Indigo Slam: An Elvis Cole Novel by Robert Crais
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Book Reviews of Indigo Slam: An Elvis Cole Novel
Book Review: RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "ELVIS & PIKE SAVE THE KIDS FROM THE COMMIES!"
Summary: 5 Stars
This is another installment in the classic ongoing Elvis Cole and Joe Pike detective series. The story starts off with a three year flashback to a rainy night in Seattle as Clark Hewitt and his three children are being clandestinely extracted from their home by Federal Marshals. Gunshots are fired and one of the Marshals is killed. As the family is whisked away in a van, the then twelve-year-old eldest daughter Teri holds her trembling Father tightly and feels his shaking ease.
Three years later as Elvis sat in his Los Angeles office talking on the phone to his girl friend, the door opened and three children walked in. The oldest of the children said: "Mr. Cole, my name is Teresa Haines. This is my brother Charles, and our sister, Winona. Our Father has been missing for eleven days, and we'd like you to find him." Teri is now two months shy of being sixteen, Charles (one of the great characters in the story) is twelve, and Winona is nine. Charles is already creating problems by touching Elvis's Jiminy Cricket statuette and like every person who has ever entered this office, from FBI agents to lawyers to killers, is taken aback by Elvis's Pinocchio clock that hangs on the wall above the file cabinet. "The clock has eyes that move from side to side as it tocks and is a helluva thing to watch." Despite being only twelve years old, anytime Charles didn't like what he was told, or just didn't like an individual in his vicinity, he would cough and say "assh*le". Or cough and say "pri*k". Or cough and say "eat me". They had looked Elvis up in the phone book and chose him because his ad said "confidential investigations".
It turns out the kids Father is involved with counterfeiting, and after becoming a witness against the Russian mob entered the witness protection program. That was the reason for the multiple last names and his disappearance. Elvis develops a paternal fondness for the kids and takes the job despite the fact that he is losing money from his very first investigative flight to Seattle. The case winds up involving the Federal Marshals, Secret Service, Treasury Department, the Russian Mob, Vietnamese Revolutionaries, dope dealers and numerous other luminaries on both sides of the legal fence. This book is never dull with the combination of unknowns at every turn, the reader is also blessed with the author's non-stop parenthetical humorous thoughts and comments going on in Elvis's head. And throughout this epic tale, you can always count on Charles's "coughing-vulgarities" and twelve-year-old un-restrained machismo, whenever he appears in his "award-winning" supporting role. This is a non-stop fun ride from start to finish!
Book Review: Nothing is What it Seems
Summary: 5 Stars
It was plant day in Los Angeles, at least that what Private Investigator Elvis Cole calls the day of the month that he waters his dying plants. Elvis isn't good with plants. Anyway he's busy caring for them when Teresa, Charles and Winona Haines walk into his office. They want Elvis to find their father. Elvis doesn't work for children, so he sends them away. However, after they leave he realizes that he's screwed up. The kids were obviously in trouble, had come to him for help and he'd failed them. He rushes downstairs in time to see fifteen-year-old Teresa pull away from the curb. He dashes to his car and follows, thinking that the girl, who is too young to drive, has a lot on her young shoulders.
He decides to help the children and Teresa pulls a wad of hundred dollar bills from her purse, but he tells her he won't take money from her, she insists and he accepts two of the bills and leaves, thinking it'll be an easy job. But as usual in a Robert Crais detective thriller, things are not always as they seem.
Elvis goes to the print shop where Charles Haines, the errant father, works and finds out he was fired because the boss caught him shooting up. The kid's father is a junky and that's the last thing Elvis wants to tell them. From the phone bill he learns Charles called Seattle several times, so he flies up there on his own nickle, asks questions and is kidnapped, beat up and almost killed by Russian mobsters who want to know why Elvis is asking question about Charles, who's last name by the way isn't Haines, but Hewitt. Fortunately he's saved at the last minute by U.S. Marshals who want to know the same thing.
Elvis figures out that Charles had flown the coup from the federal witness program. That he was a big time counterfeiter and that some very bad guys want him dead and that they'll kill anybody who gets in their way. Fortunately, Elvis has his pal, the quiet and broody Pike to watch his back.
And thus it begins, the twists and turns of a Robert Crais novel where, as I said above, nothing is as it seems. Just when you think you've got a handle on the story it takes a quick right turn and you're slapping yourself upside the head, murmuring, "Why didn't I see that?" INDIGO SLAM, like every book Robert Crais has written, is a five star read, one that won't let you sleep, eat or go to work until you finish, it's that good.
Reviewed by Vesta Irene
Book Review: Elvis Cole returns, sort of...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a reprint of a previously published Elvis Cole novel, originally out in the mid-90's. It's worth a second look though, especially if you like mysteries and didn't read it the first time around.Elvis Cole is a private eye in West L.A. He has an office decorated with Disney figures (and a Jiminy Cricket clock) and a gun, and when things get tough he has a strange, enigmatic partner named Joe Pike, whose solution to problems usually involves shooting them. Cole does the detecting, Pike the heavy lifting, and of course the obligatory humor.
In this installment, Cole is approached by three children who wish to hire him to find their father. Initially put off by being hired by kids, he's persuaded when his girlfriend looks the situation over and decides that the kids are alright, they just need their dad. Soon, things take a nasty turn, as it develops that the Russian mob is also looking for the father. Throw in some right-wing Vietnamese revolutionaries, various Federal agents, and settings from the San Fernando Valley to Disneyland, and you get an interesting novel, complete with shootouts and much suspense. Oh, and Elvis's girlfriend turns out to have an ex-husband with a very long reach, and some powerful friends, and he makes things interesting too.
I've enjoyed this series since it started. I would highly recommend this book, and the series. You don't have to (really) read any of the other books before this one, though Voodoo River might not be a bad idea, so that you understand the relationship between Elvis and Lucy (the girlfriend).
Book Review: You can't go wrong with Elvis
Summary: 5 Stars
For me, the mystery of Indigo Slam is why it was out of print for years. Originally published in 1997, it didn't come out in paperback till 2003 (and the hardcover disappeared), while other later Crais novels (including another Cole book) did the usual hardcover-to-paperback cycle and remained on the shelves. Whatever the reason, it's here now and it's really good.Elvis Cole, self-proclaimed World's Greatest Detective, is hired by three children to find their father. Motivated more by conscience than money, he helps them. When it turns out that the father is on the run from the Russian mob, Elvis starts getting in over his head. Fortunately, there is his laconic partner Pike to watch his back.
Mystery fans will see a certain similarity between the Cole books and Robert Parker's Spenser. Both feature wise-cracking tough private eyes with mysterious but generally good-hearted partners. Unfortunately, over the years, I found Spenser getting unlikably smug and self-righteous, while Cole remains a pleasure to read about. And both Cole and Pike are much more well-developed than either Spenser or Hawk, neither of whom even reveal their full names (the single-named hero is a bit of a tired gimmick nowadays...Richard Stark's Parker is forgiven because he's been around since the mid-60's).
You don't need to have read other Elvis Cole novels to get into this one; Crais makes it easy to get right into things. For fans of the private-eye novel, you'll find this - like all the other novels by Crais - delightfully entertaining.
Book Review: Characters With Character
Summary: 5 Stars
Elvis Cole is the kind of Detective we all would like to be; witty, laid back, good at what he does, and someone who has a Pike-like buddy to take on the really, really bad guys should we suddenly find that we're in over our heads and badly needing finely focused fanatical firepower.
Robert Crais has given the reading world some interesting fictional characters with some interesting whodunnit plot lines that make for enjoyable reading. What more can we ask of a writer?
If you're new to Elvis and Pike then begin with The Monkey's Raincoat and work up to Chasing Darkness. Good writing by Crais and good reading for us. A shame though that books don't come with a coffee cup holder.