Elvis Cole/Joe Pike

8 primary works • 9 total works

The Monkey's Raincoat

by Robert Crais

Published 1 July 1987

When Los Angeles private detective Elvis Cole investigates the disappearance of Ellen Lang's husband and young son, he stumbles into a bizarre nightmare of high-level intrigue, missing drugs, and murder in Hollywood's seamy underworld.

Voodoo River

by Robert Crais

Published 2 June 1995

Hired to uncover the past of Jodi Taylor, an actress in a hit TV show, Elvis leaves his native Los Angeles to head for Louisiana in search of Jodi's biological parents. But before he can tackle the mystery of the actress's background, he is up against a whole host of eccentrics, including a crazed Raid-spraying housewife, a Cajun thug who looks like he's been made out of spare parts, and a menacing hundred-year-old river turtle named Luther. As Elvis learns about the enigmatic actress's origins, he also discovers the real reason he's been sent to Louisiana ...

Sunset Express

by Robert Crais

Published 1 April 1996

On his own turf in LA, PI Elvis Cole is embroiled in a controversial, high-profile murder case. A wealthy restaurateur is accused of murdering his wife, and his hot-shot defence lawyer hires Cole to find proof that the detective on the case, Angela Rossi, fooled around with the evidence. Yet as Elvis investigates Rossi for the defence team, he begins to be more suspicious of the media-loving lawyers than the cops. And as the investigation continues, Cole is drawn deeper and deeper into the intrigue and dangers surrounding the case of the missing woman.

Indigo Slam

by Robert Crais

Published 1 April 1997

Fifteen-year-old Teri Hewitt has been left holding the babies since her dad, Clark, disappeared without trace. She wants LA private eye Elvis Cole to find him, and although he knows he should refuse and hand it over to social services, he finds himself taking on the case. The search reveals a chronically unemployed drug addict caught up in counterfeiting scams and mixed up with the Russian mafia and Vietnamese gunmen. As the action heads towards a gunfight in Disneyland and Cole dodges his almost-girlfriend's ex-husband, he realises Teri is one whole lot of trouble he should have left to the professionals.

Chasing Darkness

by Robert Crais

Published 1 July 2008

It is fire season, and the hills of Los Angeles are burning. Fire Department personnel rush to evacuate the inhabitants, and find the days-old corpse of a middle-aged recluse who apparently committed suicide. Clutched in his lap is a photo album containing photographs of seven young women who have been murdered, each photograph was taken only moments after the women were killed. One murder per year for seven years, their bodies found in different parts of the city. LAPD homicide detectives had never connected the seven murders. But now with the discovery of the "death album" these seven murders have been linked, and the news for Elvis Cole is bad...Only one suspect had been charged in any of those cases, that being for the murder of victim #4. LAPD and the LA County District Attorney had a recorded confession by the suspect and believed him to be the murderer. But, with evidence supplied by Elvis Cole, in the end he walked free. That suspect was the suicide now discovered in the fire, Elliot Martin. Did Cole's action three years ago free a killer to commit more murders? Did Elvis cost three young women their lives?

The First Rule

by Robert Crais

Published 22 December 2009

The team thought that Frank Meyer had got out of the 'life' safely. He had put an end to his mercenary days, turned over a new leaf and settled down with his wife and children. It had been a hard decision but, encouraged by his boss and friend Joe Pike, he had walked away. But ten years later, a group of armed men break into his Los Angeles home and brutally gun him and his family down. It's a vicious, cold and professional job. The crew leave no trace behind except the bodies. But they have made one catastrophic, and almost certainly terminal, mistake - Joe Pike. Because Pike is now determined to hunt down and eliminate everyone involved in the attack one by one. And it doesn't matter that, as he starts to investigate, he discovers that this group of criminals are bigger and more well-organised than he ever could have imagined - part of sprawling gang of east European mafia. None of that matters, they are going down anyway.

The Wanted

by Robert Crais

Published 1 August 2017

"It seemed like a simple case--before the bodies starting piling up. Investigator Elvis Cole and his partner, Joe Pike, take on the deadliest case of their lives in the new masterpiece of suspense from the #1 New York Times-bestselling author. When single mother Devon Connor hires private investigator Elvis Cole, it's because her troubled teenage son Tyson is flashing cash and she's afraid he's dealing drugs. But the truth is devastatingly different. With two other partners in crime, he's been responsible for a string of high-end burglaries, a crime spree that takes a deadly turn when one of them is murdered and Tyson and his girlfriend disappear. They stole the wrong thing from the wrong man. Determined to get it back, he has hired a team that is smart and brutal, and to even the odds, Cole calls in his friends Joe Pike and Jon Stone. But even they may be overmatched. The hired killers are leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. A few more won't make any difference"--

A Dangerous Man

by Robert Crais

Published 18 July 2019

'The smoothest writing and best storytelling you'll ever read . . . Just keeps getting better and better' DAVID BALDACCI

'You can always rely on Elvis Cole and Joe Pike for top-notch fun noir . . . This tale opens with a Jack Reacher-esque set-up' SUNDAY TIMES CRIME CLUB (starred review)

THE NEW ELVIS COLE AND JOE PIKE THRILLER

Joe Pike didn't want to run into trouble that day - he was just going to the bank. But when Isabel, a young teller, is forced into a car by two men, he has no choice but to step in. After chasing them down, he retrieves the terrified woman and the men are arrested.

Not long after they are released on bail, the men are found dead, each with a single gunshot wound to the head, and Isabel is missing. After his handling of the men, Pike is a prime suspect, along with Izzy - was this an abduction gone wrong, or did it go exactly how she planned?

Pike, convinced that her life is in danger, involves Elvis Cole in a search for the truth, and for Izzy. But they're not the only ones desperate to find her - and desperate men are dangerous.

* * * Praise for A Dangerous Man and Robert Crais * * *

'Bob is like a Porsche when it comes to writing. Indeed, it's quite fitting that he drives that model of car. Like the Porsche, his writing is elegant, stylish, funny, can fire on turbos when need be and dive deep when the plot demands it, but this is far and away some of the smoothest writing and best storytelling you'll ever read. He's written a lot of books, but just keeps getting better and better' DAVID BALDACCI

'Outstanding . . . Crais begins the story with deceptive simplicity but slowly ratchets up both the tension and the action with surgical precision . . . This one's sure to hit the bestseller charts' Publishers Weekly (starred review)

'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' Booklist on A Dangerous Man (starred review)

'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 . . . Crais never loses control of his clean, clear prose or his ability to sketch fully fleshed characters in a few scenes . . . A taut, exceptional thriller' Kirkus on A Dangerous Man (starred review)

'[Crais] expertly delivers his customary modern-day riff on the 1940s hardboiled idiom' Guardian

'Another rewarding page-turner by one of the most reliable storytellers in modern crime fiction' Daily Mail

'Cleverly plotted, stylishly written' Washington Post

Robert Crais CD Collection

by Robert Crais

Published 29 December 2006