Indigo Slam: An Elvis Cole Novel (Elvis Cole Novels) - Hardcover

Crais, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786862610 ISBN 13: 9780786862610

Publisher: Hyperion, 1997

Synopsis

The seventh novel featuring the wise-cracking Los Angeles private eye pits Cole against counterfeiters and the U.S. marshals as he attempts to track down a major figure in the criminal underworld.

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Reviews

Three years after the witness relocation program hustled his family out of Seattle seconds away from some men with guns, Clark Hewitt is on the run again--but this time he hasn't taken his family with him. So his eldest daughter Teri, 15 going on 40, leads her two siblings into Elvis Cole's office waving a fat sheaf of bills in Cole's face as a retainer for tracking down her father. In a way, the case is a no-brainer. It doesn't take Cole (Sunset Express, 1996, etc.) long to establish that Clark has gone back to Seattle, and by the time he reports to the children, their dad's already returned. But everything Cole's found out in his search spells trouble: Clark is a druggie and a counterfeiter who'd turned state's evidence against Russian mobsters who are now bent on killing him and his kids, and he can't turn to the feds this time because he's gone back to printing funny money. Things are no better on Cole's own home front. His girlfriend, Baton Rouge attorney Lucy Chenier, is angling for a job that'll keep her as close to Cole's body as she is to his heart, but her powerful ex-husband steps in just in time to queer the deal. Cole will have to keep him, the feds, and the Russians at bay long enough to cruise into a Disneyland finale that screams movie movie movie. Sure, Cole works his easy charm to the max. But since he's riding Crais's twistiest and best sustained plot with all the panache of John Travolta, it's a pleasure to see him enjoying his work more than any other p.i. in California history. ($250,000 ad/promo; Mystery Guild selection; author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Crais' Elvis Cole novels have become a first-rate example of the double-tough-guy series. Robert B. Parker's Spenser and Hawk still define the subgenre, but Elvis and Joe Pike aren't far behind. Double tough guys can be counted on for at least one ferocious fight per novel, but along the way, there's plenty of banter from our hero and usually a few meaningful Gary Cooper^-like monosyllables from his sidekick. Elvis supplies the banter and Joe the monosyllables with aplomb in this account of a master counterfeiter's last hurrah. The counterfeiter has problems: the Russian Mafia is after him, he's dying of cancer, and he has three kids to provide for. The oldest, Teri, a feisty 15-year-old, asks Elvis to help find Dad, who's off trying to set up a final score. Proving they have hearts of tough-guy gold, Elvis and Joe come to the kids' aid, outmuscling and outsmarting the Russian thugs in a bizarre Disneyland finale. This is straight formulaic fare, but the tough guys are as endearing as they are invincible, and the insider information about high-tech printing is fascinating. Crais doesn't push the genre's envelope, but he works comfortably within its constraints. Hyperion is betting a $250,00 "breakout budget" on this one's marketability, so increased demand is likely. Recommend Elvis and Joe to anyone who likes Spenser and Hawk or Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcell. Bill Ott

Having made it big with his last Elvis Cole mystery (Sunset Express, Hyperion, 1996), Crais here puts Cole on the track of a missing father who seems to have criminal connections.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Hyperion
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786862610
• ISBN 13: 9780786862610
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304