbacks, multiple story lines, multiple points-of-view, and literary elements to better illuminate his themes. Larger and deeper in scope, Publishers Weekly wrote of L. A. Requiem, "Crais has stretched himself the way another Southern California writer—Ross Macdonald—always tried to do, to write a mystery novel with a solid literary base." Booklist added, "This is an extraordinary crime novel that should not be pigeonholed by genre. The best books always land outside preset boundaries. A wonderful experience."
Crais followed with his first non-series novel, Demolition Angel, which was published in 2000 and featured former Los Angeles Police Department Bomb Technician Carol Starkey. Starkey has since become a leading character in the Elvis Cole series. In 2001, Crais published his second non-series novel, Hostage, which was named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times and was a world-wide bestseller. Additionally, the editors of Amazon.com selected Hostage as the #1 thriller of the year. A film adaptation of Hostage was released in 2005, starring Bruce Willis as ex-LAPD SWAT negotiator Jeff Talley.
Elvis Cole returned in 2003 with the publication of The Last Detective, followed by the tenth Elvis Cole novel, The Forgotten Man, in 2005. Both novels explore with increasing depth the natures and characters of Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. RC’s third stand-alone novel, The Two Minute Rule, was published in 2006, and was followed in 2007 by The Watchman, the first novel in the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series to feature Joe Pike in the title role.
The novels of Robert Crais have been published in 62 countries and are bestsellers around the world. Robert Crais received the Ross Macdonald Literary Award in 2006 and was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 2014.
Currently, Robert Crais lives in the Santa Monica mountains with his wife, two cats, and many thousands of books.
ROBERT CRAIS: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Table of Contents
1. I just discovered RC’s work. Should I start reading the Elvis Cole series with the first book, or does it matter?
2. Elvis Cole and Joe Pike were in Vietnam, so they must be getting pretty creaky. How old are they?
3. Why doesn’t Elvis Cole have a cell phone?
4. Did Robert publish the following novels: THE DEVIL'S CANTINA, HAGAKURE, and JUNGLELAND?
5. Can I get an autographed photo of Robert?
6. Can I send my books to Robert to have them inscribed?
7. Does Robert read his email?
8. I have a terrific idea for a story! Would Robert like to write it?
9. In what order were the Elvis Cole novels published?
10. Have Elvis Cole and Harry Bosch appeared in each other’s novels?
11. Okay, RC, I’ve read all the Elvis Cole novels, and one thing is bugging me—where on earth did you get the title to your first book, THE MONKEY’S RAINCOAT, and what does it mean?
I just discovered RC’s work. Should I start reading the Elvis Cole series with the first book, or does it matter?
We asked RC for his opinion on this. Here is his answer in his own words:
“At this writing, the Elvis Cole series now includes ten novels, and, altogether, I have published thirteen books. My readership has grown dramatically over the last several books, and continues to grow. Thankfully, new readers are coming to me all the time, and, inevitably, many want to start with my first book. I understand this, but part of me always cringes because my books and their nature has changed over the course of the ten Cole novels. When a new reader asks me which book they should start with, or whether or not they should begin at the beginning with THE MONKEY’S RAINCOAT, I always suggest they begin with L. A. REQUIEM, or even one of the standalones like DEMOLITION ANGEL or THE TWO MINUTE RULE. It isn’t that I feel the earlier books aren’t as ‘good’ as my more recent efforts—I am intensely proud of those early novels—but my newer books are richer, broader in scope, and way more complex in their structure, so I believe them to be more representative of the work I am doing today.”
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Elvis Cole and Joe Pike were in Vietnam, so they must be getting pretty creaky. How old are they?
We get this question all the time so we asked RC. Here is The Man's answer: "Funny you should ask. When I wrote the first Elvis Cole novel way back in the day, Elvis and Joe were a few years older than me. Who knew they would be around all these books later and become so popular? I didn't! So a funny thing happened as the years passed and the number of books grew. Elvis and Joe didn't age as quickly as me! Man, I wish I knew their secret! These days, Elvis and Joe are a lot younger than me. I slowed their aging for a simple reason. I love Elvis and Joe as tough, physical men who can take on dangerous bad guys head on, straight up, and toe-to-toe. I love writing (and reading!) the thrilling, high-speed action sequences and live-or-die shootouts where my guys risk everything for clients and each other and I know my readers also enjoy this aspect of my novels. If Elvis and Joe aged in "real time," they wouldn't be able to do these things. So I had to make a choice. Slow their aging, cut the action, or pretend a couple of old codgers were action heroes. I went with option #1. I hope you agree I made the right choice."
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Why doesn’t Elvis Cole have a cell phone?
We get this question a couple of times every week from new readers who have started reading the series at the beginning (see FAQ #1 above!), but haven’t yet reached the later books. Once more, we went to RC for the definitive answer.
“I wrote THE MONKEY’S RAINCOAT twenty years ago. I began making notes about Elvis Cole and Joe Pike late in 1985 when I was living in a cabin in the San Bernadino Mountains at Lake Arrowhead, California, and finished TMR in the summer of ’86. Hey, nobody had cell phones back then! Check out reruns of shows like MIAMI VICE—Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) was using a clunky old car phone the size of a shoe box!
Later, I held off giving Elvis a cell phone as long as possible because I enjoyed writing the scenes where he was forced to use a pay phone. Inevitably, the pay phone scenes evolved into more than the phone call—Elvis would always encounter a minor but colorful character with whom he would have to interact. Sometimes I would play these scenes for humor, other times these moments would be used to illustrate a deeper side to Elvis’s nature. (IE, the North Hollywood Station scene in TMR where Elvis intimidates the young man into getting off the phone, after which Elvis feels guilty about it.) I enjoyed these scenes, and I think my readers did, too, but now those opportunities are lost.”
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Did Robert publish the following novels: THE DEVIL'S CANTINA, HAGAKURE, and JUNGLELAND?
No. Even though these titles often show up on Amazon.com and in catalogs, no books by Robert were published with these titles. Robert often has a 'working title' for a manuscript, and most often that title changes several times before Robert selects the 'real title' for publication. THE DEVIL'S CANTINA was once the title for L. A. REQUIEM; HAGAKURE was the working title for STALKING THE ANGEL; and JUNGLELAND was the working title for FREE FALL.
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Can I get an autographed photo of Robert?
Unfortunately, no. If we're in a position to offer photos of Robert or bookplates in the future, we'll announce it on the site.
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Can I send my books to Robert to have them inscribed?
Robert loves to personalize his books, and did sign books and bookplates through the mail for years, but the number of requests has risen to a level where he's had to discontinue the practice. Robert regrets this, as he truly enjoys interacting with his readers and appreciates the compliment of an autograph request, but we'd much rather have him writing new novels. We hope you agree.
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Does Robert read his email?
Our policy is to cull Robert's email of rude commentary, business propositions, and other inappropriate correspondence. All other email is read and answered by Robert, but please be patient.
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I have a terrific idea for a story! Would Robert like to write it?
Due to legal reasons, as well as the unfortunate fact that Robert doesn't have enough time to write many of his own ideas, he cannot read, consider, or comment upon any unsolicited material. We are under strict orders from the lawyer to cull all such requests and we do not forward them to Robert. Although many of you have wonderful literary ideas, please do not send stories, notions, ideas, concepts, or anything of this sort. We return all such submissions unread. Robert wishes all of you who may be aspiring writers the best of luck with your writing endeavors.
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In what order were the Elvis Cole novels published?
Robert doesn't believe that the books need to be read in order, but if you're curious:
Elvis Cole novels
THE MONKEY'S RAINCOAT (1987)
STALKING THE ANGEL (1989)
LULLABY TOWN (1992)
FREE FALL (1993)
VOODOO RIVER (1995)
SUNSET EXPRESS (1996)
INDIGO SLAM (1997)
L. A. REQUIEM (1999)
THE LAST DETECTIVE (2003)
THE FORGOTTEN MAN (2005)
THE WATCHMAN (2007)
CHASING DARKNESS (2008)
THE FIRST RULE (2010)
THE SENTRY (2011)
TAKEN (2012)
THE PROMISE (2015)
THE WANTED (2017)
A DANGEROUS MAN (2019)
RACING THE LIGHT (2022)
non-Elvis Cole novels
DEMOLITION ANGEL (2000)
HOSTAGE (2001)
THE TWO MINUTE RULE (2006)
SUSPECT (2013)
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Have Elvis Cole and Harry Bosch appeared in each other’s novels?
Yes. Elvis Cole made an un-named appearance in Michael Connelly’s novel, LOST LIGHT. Harry Bosch made a similar, un-named appearance in RC’s THE LAST DETECTIVE. RC and MC are friends, and thought this would be a fun way to acknowledge each other’s work.
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Okay, RC, I’ve read all the Elvis Cole novels, and one thing is bugging me—where on earth did you get the title to your first book, THE MONKEY’S RAINCOAT, and what does it mean?
Again, we went to the source and asked RC to explain:
“The title. I get asked this a lot. The title comes from the Basho haiku quoted at the beginning of the novel:
Winter downpour;
Even the monkey needs a raincoat.
Basho was a retired samurai who became a poet. I read this stuff because, well, I read this stuff. And think about it. A winter downpour is a storm. In Japanese haiku poetry, a ‘monkey’ represents a man, or the soul of a man (‘man’ being non-gender specific.) A raincoat is something with which you protect yourself. So here was my thinking: If Ellen Lang was the ‘monkey,’ and her ‘storm’ was the hell she was going to live through in this book, then her ‘raincoat’ would be Elvis Cole. Therefore, Elvis Cole was ‘the monkey’s raincoat.’
Just a little writerly-type poetry at work...”
Robert Crais
USA flag (b.1953)
Robert Crais is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty novels, sixteen of them featuring private investigator Elvis Cole and his laconic ex-cop partner, Joe Pike. Before writing his first novel, Crais spent several years writing scripts for such major television series as Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, Miami Vice, Quincy, Baretta, and L.A. Law. He received an Emmy nomination for his work on Hill Street Blues, and one of his standalone novels, Hostage, was made into a movie starring Bruce Willis. His novels have been translated into forty-two languages and are bestsellers around the world. A native of Louisiana, he lives in Los Angeles.
Awards: Barry (2020), Shamus (2013), Dilys (2000), Macavity (1988) see all
Genres: Mystery, Thriller
Series
Elvis Cole and Joe Pike
1. The Monkey's Raincoat (1987)
2. Stalking the Angel (1988)
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 (2009)
14. The Sentry (2010)
15. Taken (2012)
16. The Promise (2015)
17. The Wanted (2017)
18. A Dangerous Man (2019)
Elvis Cole and Joe Pike: A Mysterious Profile (2022)
19. Racing the Light (2022)
20. The Big Empty (2025)
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Scott James and Maggie
1. Suspect (2013)
2. The Promise (2015)
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Novels
Demolition Angel (2000)
Hostage (2001)
The Two Minute Rule (2006)
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Novellas and Short Stories
Weigh Station (1982)
The Man Who Knew Dick Bong (2023)
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Series contributed to
Best American Mystery Stories
The Best American Mystery Stories 2012 (2012) (with Otto Penzler)
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Mysterious Profiles
Elvis Cole and Joe Pike: A Mysterious Profile (2022)
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Omnibus editions hide
Three Great Novels: The Early Years (2001)
Three Great Novels 2 (2002)
Five Great Thrillers (2005) (with others)
Three Great Novels 3 (2005)
Three Great Novels 4 (2010)
Hostage / The Two Minute Rule (2017)
Robert Crais
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert Crais
Crais in 2008
Crais in 2008
Born June 20, 1953 (age 72)
Independence, Louisiana, U.S.
Pen name Elvis Cole, Jerry Gret Samouche
Occupation Novelist, screenwriter
Alma mater Louisiana State University
Genre Fiction, crime fiction, thrillers
Website
robertcrais.com
Robert Crais (pronounced /kreɪs/; born June 20, 1953) is an American author of detective fiction and former screenwriter. Crais began his career writing scripts for television shows such as Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, Quincy, Miami Vice and L.A. Law. His writing is influenced by Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Ernest Hemingway, Robert B. Parker and John Steinbeck. Crais has won numerous awards for his crime novels.[1] Lee Child has cited him in interviews as one of his favourite American crime writers. The novels of Robert Crais have been published in 62 countries and are bestsellers around the world. Robert Crais received the Ross Macdonald Literary Award in 2006 and was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 2014.
Biography
Born in Independence, Louisiana, he was adopted and raised as an only child.[2] He attended Louisiana State University and studied mechanical engineering.[2]
Crais moved to Hollywood in 1976, where he found work as a screenwriter for the television series Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey and Miami Vice, and was nominated for an Emmy award.[3] Following the death of his father in 1985, Crais published the novel The Monkey's Raincoat, which won the 1988 Anthony Award for "Best Paperback Original" and the 1988 Mystery Readers International Macavity Award for "Best First Novel".[4][5] It has since been selected as one of the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.
In 2006 Crais was awarded the Ross Macdonald Literary Award[6] and in 2010 the Private Eye Writers of America's (PWA) Lifetime Achievement Award The Eye.[7] In 2014 Crais received the Mystery Writers of America's (MWA) Grand Master Award.[8]
Crais novels include Demolition Angel, Hostage, Suspect, and The Two-Minute Rule. Most of Crais' books feature the characters Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, with The Watchman (2007), The First Rule (2010) and The Sentry (2011) centering on Joe Pike. Taken is a 2012 detective novel by Robert Crais. It is the fifteenth in a series of linked novels centering on the character Elvis Cole. The 2005 film Hostage was an adaptation of one of his books.[9]
In 2020 his novel Suspect (2013) was named Best Mystery/Crime Novel of the Decade in the Barry Awards.[10]
Bibliography
Elvis Cole and Joe Pike novels
Nr Year Title Award Result
1 1987 The Monkey's Raincoat Anthony Award – Best Paperback Original 1988 Won[11]
Macavity Award – Best First Novel 1988 Won[12]
Edgar Award – Best Paperback Original 1988 Nominated[13]
Shamus Award – Best Original P.I. Paperback 1988 Nominated[7]
2 1989 Stalking the Angel
3 1992 Lullaby Town Anthony Award – Best Novel 1993 Nominated[11]
Shamus Award – Best P.I. Hardcover 1993 Nominated[7]
4 1993 Free Fall Edgar Award – Best Novel 1994 Nominated[13]
5 1995 Voodoo River Dilys Award Nominated[14]
6 1996 Sunset Express Shamus Award – Best P.I. Novel 1997 Won[7]
Publishers Weekly Best Books of 1996 selection
7 1997 Indigo Slam Shamus Award – Best P.I. Novel 1998 Nominated[7]
8 1999 L.A. Requiem Dilys Award Won[14]
Edgar Award – Best Novel 2000 Nominated[13]
Anthony Award – Best Novel 2000 Nominated[11]
Shamus Award – Best P.I. Novel 2000 Nominated[7]
9 2003 The Last Detective Audie Award Finalist
10 2005 The Forgotten Man Shamus Award – Best P.I. Novel 2006 Nominated[7]
11 2007 The Watchman Barry Award – Best Thriller 2008 Won
Mystery Ink's Gumshoe Award – Best Thriller 2008 Won
Anthony Award – Best Novel 2008 Nominated[11]
International Thriller Writers Awards – Best Novel 2008 Nominated
12 2008 Chasing Darkness Southern California Independent Booksellers Association – Best Mystery Award Nominated
13 2010 The First Rule Shamus Award – Best Hardcover P.I. Novel 2011 Nominated[7]
14 2011 The Sentry
15 2012 Taken Shamus Award – Best Hardcover P.I. Novel 2013 Won[7]
Left Coast Crime – The Watson (mystery novel with the best sidekick) 2013 Nominated[15]
16 2015 The Promise
17 2017 The Wanted
18 2019 A Dangerous Man
19 2022 Racing the Light
20 2025 The Big Empty
Other novels
Year Title Publisher Award Result
2000 Demolition Angel Doubleday Mary Higgins Clark Award 2001 Nominated[13]
Dilys Award Nominated[14]
2001 Hostage Doubleday New York Times Book Review Notable Book
2006 The Two-Minute Rule Simon & Schuster London Evening Standard Best Crime Novel of the Year
Otto Penzler, The New York Sun Top Ten Best Crime Novels of the Year
Oline Cogdill, Sun-Sentinel Top Ten Best Crime Novels of the Year
January Magazine Best Books of 2006
Audie Award Finalist
2013 Suspect
Robert Crais: Straight from the Heart
This longtime favorite is back from a life-threatening scare and ready to tell new stories about "Elvis Coles’ Los Angeles."
November 14, 2022 By Nancie Clare
There is a saying that there is no one more devout than a convert. And when it comes to a committed relationship with a city that runs deep and runs true, there is no writer more devoted to Los Angeles and its environs than Robert Crais, whose latest Elvis Cole and Joe Pike novel, Racing the Light, was published on November 1, 2022. That’s not to say that other writers past and present haven’t given the City of Angels its rightful due, or that Bob’s Los Angeles is all moonbeams and unicorns—after all, this is crime fiction, bad things happen to good people— it’s just that Bob’s affection for the locations where the denizens of his novel work and live pours out on the pages. Bob loves his characters, even the cranky Jon Stone, and Bob puts his whole heart into, as he puts it, “a world I call Elvis Coles’ Los Angeles.” And never more so than now in this novel, the 19th in the Elvis Cole-Joe Pike series.
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It is an understatement of galactic proportions to say that the past three years have been, well, unsettled. Fiction writers may toil in universes of their own creation, but the real world bears down on them nevertheless, and often in unexpected ways. That was the case with Bob Crais as he started a new book to follow up his previous Elvis Cole-Joe Pike, A Dangerous Man, published in August 2019. You know, in the Before Times. And then Bob Crais’s world changed…
Robert Crais: My last book, A Dangerous Man, came out in August of 2019. And I was well into writing what would’ve been the follow-up book, another Elvis Cole novel. But I took an interesting detour. On October 1st [2019], about two months after A Dangerous Man came out, I met with a cardiac surgeon, who told me that I needed a quadruple bypass, and if I didn’t have it immediately, I wouldn’t make it to the end of the year. So, that changed the plan. By the way, have you heard this?
Nancie Clare: I had heard that you had a health scare. All I asked was if you were okay, And I was told, yes.
Robert Crais: I am okay, now. I’m going to meander in this answer, so please, you’re gonna have to massage it when you do your thing.
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Nancie Clare: Couldn’t be happier to do it
Robert Crais: I mean, listen, this came as a total surprise to me. I was always a fitness guy. You know, I was. I was a runner. I was hiker, a gym rat. As far as I knew, I had no symptoms of cardiovascular disease. In fact, literally the day before the bomb dropped on me, I was out hiking with a pack, man, you know—just like I did this morning—and felt great. But I had a checkup, thank God, because being me, I could have easily put it off. They did the appropriate scans and tests, and one thing led to another. and I literally was a walkin’ heart attack. And it was a stunner. October 3rd, two days later, I had the surgery. And recovery was not easy. It was long and difficult; I had to have additional procedures. And so it drew out.
And as I began to recover, my world had changed. Everything had changed for me. This came as such a surprise—like, suddenly I was confronted with my mortality. I tried to return to the book I was writing, and I simply had no interest in it. Whatever excitement I had felt about that project, the magic that I felt about it simply was gone. And in fact, I wrestled for a time with the thought, “I may never write again.” I went through a period where I thought, “I don’t wanna write again.” It was very, very difficult. But, you know, time passed and I realized that I’m a writer. I get up every day, I write, and I’ve been doing that for 45 years.
I didn’t know what else to do, . So, little by little, I, I forced myself to open this very laptop and try to find to find some story magic that would excite me again. And it was long and hard to do for a variety of reasons: the confrontation with my mortality, the huge amounts of anesthesia, pain killers and other drugs that were being pumped into my body. You don’t wait for inspiration, though, you earn it. You roll up your sleeves, and you earn it by working every day. And so, there was the 10 minutes a day, and in the beginning that was all I could do.
It was 10 minutes of trying to focus and concentrate and think. But what I was thinking about mostly throughout that period was about the nature of truth and trust. I know part of it was one of the big elements of recovering. On many levels I felt my body had betrayed me. Because again, it was such a surprise. You know, I could load up with a pack and climb up hill, and I’d do four or five hard miles every day. And I never knew this thing was inside me. And how can I not know? And it made me really realize, it made me appreciate, just how important knowing the actual truth is.
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Nancie Clare: And, meanwhile, the rest of the world is grinding to a screeching halt because of the Covid-19 pandemic…
Robert Crais: January [2020], the pandemic rolls out. And every day we’re seeing on TV all these different reports: What is Covid? Where did it come from? How do we treat this thing? There was so much conflicting information out there. So, who do you trust? Who do you know to trust? Who’s telling the truth here? What’s real, what isn’t real? We’re in this, this chaotic, confused time. And then out of blue, even the United States Navy gets into the act, releasing official footage of unidentified aerial phenomena, which they still haven’t explained. Where did that come from? , Right? I mean, what’s going on? I’m taking all this stuff in, and I’m here in Los Angeles and as you know, in the past two years, we’ve had three city council members indicted on corruption charges.
Nancie Clare: . Yes. And we’re in the middle of another City Council embarrassment…
Robert Crais: Right? Yes. It’s crazy. And I think I began to see what I wanted to write about coalesced in this character that’s in the new book, Josh Schumacher, this marginalized dismissible podcaster whose parents have dismissed him. Society views him as an oddity, an outcast. But he’s absolutely committed to uncovering the truth. He sees himself as a warrior for justice and he’s willing to uncover the truth no matter what. It’s a single most driven compulsion. I fell in love with Josh, and I thought he, in many ways, he represented me and what I was experiencing and going through. And so, Racing the Light came together. I found the fire again. Josh and the other elements of the story just took off for me. And suddenly that 10 minutes a day became 15 minutes a day became 30 minutes a day, became hours. It took a while to come back, but then I was on fire, and the book just rolled out.
Nancie Clare: Knowing more now about your health scare reinforces the feeling I got reading Racing the Light, I found the story very close to the heart, and now I realize that’s both literal and figurative…
Robert Crais: , I guess it is. , no pun intended. Right?
Nancie Clare: Or, pun intended. This story begins as Elvis’s stories often do, with someone coming to him to find a missing person. In this case Josh Schumacher or Josh Shoe, as he calls himself; his podcast is called “In Your Face with Josh Shoe,” which I loved. And, who’s looking for him? His mother, Adele Schumacher of Toluca Lake, California, you know, where Bob Hope lived, and not far from the studios at Disney. It’s a very lovely area and weirdly weird, I find. Adele is described as “touched” by her ex-husband, but she’s as far from stupid as you can get. So, where did Adele come from? I loved her because she’s an older woman but wasn’t invisible to Elvis. He saw her, saw how she felt about her son, and saw that she definitely had issues. Older women are rarely seen.
So I wanted to know where she came from because she gets the story going.
Robert Crais: She came about because when I was creating Josh, I felt that his commitment to uncovering the truth of what was going was so strong because he had come from, among other things, a life filled with lies. And as I thought about who his parents might be, because I already knew where I wanted Josh to be at the beginning— a podcaster with this fringe podcast, right? The, the whole paranoid conspiracy orientation of his, of his life and beliefs, crashed UFOs and the like.
Nancie Clare: Area 51?
Robert Crais: Area 51, men in black, et cetera. I thought it would be interesting if there were shadows of that in his childhood. In other words, it simply didn’t come out of the blue. I wanted him to have very accomplished parents who consider him a failure. He’s living off his mother. And so it seemed to fit perfectly to me that they were affluent people who had earned their money by doing something that was never quite explained.
In fact, Elvis finds out later that they were, in fact, high-end government contractors, scientists who worked on secret projects, like for DARPA, where they did consequential, confidential work, but they could never say what they did. So automatically, Josh comes from a place that’s filled with secrets. Josh’s parents, now divorced, are both brilliant people, although his mother Adele is an abject paranoid. He grew up with a mother who believed she was being watched. In fact, Elvis muses at a point in the book that Adele is the way she is from all the years of living the lies they were telling everyone. All the years of living deep in the black had changed them—and Josh— which I think is true.
Nancie Clare: Lucy Chenier, Elvis’s on-again-off-again girlfriend, and her son Ben, who Elvis saved from what was supposed to be a fake kidnapping that turned into a real one orchestrated by Ben’s biological father are back in the picture. It’s clear Lucy loves Elvis but is fearful of the consequences that come with his job. But I think she sees Elvis as a rock, as an anchor. Someone whom she can depend on.
Robert Crais: In The Last Detective a phony kidnapping arranged by Ben’s biological father becomes an actual kidnapping. Ben goes through some horrendous traumatic experiences in that book. And Elvis saves Ben and brings him home to his mother Lucy. Elvis is a guy who has always wanted a family. Elvis had his own traumatic childhood. Elvis never had stability. He wants a woman to love him and, and who he will love back. I think Elvis Cole would love children, but that hasn’t worked out for him.
Here’s what I write about: I write about the re-creation of Elvis, Joe and all the characters. We all have things happen in our past. We all have our burdens to bear. You can choose to allow all the bad things that have happened to hold you back, or you can choose to rise above those things and move forward into a better life for yourself. Elvis did, Joe did. It’s been an ongoing theme in almost all my characters, because I believe it.
Nancie Clare: I think facing and transcending or surmounting your fears, no matter what they might be, is always dramatic. They may seem minor to an outsider, but your fears are inside of you. Lucy’s fears are inside of her; her preconceived notions of what might happen, and all those what ifs. It was a brave act because she faced her fears. She was not defined by her fears; the things that had happened in the past won’t hold her back.
Robert Crais: Lucy realizes that all the decisions she made [about Elvis] weren’t so much for Ben as they were for her. She had succumbed to her fears, and now she’s rising above those because she’s realizing that Elvis Cole is too great of a guy to not have in her life. And he’s too good of a man to not have in her son’s life. From Lucy’s point of view, Elvis is the man she wants for Ben’s father. And this is the book where she lays that out for Elvis., I think is an enormous commitment on her part.
Nancie Clare: Well, let’s talk about the space time continuum.
Robert Crais: Okay. Please!
Nancie Clare: The Monkey’s Raincoat, the first Elvis Cole book, came out in 1987. Elvis, Joe, Jon Stone—who pretends he’s so mercenary, but I read The Promise and I know he isn’t—and Lucy are aging, shall we say, gracefully?
Robert Crais: Yeah. Here’s, here’s the Secret. It’s Fiction!
Nancie Clare: Bravo.
Robert Crais: When I wrote The Monkey’s Raincoat, Elvis was a few years older than me, , now he’s many years younger than me. They don’t age on the same timeline as I do. The characters inhabit a world I call “Elvis Coles’ Los Angeles”: And in that world, they don’t have bad backs and shot knees, simply because I don’t want them to age in that way. I couldn’t tell you exactly how old they are in, in, I sort of have this vague sense that the guys are probably in their early forties,
Nancie Clare: Maybe…
Robert Crais: Maybe, you know, don’t pin me down, they’re somewhere floating in there. I respect when other writers age their characters, it’s just a personal choice. These are my characters. Elvis and Joe aren’t out there fighting and shooting it out with bad guys in their seventies. That would make for a silly read. So, they’re forever younger.
I enjoy the physicality the guys bring to the books. My books are kind of a mish mash, meaning they’re detective novels, but they’re also part thrillers and part procedurals. And they’re a bromance . I could probably write a pretty good scene about two old cods sitting around talking about how their knees are shot and their backs ache and all that. And it’d be fun. But I see these guys in an alternate universe. Again, Elvis Cole’s, Los Angeles, and, and they’re sitting on the porch of Elvis’s A-frame. I love spending time with them and I don’t wanna put ’em through aging! I like them too much to have ’em have heart surgery. That’s not gonna happen.
Nancie Clare: I want to ask about your social media. One thing I’ve always noticed and appreciated is that your posts are chock-a-block with pictures of Los Angeles, most often in the wee hours when you are on walks. Your photos demonstrate how physically beautiful Los Angeles is: the mountains and the trees, and the sunsets, even the ribbons of red and white lights on the freeways. I think there’s no one more devoted than a convert. Now you are originally from Louisiana; I’m originally from Quebec. I think if you fall in love with this city and you’re from somewhere else, you embrace it and hold it as tight as you can.
Robert Crais: True. Listen, I fell in love with this city the day I arrived. I came here specifically for a reason. I wanted to be a writer; I wanted to work in television. And that’s where television was—Los Angeles. The day I got here, which was in the summer of 1976, I drove up to Mulholland Drive, and I looked out at the city. I looked east, I looked west. I drove out to the Pacific, and I simply fell in love with the landscape here and—with the city.
I thought it was beautiful. It is beautiful. It is unlike eastern cities, which are vertical, our city, is horizontal with pockets of verticality. I loved everything about it except the traffic. Hate the traffic. Still do—traffic’s worse than ever, and someone should do something.
I loved the diversity here. I love the different foods. I don’t sleep well, so I leave the house very early in the morning when there’s no traffic. That’s when I do my hikes. I hike in the morning early, in the dark mostly. And also if I’m just trying to vibe the city, if I’m looking for settings for a book or a scene, or if I’m just looking for inspiration, that’s when I drive around the city. That’s when I see coyotes walking down the center of residential streets.
I live here now because I choose to live here now because I still love it. I could live anywhere. I find Los Angeles as magical today as I did then. It is a place for dreamers; even though that term has begun to mean only people who come over the border from the south. Well, bullshit. Los Angeles is the place where people from all over the planet come to make their dreams come true. Whether it’s getting a minimum wage job because there’s nothing else where you come from, or it’s to make motion pictures or it’s to design rocket ships in the desert. Dreamers come here. I was such a dreamer. I didn’t know anyone here. I came here with a dream and that magic is still here.
Nancie Clare: Your health has explained why you are as a self-described grumpy vegan? or reluctant vegan?
Robert Crais: Resentful vegan. The day I had heart surgery, I became a vegan. Believe me, I’d much rather eat pork chops and ribs. But here we are. Cholesterol is not my friend.
Nancie Clare: In your books, Elvis is obsessed by food. He’s cooks and knows all the best taco places, all the good enchiladas, where to get Guatemalan and Thai food, where to where to get coffee, where to get pastries. Reading your books is like reading “Best of L.A.” food. Under the circumstances of your resentful veganism, is this difficult? Is it painful or is it a vicarious thrill where you can relive the moment of a sublime Taco Asada?
Robert Crais: No, you know what? He’s still me. He’s still Elvis Cole. Elvis does a lot of the things he does because I enjoyed doing them too. He cooks because I always cook. I was big cook, still am.,
Nancie Clare: You recently tweeted out a picture of a, a brisket, I think
Robert Crais: Ribs, brisket. I still take great pleasure in it. It’s a love and passion that I have still have. I don’t eat it but make it for my family. Elvis loves tacos because I love tacos. I used to love going all over all over the city to try taco stands and taco trucks. We’re talking tacos, but it could be Musso and Franks, it could be, you know, Pacific Dining Car!
Nancie Clare: Cole’s?
Robert Crais: I’ve never had Elvis go to Cole’s because of the same name.
Nancie Clare: Elvis goes to Philippe’s instead
Robert Crais: He does go to Philippe’s. All those places, they’re the fabric of Los Angeles where we eat. One of the joys is all the, is the diverse food cultures here, you know, it’s not far away. There’s Little Ethiopia, Thai Town…
Nancie Clare: Koreatown…
Robert Crais: Koreatown. Oh, oh my God. I mean, you can eat different kinds of foods every meal, every day of the day of the week, as long as you can put up with the traffic to get there. That’s all part of my love for Los Angeles. Those are the things that make Los Angeles wonderful. Los Angeles is a character in the book. I don’t think Elvis Cole could be Elvis Cole in any other city. For Elvis to be Elvis, as I know him, he has to be in Los Angeles.
Nancie Clare: Now that the fire has been lit, are you working on the next book?
Robert Crais: I’m writing it! I’m writing the next Elvis Cole novel now. I’ve been working on it for about oh, three months now. Maybe, maybe a little more even. You know, ever since this happened, after I recovered, I was like churning, racing the light. It’s just like the energy seems endless now. When I finished Racing the Light, I already had an idea for the next book. I’m a ball of fire. I’ve gone nuclear—stand back!
Robert Crais: On Uncovering Secrets in Crime Fiction
New York Times bestselling author Robert Crais discusses how he started from scratch with his new crime novel, Racing the Light.
Robert Lee Brewer
Published Oct 31, 2022 12:00 PM EDT
Robert Crais is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 20 novels, 16 of them featuring private investigator Elvis Cole and his laconic ex-cop partner, Joe Pike. Before writing his first novel, Crais spent several years writing scripts for such major television series as Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, Miami Vice, Quincy, Baretta, and L.A. Law.
He received an Emmy nomination for his work on Hill Street Blues, and one of his standalone novels, Hostage, was made into a movie starring Bruce Willis. His novels have been translated into 42 languages and are bestsellers around the world. A native of Louisiana, he lives in Los Angeles. Find him on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Robert Crais
In this post, Robert discusses how he started from scratch with his new crime novel, Racing the Light, his advice for other writers, and more!
Name: Robert Crais
Literary agent: Aaron Priest
Book title: Racing the Light
Publisher: Putnam
Release date: November 1, 2022
Genre/category: Crime Fiction
Previous titles: 22 previous titles, including Hostage, Demolition Angel, L.A. Requiem, A Dangerous Man, Stalking the Angel, and more
Elevator pitch for the book: Private investigator Elvis Cole learns that the City of Angels is also a city of secrets in this blazing new thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Robert Crais.
IndieBound | Bookshop | Amazon
[WD uses affiliate links.]
What prompted you to write this book?
These are crazy times. The pandemic has people reeling, we're completely divided politically, and trust is at an all-time low. And is there any wonder, especially here in LA? Three city councilmen have been indicted on corruption charges in the past two years.
People don't trust the government, the news media, elections, the CDC, or each other. The truth is out there, and people want the truth. I very much wanted to write about someone who is driven to expose the corruption—the real-time underbelly of the City of Angels is a City of Slime.
How long from idea to publication? Did the idea change during the process?
I had begun writing a completely different book—different characters, different story, everything. But I got derailed along the way and couldn't pick it up again. Maybe the pandemic had something to do with this, but my connection to the material vanished.
Then the idea for Josh Shoe and Racing the Light appeared, and I knew I had a red-hot Elvis Cole novel. It was fire. Don't get me wrong—writing an entirely new novel was difficult at first, but my commitment to the characters and story grew firmer each day, and I was slamming out 12-hour days.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
How can I answer this without spoilers? Look, I'm an outliner. I think through the characters and the story before I begin drafting scenes, and I try to know as much as I possibly can, but even with this, there are always surprises.
I will give you one example. What happens between Elvis and Lucy in the finished novel is much different from what I envisioned as I wrote the first draft. Once I put them together in a scene, and the two of them were alive and interacting on the page, I realized I had to dig even more deeply into their frustrations and longing and history.
In a way, I had to let them deal with each other more honestly. This led to a much different story. That's the thing about surprises. They can be frightening, but they can lead to something wonderful.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
People are so much more than they seem. This is one of my recurring themes, and what appealed to me about Josh. To the outside world, at first glance, Josh Schumacher is nobody's idea of a hero; he's a kinda weird inept with nothing going for himself.
But this is only what a casual glance reveals. There is so much more beneath the skin, so many depths and facets and dimensions. Everyone has a story if you take the time to look.
Elvis Cole takes the time. Elvis sees what other people don't. We should all be a little more like Elvis. Judge less, see more. The world would be a better place.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Consider the subtext. Subtext is what the characters know or feel but do not necessarily voice. They often avoid it and even repress it, which can add enormously to the truth and drama of a scene. And every scene, every moment between characters has a subtext. Subtext is gold.
Fired Up: Robert Crais on Passion, Process and Plot Twists
Robert Crais, master of crime writing, makes modern classics the old-fashioned way—with a heartfelt passion, a fine-tuned process and, naturally, a twist.
Jessica Strawser
Published Oct 3, 2018 6:09 PM EDT
Robert Crais, master of crime writing, makes modern classics the old-fashioned way—with a heartfelt passion, a fine-tuned process and, naturally, a twist. Don't miss his talk at the 2018 Writer's Digest Novel Writing Conference in Pasadena, CA, October 26–28!
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the November/December 2016 issue of Writer's Digest magazine.
Write what you love to read: The advice, oft-touted, sounds simple enough. But few embody this approach as successfully as Robert Crais, whose slickly plotted, toughtalking, wisecracking crime novels continue to prove worthy of comparison to the hard-boiled classics he cut his teeth on—while showcasing a style that still manages to be his own.
An Emmy Award–nominated writer for “Hill Street Blues,” “Cagney & Lacey” and “Miami Vice,” in the mid-’80s Crais traded in his lucrative TV credits for his dream of having a spot on bookshelves. He put his own team on the case, and Los Angeles private eye Elvis Cole and his partner, Joe Pike, have been collecting fans since their introduction in The Monkey’s Raincoat, which won the 1988 Anthony and Macavity awards and was nominated for an Edgar. They’ve
starred in 16 of Crais’ 20 novels to date, making their author a No. 1 New York Times bestseller and Mystery Writers of America Grand Master. His latest, The Promise, new in paperback earlier this year, pairs Pike and Cole with the stars of his 2013 bestseller Suspect, LAPD cop Scott James and his K-9 partner. A 17th in the series was released in early 2017.
How his writing has evolved along the way—and what we can all learn from it—is, like many things in the writing life, best described by the author.
You’ve talked about your 1999 hit L.A. Requiem as a turning point in your career. What in your approach and perspective changed at that point?
I grew up as a crime-fiction junkie. I write in this field because I grew up reading in this field …
You grew up in a family of law enforcement, too, correct?
In my family there are I think now five generations of police officers. Th at may not be in reality how it sounds—it’s not like growing up in a TV show—but the true benefit for me, I think, was in seeing police officers as human beings, and understanding who they are in real life. That gave me an appreciation for the nuance of their characters in detail that hopefully I’ve brought to the characters of my novels.
So I grew up reading this stuff and loving it; my favorite writers in those days were the classic American detective fiction writers: Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Robert B. Parker. So when I created Elvis Cole and set about writing my books, that was coming from a place of enthusiasm, I was a fan. And the first seven books were written in the style of the traditional American detective novel: first-person point of view of the detective, everything is seen through the detective’s eyes, because I thought that’s what you’re supposed to do.
But as I wrote them, I began to feel constrained by that limitation. I wanted to tell stories that were broader than one could tell frozen in that traditional pattern. So by the time I got to No. 8, which was L.A. Requiem, I just decided to take out the jams and combine all the different types of crime fiction and thriller fiction that I like to read.
Curtis Sittenfeld on Choosing Beta Readers, Outlining and Creating Complex Characters
It wasn’t an easy decision. I’d had this traditional approach [that was] proving to be pretty popular. Part of me was saying, You’re about to shoot yourself in the foot. But I felt strongly that I could tell the stories I wanted to tell if I expanded the canvas. I brought in points of view of other characters, cut from good guys to bad guys, did the flashback thing, and was still so unsure that when I sent it to my agent, I told him, “If the publisher hates it, I’ll give the money back.” Luckily, it worked out.
I’ve had this saying I’ve used forever as a self-motivator, a little sign in my office that says, Trust the talent. What that means to me is, when you’re at your darkest moments and you think you’re writing the worst thing that’s ever been written, and it’s going to be a failure, you just want to give up and go to Madrid, the best thing you can do is simply give yourself over to your instincts.
So you still have those dark moments sometimes?
Of course. After 20 books people must say, “He must knock this stuff out now.” But most of the writers I know don’t escape the effort that goes into writing. In fact, I think if you’re doing the job correctly it gets more difficult, because each time you go back to the well, you have to dig deeper.
When you begin, no writer knows where you’re going to end up—and I’m not talking about the plot. I plot things out—I know where the story’s going—but what I never know is: Can I pull this one off? Can this all add up to be what I want it to be? Is it true, is it real, is it strong, does it
have the right energy? You face those questions every day.
And especially when it’s damn hard, and the words aren’t coming, and you really have to bash your head into the wall, you do have those dark moments.
The only difference between me today and me then is that I’ve now been through it 20-plus times, so I have a greater level of confidence that I’ll be able find my way out of the darkness. At the beginning I didn’t know, and that was really scary. Now I have more faith that even though I’m lost right now in this moment, history shows I can probably figure my way out of this. Just keep pushing, just keep typing, just keep writing.
So what is your process? You said you plot things out.
I have to figure it out before I write. Otherwise, I’m just lost. Maybe that comes from my TV days where there’s this fairly rigid professional process: You think up the story, you have to pitch the story to someone, a bunch of people sit in a room and talk out the story, you come up with an outline, all the themes are broken down, there it all is before you ever write the screenplay.
I actually wrote a couple of manuscripts, prior to my first published novel, with the high-minded idea that an artist would never, ever plot out a story in advance. If you were a true artist, you simply started typing. It was like magic: You know, your eyes rolled back in your head, and the story came to you and you were just glowing with inspiration, and days or weeks later you came out of your trance and had this beautiful novel.
Well, I tried that twice, and they were just terrible. One had a 500-page beginning and a 50-page ending and there was no middle. I mean, these things were so bad I never even submitted them—even I knew they were bad, why inflict them on anyone else?
So when it came time to write the next book, I said, Listen, you’ve failed twice in a row, why don’t you do it the way you’re comfortable with? And what makes sense to me is to figure stuff out in advance.
With a lot of writers, we’re not talking about the same thing when we say we outline. Many people believe outlining is an intellectual process: Chapter 1: Elvis walks into a room and a woman wants to hire him. Chapter 2 … And you come up with 40 or 50 of those and there’s your book.
But it isn’t that at all. I’ll spend three or four months figuring a story out before I ever begin to write it. And it’s never sequential for me. In the beginning the ideas or thoughts come to me sort of globally. I always start with a character—character is what motivates me, what interests me. There’s some human aspect to the nature of a particular character that has to get its hooks in me. Thereafter I just sort of free-flow scenes with that person or with that person’s problem, with general situations that interest me, and I end up with sort of this mass of random scenes, but little by little some of them begin to connect, because I find them the most interesting or the most relevant.
After many weeks of this stuff, 80 percent of those random scenes and notions I’ve come up with are in the garbage, but I begin to see a story arc there, and the story arc comes together. All those scene notes, character notes, I put on little notecards and pushpin them up on black boards in my office. I’m very visual; I like to see it laid out in front of me. After three or four months I have something that actually works as a story.
I don’t need 100 percent of everything figured out, but I typically need 75 or 80 percent. I have to see the beginning, the middle and the ending I want to reach: This is what I’m trying to do with this particular story and these characters. When I’m confident in that, I’ll begin to write. …
[All told it typically takes] around 10 months, give or take a little bit. I usually don’t write all the chapters or all the scenes sequentially. As I’m figuring everything out, getting closer and closer to the process, I’ll write scenes that end up [coming much later in the story].
Voice is important with recurring characters especially. When developing a new character, what are some techniques you use to make him sound distinctive?
Always it begins with an emotion. Sometimes that emotion’s not definable at the beginning. I’ll see an image or imagine the character doing something that I don’t understand but that fascinates me.
To give you an example, the first novel where Joe Pike is the main character was The Watchman, and the very first notion that eventually became that book was this image I had of a young woman in a convertible. Her hair is flying because she’s driving really, really fast, hands on the wheel at 10 and 2, knuckles white, wind is screaming past her, she’s pretty and her eyes are clenched closed.
That’s all I saw, but what grabbed me was that her eyes were closed, and I was hooked. I thought, There’s something about this woman—I want to know why her eyes are closed, I want to know how she came to this place. Who is she? It’s always like that, with all the characters.
From something like that, I’ll begin to think about a character, and if need be I’ll research a character. One of my (now continuing) characters is former Delta [Force] operator/now mercenary Jon Stone, and it was the same sort of genesis for him, though because of the nature of his work, I ended up doing an enormous amount of research on private military contractors. … Contrary to the stereotypic image of muscle-bound, professional warriors, you find people who are Rhodes scholars. You find people who are voracious readers who read and write poetry. You find all these fascinating things. And brick by brick the character becomes real to you—you use your imagination to connect the stilts of reality that you found through research.
You can hear the way he sounds, you can see the way he walks. And pretty soon they come to life. I mean, I’m not saying when I’m off my meds they come to life, but they become the kinds of characters you want to read about. I’m going to give that book a year of my life, and thought about that way, you want to spend it with people you find interesting and care about and have grown to love.
Interview with Robert Crais
January 24, 2018 mpscottbutkiLeave a comment
Robert Crais has been publishing great mystery-thrillers for more 30 years and with his new book, The Wanted, he’s as good as ever. He consistently has mixed well-developed characters in books with good plots with excellent plot twists.
I last interviewed Crais here for MysteryPeople for a book, The Promise, where he mixed his usual protagonist, the always cool private investigator Elvis Cole and his partner Joe Pike with some new characters in a prior book and it gelled nicely.
For The Wanted it’s back to the usual set up of Cole and Pike fighting some bad guys and some good folks who have made, let’s say, bad life choices.
As the book starts a single mother hires Elvis Cole to help with her troubled son who for inexplicable reasons suddenly has lots of cash and she’s worried he’s dealing drugs. A little investigation and Cole realizes that the son and two of his friends are responsible for some high-end burglary. Gradually it becomes clear that a pair of fascinating, disturbing bad guys are on the tail of the burglary threesome. Will Cole be able to find the three and save them before they are harmed by pair? You’ll have to read to find that out.
Crais was nice enough to let me to interview him by email.
Scott Butki: Thanks for the interview. How did you come up with the story for the latest novel featuring my favorite detective duo, Pike and Cole?
Robert Crais: Lots of crime in Los Angeles these days – burglaries and home invasions are on the rise, and many of these crimes are perpetrated by teenagers and young adults.
Elvis Cole is attracted to cases where he believes he can make a real difference, and the idea of helping a single mom find out the truth of what’s going on with her son and save him is right up his alley.
SB: I always like how you do dialogue and humor in your books. Do you think your early work writing for TV shows including “Hill Street Blues” helped you write dialogue and humor? What are other ways your TV writing help you as a novelist?
RC: I’m just a funny guy. TV writing helped me block out a scene, visualize the action, write authentic dialogue. It helped me to shape a story. It helped me to see how much more I could do as a novelist.
SB: Having written for TV – including “Miami Vice” and Cagney and Lacey, Quincy, and Baretta – I assume you pay attention to current TV shows. What are some of your favorites and why?
RC: My taste in TV shows is all over the board. Loved “Breaking Bad,” “Mad Men,” love “Game of Thrones” (duh!), “Stranger Things,” thought “Handmaid’s Tale” was incredible.
SB: The book deals with loyalty, unconditional love and what it means to be a parent. Is there something you hope readers take away from the story?
RC: I hope readers are entertained and connect with the characters. Most parents have experienced the feeling of unconditional love. In this story a mother is forced to imagine the worst case scenario. If her son has committed a terrible crime, will she still love him? How much can a parent forgive?
SB: Why did you decide to dedicate your book to Otto Penzler?
RC: Otto has been a friend, fan and supporter of mine since my first book, The Monkey’s Raincoat. In a way, all my books are dedicated to him.
SB: I enjoyed, if that’s the right word, your terrible pair of dangerous, perverse guys, Harvey and Stemms. How did you come up with those characters?
Villains need to be as fascinating and as formidable as your hero. I wanted to create “bad guys” that had real personalities, who were many-sided, and who were also interesting. These guys, like Elvis and Joe, have history together, have shared a lot of adventures.
Thanks to Robert Crais for answering our questions. His new book, The Wanted, is on our shelves now!
January 2, 2018Ryan Steck, The Real Book Spy
THE WANTED: Five Questions with Robert Crais
Robert Crais The Wanted.jpg
Last Tuesday, Robert Crais’ 17th Elvis Cole novel, The Wanted, hit bookstores. It’s Crais first book since his 2015 bestseller, The Promise, and already readers are raving about his latest work. I really enjoyed it too, and was excited when Crais agreed to go on the record with us as part of our Five Questions segment.
Read the brief Q&A below, which includes Crais breaking down the first moment and scene from The Wanted he knew he wanted to capture in the book, and a fun announcement about his next book.
TRBS: The world just seems right when Elvis Cole and Joe Pike are back in bookstores. How did you come up with the plot for your latest novel, The Wanted?
Crais: “Elvis Cole gave me the idea. I’m a character writer. The plots come later, and grow from the characters, and situations the characters are in. With The Wanted, I was thinking about Elvis Cole, and saw him alone in his A-frame with his cat. It was night. His house was dark, and filled with shadows. His expression was melancholy. Then the line came to me, the one line, “I don’t have kids. I have a cat.” This was all I had. I knew nothing else about the book you now know as The Wanted, but this image, and the emotional weight of Elvis’s statement rocked me. I knew I had a story I wanted to tell.”
TRBS: What is your writing process like? Do you write every day – and you outline your books or just sit down and crank them out?
Crais: “I’m a blue-collar writer. I roll up my sleeves, I get to work. I create characters and scenes, I research, I toss aside stuff, and little by little I shape a story I like, and write it. Every day. Day in, day out, every day. I rewrite. I revise. I’m not one of these ‘crank’m out’ people.”
TRBS: Who is more fun to write, Elvis or Joe?
Crais: “They’re both fun. If they weren’t fun to write, I wouldn’t write them.”
TRBS: Who are some of the authors you enjoy reading, and what books are currently on your TBR list?
Crais: “Varies. A lot of nonfiction. The TBR holds Endurance by Scott Kelly, Artemis by Andy Weir, The Push by Tommy Caldwell, and American Wolf by Nate Blakeslee.
TRBS: Lastly, what’s next for you? Will you take some time off now that The Wanted is finally hitting bookstores, or will you get right to work on your next project?
Crais: I’m touring and doing promotional gigs for THE WANTED. When the dust settles, I’m diving back into the next book, which I started a few weeks ago. It’s a Pike book. Pike is the lead character and Elvis will be the co-star, like The Watchman and The First Rule.
How Robert Crais drags Elvis Cole and Joe Pike into the darkness in ‘The Big Empty’
“The Big Empty,” Robert Crais’ 20th book in his Elvis Cole and Joe Pike crime thriller series, arrives in bookstores on Jan. 14, 2025. (Photo by Jerry Ward/Book jacket courtesy of Penguin Random House)
“The Big Empty,” Robert Crais’ 20th book in his Elvis Cole and Joe Pike crime thriller series, arrives in bookstores on Jan. 14, 2025. (Photo by Jerry Ward/Book jacket courtesy of Penguin Random House)
Peter Larsen
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: 9/22/09 - blogger.mugs - Photo by Leonard Ortiz, The Orange County Register - New mug shots of Orange County Register bloggers.
By Peter Larsen | plarsen@scng.com | Orange County Register
UPDATED: January 16, 2025 at 12:01 PM PST
For “The Big Empty,” the 20th book in Robert Crais‘ Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series, Crais returned to an idea he’d been circling off and on for years.
“For a long time now, I’ve had this notion I wanted to put Elvis into what is, for him, an untenable position,” Crais says. “Where he’s trapped between his loyalty to a client and his personal loyalty toward truth and justice and doing the right thing.
“Finally, I knew the story that would get me there, and that’s all I was concentrating on, really,” he says.
“The Big Empty,” Robert Crais’ 20th book in his Elvis...
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“The Big Empty,” Robert Crais’ 20th book in his Elvis Cole and Joe Pike crime thriller series, arrives in bookstores on Jan. 14, 2025. (Photo by Jerry Ward)
“You know, detectives, by nature, uncover secrets,” Crais continues. “So people who write about detectives think about these things. What kind of secrets are there? And what are the worst?
“And it seems to me that nothing is more frightening than the secrets our loved ones keep from us, the shadows they hide,” he says. “The big surprises from people that are completely unexpected.”
“The Big Empty” opens with a standalone prologue in which teenager Anya seems to have vanished as her mother Sadie arrives late to pick her up at a skatepark in a remote northwest part of the San Fernando Valley.
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Then Cole is hired by young online influencer Traci Beller to reinvestigate the unsolved disappearance of her father 10 years earlier when she was 13. He’s not optimistic there’s much new to find there, but as he pokes around that same corner of the Valley, the strings Cole pulls start to unravel a conspiracy of silence.
It’s a dark tale that leaves the reader unsure whether Cole and his friend and partner Joe Pike will make it back to the light. That contrast between the sunshine and blue skies of Los Angeles and the evil that looms in the dark places Cole and “The Big Empty” firmly in the tradition of L.A. noir private detectives.
“I think it’s unavoidable,” Crais says when asked if he considers Cole and Pike part of the hardboiled fictional landscape that stretches from his contemporary Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch back to Ross Macdonald‘s Lew Archer, Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe and other private eyes present and past.
“Look, they’re all heroes,” he says. “They’re damaged, they’re dinged up. They’re different from those heroes written 70, 80 years ago. But the roots are there.
“All of us, I certainly, read those books coming up as I grew up. They had an enormous impact on me. So Elvis is just the latest version of them. He’s my version of them.”
And the sunshine and blue skies that Cole cruises beneath in his bright yellow ’66 Corvette convertible? That only adds to the tension of those dark deeds lying just out of his reach, Crais adds.
“One of the things that makes Los Angeles and Southern California such a great setting for crime fiction is because of the juxtaposition of light and dark,” he says.
“The notion that in that bright overbaked sunscape there’s bad things happening in the shadows, and bad things happen to good people and detectives like Elvis Cole, it’s fun to watch these guys expose the darkness to light.”
In an interview edited for length and clarity, Crais talked about what it felt like to finish his 20th Cole and Pike novel, the physical and emotional tolls he put Cole through in this book, how he knows the endings of his books before he begins them, and more.
Q: Twenty books is a nice round number. Did that enter your mind as you wrote?
A: I was aware that it would be the 20th book in the series, which is an emotional milestone, right? But it was just a fun thing to think about as I wrote. You never know what you’re going to get ’til you get there. Meaning, you conceive a book, you write a book, but you can’t predict how people will react to it.
But an awful lot of people are saying that this is my best book yet, and some people are saying it’s my darkest book yet. I don’t know if those two things go together but maybe they do.
Q: You mentioned that the general concept for this book was something you’ve thought about for a while now. Tell me more about what you came to here.
A: My characters, the theme I have with both characters since the very first book, ‘Monkey’s Raincoat,’ is always move forward, right? It’s more obvious with Joe. That’s his philosophy. But it’s in Elvis Cole’s philosophy, too. And I really put Elvis through the ringer in this book, physically and emotionally. I wanted to test Elvis and see how he comes out through the other side.
It’s also about the loss of innocence, manifested by Traci Beller, the young woman who is Elvis’s client. She’s this 23-year-old influencer, ‘The Baker Next Door,’ who’s famous for making muffins on the internet. And Elvis likes her. Ten years before this, her dad went to work one day and he never came home. Everyone told (Traci and her mother) the same thing. When a man disappears like this it’s simply because he left you. And Traci has never believed it.
Now that she’s financially successful she has the wherewithal to hire Elvis Cole to take another stab at finding her dad, and that gets us to the grist of the piece. Because sometimes things are better left unfound. The story is about how Elvis and Traci, and the other women in this story, Sadie and her daughter Anya, persevere and survive the story.
Q: A lot of crime stories are black and white. The detective goes out to find just for those who deserve it and punishment for those who deserve that. Here it becomes really gray for Elvis. What was it like to write in the gray?
A: It is challenging and that’s the appeal. As I said, the untenable position Elvis finds himself in is founded on grayness. Elvis has a personal code, right and wrong, and one of the things he’s lived by is that he does his best for his clients and he protects them at all costs. And he finds himself in a position in ‘The Big Empty’ where he’s not sure he can do that.
That is what appealed to me about this in its conception. Can he save everyone in this story? It’s an awful place for him to be in, because his loyalty is to Traci but then he uncovers things that demand a different kind of justice and he has to pay a price to get there.
Q: Elvis takes a heck of a beating in this book. Is this one of the worst physical beatings he’s gone through?
A: Hands and away. Listen, he’s taken a couple of lumps in the past, but this is the worst. This is his biggest test, again, on every level. It’s like an obstacle course he has to navigate.
Q: He also experiences some tough losses of people who he tries to protect but in the end can’t.
A: There’s a lot of loss there. By that time, Joe’s in the book, and Joe’s part of this, but this is all indicative of the evil at play there. It forces Elvis’s hand. He has to do something to stop this, to end the evil. Even if he has to breach the loyalty he feels toward his client and even maybe himself. He has to sacrifice something to solve this case.
Q: Joe, of course, keeps moving forward. But he loves Elvis and has great empathy for some of the characters in this. What is he experiencing in ‘The Big Empty’?
A: Well, the characters all lose something in this book. Of course, the one thing above all other things that Joe Pike doesn’t want to lose is Elvis Cole. Elvis is his one true friend. The difference between them is that I think Joe is more, not comfortable with darkness, but less affected by darkness than Elvis. Joe’s made peace with the darkness. It is simply another obstacle he must move forward through and he approaches it that way.
Q: At the end of the book, Elvis watches from out of earshot as two people have a long overdue conversation on his deck. How do you know when you’ve nailed the ending?
A: Well, most of my books I know before I begin writing the book. I mean, there can be small changes that come to me. If I get a better idea along the way I’m happy to change. But I knew how I wanted this book to end. It’s in that last paragraph. I knew that this book had to end with [these two characters] meeting because they share something no other two human beings on the planet share.
I wanted them to meet and I wanted them to talk, but I knew what they had to say to each other we couldn’t hear. It was only for them, because they were going to say things that no other human being could imagine saying.
Elvis lets them go outside but he stays inside because he’s me there. He knows this a moment only for them. It’s not his place to share it. And I wanted that to be the ending all the way through the writing of the book. Elvis has a part to play, but they’re the true heroes for surviving this thing.
Crais, Robert THE WANTED Putnam (Adult Fiction) $28.00 12, 26 ISBN: 978-0-399-16150-6
In the latest Elvis Cole book, a teenager involved in a series of high-end burglaries is pursued by a murderous, wisecracking duo--possibly dirty cops--hired to recover a stolen laptop.
Along with his dicey new friends, Alec and Amber, with whom he's smitten, 17-year-old Valley boy Tyson Connor has been stashing away tens of thousands of dollars from selling stolen items, including watches and jewelry. His mother, Devon, knows he's in some kind of trouble but thinks he may be dealing drugs. After Tyson disappears, she hires Cole to find him. The coldblooded bad guys don't hesitate to kill people, including a busboy who gave them information about Alec and Amber and an elderly regular at a flea market where the young crooks sold their loot. With the LA cops on his case, as usual, and his regular associate Joe Pike providing backup, the private eye and Devon are able to make contact with Tyson electronically. When Devon texts her son that Alec has been murdered, Amber convinces him that his mom is making up stories to get him back--but a text from Cole about the flea-market lady's death, coupled with some Googling, makes Tyson wonder. Among West Coast mystery writers, none is more reliable than Crais, who is in excellent form here. Though he makes his villains a bit too much of a comedy duo--the violence is oddly muted as a result--it's difficult to resist an exchange in which they argue over the use of the music from the shower scene in Psycho as a ringtone.
In his 21st book, Los Angeles ace Crais (The Promise, 2015, etc.) extends his streak of sharp, enjoyable thrillers.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Crais, Robert: THE WANTED." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2017. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A509244123/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a59a48ca. Accessed 4 July 2025.
The Wanted
An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel
Robert Crais
Putnam
1745 Broadway, NY, NY 10019
penguinrandomhouse.com
9780399161506, $28.00/37.00 CA$, Hardcover, 336 pp.
From the publisher: A worried mother, Devon Connor, contacts Private Investigator Elvis Cole because her teenage son, Tyson, has gotten himself into deep trouble. Along with two young friends, Tyson has burglarized more than a dozen homes in wealthy Los Angeles neighborhoods. Unfortunately, the young men have inadvertently stolen something that could incriminate a very rich and powerful person, who has no qualms resorting to murder to get it back. Two smart and skilled professional hitmen are already on Tyson's trail, brutally murdering a string of witnesses. In need of some formidable backup, Cole calls on his longtime friend and partner Joe Pike, a tight-lipped and hugely effective former Marine and cop. Distrustful of the police, Cole and Pike take bold and courageous steps as they try to protect Tyson and his friends, neutralize the killers, and snare the assassins' ruthless boss. But in a case so volatile and toxic, roiling with powerful teenage and parental emotions, violent death is always a distinct possibility.
In this, the 17th Elvis Cole/Joe Pike novel, the expected terrific writing and wonderfully-drawn characters are front and center. On page 1 of The Prologue, we are introduced to two men only ever referred to as Harvey and Stemms [the latter pretty much addicted to Adderall]. Page one of Part I (headed "Rich People") is in the first person voice of Elvis Cole, who has been hired to find out what is behind her 17-year-old son's recent activities. (p.o.v. pretty much alternates in chapters primarily between Harvey and Stemms, whose part in this is not immediately clear, that of Elvis Cole and soon Joe Pike, and, about half-way through the book, from Tyson himself.
Tyson hates school, has been expelled from two of them for absentee-ism and failing grades, and is apparently "one of the most wanted felons in LA." His mother had found money and valuables in his room, and believes that he had gotten involved with drug dealers and gangsters. Cole is reluctant to take on the job, but when Devon Connor shows him the Rolex watch she found among the 'valuables,' he agrees to investigate. It appears that there have been at least 17 burglaries, committed by one female and two males, whose DNA and prints the cops have, but not their IDs.
I very much liked the distinction drawn by the author between the areas of LA drawn here, one of which is described as "more Ross Macdonald than Raymond Chandler," presenting a clear picture to most readers of Mr. Crais' novels, I believe. I also dearly loved the author's insight into Cole and Pike's relationship and something of Pike's character when, needing to make Pike aware of something he had just discovered in his investigation, Cole calls him: "Pike had been awake for almost sixty hours, but he answered on the first ring. All Pike, all the time." And this novel is all Crais, all the time; what more could a mystery lover ask for? Recommended.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Midwest Book Review
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Feit, Gloria. "The Wanted." MBR Bookwatch, Jan. 2018. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A526871189/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=fdc078da. Accessed 4 July 2025.
* The Wanted.
By Robert Crais.
Dec. 2017.336p. Putnam, 528 (9780399161506).
Devon Connor's 17-year-old son, Tyson, suddenly seems flush with cash and sporting what appears to be a Rolex. Devon is worried that Tyson may be dealing drugs and hires PI Elvis Cole to find out. Meanwhile, Harvey and Stemms, deadly criminals for hire, are looking for a laptop with incriminating evidence about a murder committed by an extraordinarily wealthy Southern California family. In short order, Cole learns that the Rolex is part of the haul Tyson and two friends made in a series of robberies. The laptop was one of many the teenage criminals stole. With Tyson on the run, Harvey and Stemms inch ever closer--leaving carnage in their wake--to finding the teen and his partners. Lurking in the shadows and covering Elvis' back is his buddy Joe Pike, who, on a scale of dangerous guys, makes Harvey and Stemms look like the Bobbsey twins. Crais, who has a Grandmaster Award from the Mystery Writers of America, always delivers riveting crime fiction while somehow offering something unique in every novel. Here it's the surprisingly interesting, Tarantino-like conversations between Harvey and Stemms as they plan their next deadly steps. More fantastic reading from a perennial A-lister who belongs on every crime fan's TBR list.--Wes Lukowsky
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
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Lukowsky, Wes. "The Wanted." Booklist, vol. 114, no. 6, 15 Nov. 2017, p. 29. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A517441762/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=56f079b9. Accessed 4 July 2025.
* A Dangerous Man
Robert Crais. Putnam, $28 (352p) ISBN 978-0-525-53568-3
In MWA Grand Master Crais's outstanding 18th Elvis Cole and Joe Pike novel (after 2017's The Wanted), Elvis, a private detective, and Joe, a very private paramilitary contractor, try to determine why young Los Angeles bank teller Isabel Roland was seized by kidnappers after she left the bank on a lunch break. Only Joe's fortuitous intervention saved her at the time; a later kidnapping attempt succeeds. But who wants Isabel and why? Now Joe and Elvis have to locate Isabel and rescue her from a coterie of extremely proficient hired guns. Crais begins the story with deceptive simplicity but slowly ratchets up both the tension and the action with surgical precision. The scenes in which Joe saves Isabel from her captors and the final shoot-out among a colorful array of hit men, police, and U.S. Marshals stand as high-water marks among Crais's illustrious crime oeuvre. So, who is the dangerous man to which the book's title refers? Who but the stoic Joe Pike, demonstrating yet again why the particular kind of danger he carries is just plain off the charts. This one's sure to hit the bestseller charts. Author tour. Agent: Aaron Priest, Aaron M. Priest Literary. (Aug.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 PWxyz, LLC
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"A Dangerous Man." Publishers Weekly, vol. 266, no. 25, 24 June 2019, p. 148. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A592040033/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=4dd1d03b. Accessed 4 July 2025.
* A Dangerous Man.
By Robert Crais.
Aug. 2019.352p. Putnam, $28 (9780525535683).
Joe Pike, ex-cop, ex-military, and sometime mercenary, goes to his bank to do a little routine business. The young teller who helps him leaves for lunch a few minutes later. Outside, she's snatched by two men, who toss her into the backseat of a car. Pike sees what's happening and quickly disables the two men and brings in the cops to clean up.
Isabel Roland, the teller, assumes she was the potential victim of a sex kidnapping. When the two kidnappers are released on bond and subsequently murdered, it's apparent something else is going on. Isabel disappears. --Pike enlists his partner, PI Elvis Cole, to investigate. A retired U.S. marshal, whom Isabel called Uncle Ted, is also dead. He was brutally tortured before death. Cole digs deeper and finds indications that Ted, who was involved in the witness protection program, had relocated Isabel's parents to protect them. Cole isn't the human wrecking ball that Pike is, but he's no slouch as a detective, and the two find Isabel promptly, with Pike dispatching some bad guys along the way. But Isabel's hunters keep coming. Crais is a whip-smart writer. Cole and Pike are carefully drawn, multilayered characters who've grown more complex through the years. This is one of the very best entries in a long-running and still first-rate series.--Wes Lukowsky
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 American Library Association
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Lukowsky, Wes. "A Dangerous Man." Booklist, vol. 115, no. 21, 1 July 2019, pp. 25+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A595705014/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=cafdf9b3. Accessed 4 July 2025.
Crais, Robert A DANGEROUS MAN Putnam (Adult Fiction) $28.00 8, 6 ISBN: 978-0-525-53568-3
If you've always wished Lee Child's Jack Reacher had a little more balance in his life--but the same formidable talents--you'll love Joe Pike and the latest book in this long, superb series (The Wanted, 2017, etc.).
All Joe wanted to do was go to the bank and make a deposit. He knew Isabel Roland, the young teller, seemed a little interested in him, but he doesn't mix romance and money. Sitting in his car shortly after leaving the bank, though, he notices Isabel walking outside and putting on a pair of sunglasses, and then he sees her talking to a man and disappearing into an SUV with him, "a flash of shock in her eyes." Joe's training--which includes stints in the Marine Corps, the Los Angeles Police Department, and "various private military contractors"--makes him sit up and pay attention. He follows along in his own Jeep, and when the SUV stops for a traffic light, Isabel's abductors don't stand a chance. Then, when Isabel is kidnapped again, Joe feels compelled to find her. He enlists Elvis Cole, his longtime friend and private eye, whose laconic style and sharp wit are a helpful counterbalance to Joe's terse style. As they search for answers, more dead bodies pile up, and the men wonder just how innocent this bank teller really is. Told from the alternating perspectives of Joe, Elvis, and various criminals, the story becomes multilayered while the tension builds. Crais never loses control of his clean, clear prose or his ability to sketch fully fleshed characters in a few scenes, with Joe providing the action and Elvis providing the insight.
A taut, exceptional thriller.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Crais, Robert: A DANGEROUS MAN." Kirkus Reviews, 15 July 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A593064677/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=d0f69291. Accessed 4 July 2025.
Crais, Robert RACING THE LIGHT Putnam (Fiction None) $29.00 11, 1 ISBN: 978-0-525-53572-0
In the latest Elvis Cole mystery, young podcaster Josh Shoe is on the verge of nailing a corrupt city official when the murder of his prime source--a porn actress--sends him into hiding.
A hulking 26-year-old, Shoe--short for Schumacher--prides himself on "bringing the truth the mainstream media hides," whether that involves alien visits or conspiracy theories. Following the murder of Skylar, who works as a call girl to support her efforts as a visual artist, Josh's own life is in danger. When it's revealed that sophisticated surveillance equipment used by Chinese intelligence has been installed in his apartment, Elvis suspects the stakes are higher than he thought. The LA detective has other things on his mind: His long-lost girlfriend, Lucy Chenier, has returned to town with her son, Ben, who was traumatized by his father's sick plot to cast himself as a hero. Ben loves Elvis, but does Lucy? But back to the action, which involves a hapless bagman, a city councilman who sells out a low-cost housing project, a Chinese enforcer, and, of course, Cole's taciturn sidekick, the ex-Marine Joe Pike. Though the novel promises intrigue of a higher order than it delivers, Crais' affection for his characters, masterful pacing, and dry wit make this one of his better efforts. An unrepentant classicist, he keeps the traditional detective novel alive and well.
An enjoyable mystery from a tried-and-true veteran.
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"Crais, Robert: RACING THE LIGHT." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2022. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A715353037/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=75dcaa60. Accessed 4 July 2025.
Racing the Light
Robert Crais. Putnam, $29 (368p) ISBN 978-0-525-53572-0
The disappearance of podcaster Josh Schumacher drives MWA Grandmaster Crais's entertaining 19th novel featuring L. A. PI Elvis Cole and his ex-Marine sidekick, Joe Pike (after 2019's A Dangerous Man). Josh's mother, Adele, hires Elvis to find Josh and bring him home. Elvis soon discovers that Josh's latest story, which involves an adult film star and secrets tying city politicians to a corrupt pay-forplay scheme, has mobilized a vortex of competing interests, including a vicious business cartel, Chinese operatives, and the mysterious Adele's own personal protection team. Once Elvis tracks down Josh, he's frustrated by the podcaster's refusal to let the story go, and matters quickly degenerate into murder and mayhem. As usual, Pike's involvement is minimal and timely, and the novel further advances the on-again, off-again relationship between Elvis and love interest Lucy Chenier, with several effective scenes between Elvis and Lucy's son, Ben. While the influence of Michael Connelly is apparent and the pace is somewhat uneven, Crais maintains a humorous tone throughout. This long-running series shows no signs of losing steam. Agent: Aaron Priest, Aaron M. Priest Literary. (Nov.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 PWxyz, LLC
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"Racing the Light." Publishers Weekly, vol. 269, no. 37, 5 Sept. 2022, p. 78. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A748542395/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=fd15cb1a. Accessed 4 July 2025.
* Racing the Light. By Robert Crais. Nov. 2022.400p. Putnam, $29 (9780525535720); e-book, $14.99 (9780525535751).
Adele Schumacher tells PI Elvis Cole that she believes her son, Josh, a controversial podcaster, is being held by the government at Area 51. Adele has a purse stuffed with cash, a brain full of government conspiracies, and, oddly, a professional bodyguard. Who is this woman? When Cole finally tracks him down, the podcaster reveals that his mother and father were both employed by the government and, quite possibly, reworked captured alien technology. But it turns out that's not really relevant. The real question is, Who are the assorted assassins, including "Scarecrow and the Meatball," who are looking for Josh? Cole calls in his partner, Joe Pike, to help. Josh's porn-star girlfriend is found brutally murdered, hints of a Silicon Valley conspiracy surface, and Cole's estranged girlfriend, Lucy Chenier, and her son, Ben, decide to come for the weekend. A whirlwind of action, fisticuffs, and stray bullets, along with Crais' usual dose of heart and humor, make for a riveting and satisfying read. No one does the bromance buddy genre better than Crais, and he always keeps it fresh and timely. This is the nineteenth outing for the PI duo, in a series that began with The Monkeys Raincoat in 1987, and Cole and Pike are still relentless, with their humanity, remarkably, fully intact.--Jane Murphy
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 American Library Association
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Murphy, Jane. "Racing the Light." Booklist, vol. 119, no. 4, 15 Oct. 2022, p. 27. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A732242588/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a9bbf432. Accessed 4 July 2025.
* The Big Empty. By Robert Crais. Jan. 2025. 400p. Putnam, $30 (9780525535768); e-book (9780525535799).
What could happen to make Elvis Cole say he feels as though he has fallen into "a Southern Noir action movie"? Lots. He has been investigating the disappearance ten years earlier of Thomas Beller, the father of 23-year-old social media sensation, Traci Beller, a.k.a., The Baker Next Door. Five years ago there had been an exhaustive but unsuccessful investigation by a reputable private detective. No DNA or fingerprints of the missing man exist. But Traci is fast and easy with her cash, and Cole can never turn down a damsel or child in distress. Bring on a host of thugs who are protecting a young woman and her mother but who seem to somehow be involved, and off we go in the yellow Corvette. When things get really out of control, a red Jeep carrying Joe Pike roars in. What he uncovers are some truly dark deeds. The investigation takes a distressing emotional and physical toll on Cole, but the compelling tale is enriched by its true heart and humor. Crais' protagonist has often been compared to Robert B. Parker's Spenser, who is also known to grapple with the moral ambiguities of his work.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 American Library Association
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Murphy, Jane. "The Big Empty." Booklist, vol. 121, no. 7-8, Dec. 2024, p. 109. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A829740193/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=79c413ab. Accessed 4 July 2025.
Crais, Robert THE BIG EMPTY Putnam (Fiction None) $30.00 1, 14 ISBN: 9780525535768
Hired to find the father of celebrity "muffin girl" Traci Beller 10 years after his disappearance, PI Elvis Cole uncovers a nefarious plot that puts his life and those he contacts at risk.
The sweetly likable Traci, now 23, has amassed a huge following with her website, The Baker Next Door, and on social media. Against the advice and self-interest of the people who over-manage her career, she decides to find out what happened to her father. Cole quickly determines that he was last seen at the SurfMutt hamburger stand, where he gave a ride to Anya Given, a troubled 15-year-old whose mother, Sadie, was late in picking her up from the skate park across the street. With the reluctant help of a scattered young woman who used to work at the burger joint, Cole tracks down Anya and Sadie, who is eventually revealed to have a criminal past. For his efforts, he's jumped by a small gang of men who send him to the hospital with the worst beating of his life. (Asked by a nurse what his name is, the best he can guess is "Los Angeles.") Still in recovery, Cole and Joe Pike, his ex-Marine partner, trace his attackers to Sadie, with unexpected results. As ever, Crais draws the reader in via his protagonist's casual, dryly humorous manner and the book's relaxed ties to classic noir. Slowly but surely, the plot gains intensity and deadly purpose. Just when you think the missing persons case is solved, Crais ratchets things up with a devastating follow-through. This is the L.A. novelist's 20th Cole mystery, following such efforts asThe Watchman (2007) andRacing the Light (2022). It may be his most powerful.
A potent and surprising novel by the ever-reliable Crais.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Crais, Robert: THE BIG EMPTY." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Dec. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A819570211/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c3f6418c. Accessed 4 July 2025.