Indigo Slam: An Elvis Cole Novel by Robert Crais
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Book Reviews of Indigo Slam: An Elvis Cole Novel
Book Review: Good ,Light, Crime Novel
Summary: 3 Stars
Elvis is involved in finding the father of three mother-less children. As you probaly will guess the story becomes more involved. Elvis is great. Lucy his girlfriend is interviewing for a television job.
Joe Pike protects the kids. And Russian mobsters show up in Los Angelos.
This is a relaxing read.
Book Review: Weakest Novel in the Series
Summary: 2 Stars
Robert Crais is a highly skilled crime writer, and I think his "Elvis Cole" series is well worth reading. Unfortunately, INDIGO SLAM, the seventh novel in the series, is a flat and uninspired installment.
INDIGO SLAM starts out quite well, with three young children hiring Cole to find their missing father. But it doesn't take Cole very long to find out where he is, and all the mystery of the plot soon evaporates. The last two thirds of this book is pretty much a lot of action, mostly at the expense of characterization.
Cole doesn't have much at stake in the storyline, and you ever really worry about his safety. I also didn't really care for the father at all, and his three children are little more than stereotypes. In the end, I cared little for how things turned out for them.
Crais is ultimately a formulaic writer, albeit a very solid one. Still, INDIGO SLAM contains a bunch of scenes and situations that are pretty much identical to earlier installments of this series. Reading this novel is a bit like watching a TV show in its final few seasons, when it's way past its prime. My advice is to skip this novel, and try earlier Cole books like FREE FALL, LULLABY TOWN, or VOODOO RIVER.
Book Review: Another Disappointing Sub-Par Book for Crais
Summary: 2 Stars
I've read nearly the entire Elvis Cole series by Robert Crais and although his characters are wonderful and likeable, each book seems to be a hit or miss proposition. Indigo Slam had a somewhat interesting premise; the father of 3 children has disappeared and his children hire Cole to find him. The man turns out to be a counterfeiter in the witness protection program who is on the run from the Russian Mafia and involved in several other illegal deals as well.
The main problem with the book is that Crais just rushed through everything as if he were writing in his sleep. Most of the new characters were shallow and undeveloped, the action scenes were predictable (if you've read one Elvis Cole book, you know that the big shoot-out at the end of the book repeats itself over and over and over) and even Elvis Cole's trademark humor just felt flat and weak. With a little more careful thought, this might have been a good book. As it was, though, it just ended up putting me to sleep.
Book Review: A real disappointment -- save your money
Summary: 2 Stars
I've enjoyed the Elvis Cole series but this was indeed a sub-subpar effort. Even for what is expected to be a "light read," there was nothing remotely credible about the plot or the characters. Improbable, unlikely -- the willing suspension of disbelief can only be stretched so thin.The bit about the mysterious klling machine partner (Pike) who always shows up at the right time is also getting tedious and makes Harvey the six-foot rabbit seemed grounded in reality. Let's face it -- characters like Pike and Hawk (in the Spenser series) are as pathetic fantasies as anything found in some bodice-ripping romance novel.
Buy Michael Connelly's latest (or any book of his) rather than this book. For real writing, emotion and character development there is just no comparison.
Book Review: Mediocre effort
Summary: 2 Stars
I've really enjoyed Crais' Elvis Cole series -- especially LA Requiem -- but Indigo Slam was a disappointing, even boring read. The book starts well enough with an intriguing story about three kids abandoned by their father. Crais ruins the book by solving the mystery quickly in the first half of the book. That leaves about a hundred pages for utterly unbelievable shootouts and a farcically complicated end-game designed by Elvis. Are we supposed to find the notion of multiple shoot-outs believable? Is Elvis immortal? Can he in fact be killed? You could skip the final part of the book -- I skimmed it.