Book 1

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.

Book 2

Stalking The Angel

by Robert Crais

Published 1 September 1989
Bradley Warren had lost something very valuable, something that belonged to someone else: a rare thirteenth-century Japanese manuscript called the Hagakure. Everything PI Elvis Cole knew about Japanese culture he'd learned from reading SHOGUN, but he knew a lot of crooks - and what he didn't know, his sidekick Joe Pike did. Together, Cole and Pike begin their search in LA's Little Tokyo, the nest of the notorious Japanese mafia, the Yakuza - and find themselves caught up in a white-knuckled adventure filled with madness, murder and sexual obsession. Just another day's work for Elvis Cole...

Book 3

Lullaby Town

by Robert Crais

Published 1 March 1992
Reissue of the third Elvis Cole novel from the bestselling author of THE WATCHMAN. Peter Alan Nelsen is a super-successful movie director who is used to getting what he wants. And what he wants now is to find the wife and infant child he dumped on the road to fame. It's the kind of case that Cole could handle in his sleep, except that when Cole actually finds Nelsen's ex-wife, everything takes on nightmarish proportions - a nightmare which involves Cole with a nasty New York mob family and a psycho killer who is the son of the godfather. And when the unpredictable Nelsen charges in, an explosive situation blows sky-high.

Book 4

Free Fall

by Robert Crais

Published 1 May 1993
Elvis Cole is just a detective who can't say no, especially to a girl in a terrible fix. And Jennifer Sheridan qualifies. Her fiance, Mark Thurman, is a decorated LA cop with an elite plainclothes unit, but Jennifer is sure he's in trouble - the kind of serious trouble that only Cole can get him out of. Five minutes after his new client leaves the office, Cole and his partner, the enigmatic Joe Pike, are hip-deep in a deadly situation as they plummet into a world of South Central gangs, corrupt cops and conspiracies of silence. And before long, every cop in the LAPD is gunning for a pair of armed and dangerous killers - Cole and Pike.

Book 6

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.

Book 9

The Last Detective

by Robert Crais

Published 1 January 2003
Elvis Cole is once again coming to terms with his life as a PI on the streets of LA. He loves his girlfriend, Lucy Chenier, but his constant exposure to the Californian underclasses has stretched their relationship to the limit - especially when Cole's job brings danger too close to her beloved son. The young boy, Ben, is rapidly becoming the light in both their lives. Then one sunny afternoon, the demons from Elvis's past finally come to visit. Ben is snatched from Cole's secluded home. The kidnappers call. They don't want money. They only want retribution. But who from his past is capable of such a crime? The only clue is that the kidnappers mention the words 'five-two'. Five-two was his unit designation in Vietnam - a life he has avoided thinking about for over twenty years. Now Elvis must embark on a journey into his own past to try to protect his future. For it seems that this kidnapper is not only someone who knows him, but someone who owes him.

Book 10

The Forgotten Man

by Robert Crais

Published 1 January 2005
Six months after nearly losing everything to the men who kidnapped his girlfriend's ten-year-old son, Elvis Cole is slowly coming back to life - when he receives an ominous phone call from the LAPD. An unidentified body has been found in a seedy Los Angeles motel room and Elvis is called to the scene. Finally, Elvis is told that before the man died, he said he was Elvis's father. Cole turns to the one person who can help him navigate the minefield of his past - his longtime partner, Joe Pike. As the two men launch into an investigation into the dead man's background, Elvis struggles with wanting to believe he's found his father at last - and allowing his suspicions to hold him back. With each clue they uncover, a troubling picture emerges about the man who may have been Elvis's father. As Elvis and Joe approach the true identity of the dead man, they unwittingly walk straight into a hornet's nest.

Book 13

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.

Book 14

The Sentry

by Robert Crais

Published 1 January 2011
Dru Rayne and her uncle are Louisiana refugees who relocated to Los Angeles after Hurricane Katrina. Now, five years after the storm, their struggling restaurant faces a different danger. When Joe Pike witnesses Dru's uncle beaten by a neighbourhood gang intent on extorting protection money, he offers his own brand of protection. But neither Dru nor her uncle want his help - and neither do the federal agents mysteriously watching their store -- agents who seem more than willing to let the gang have their way. But Pike is falling for Dru, and won't back away whether she wants his help or not. As the violence escalates, the gang targets Pike, who, with Elvis Cole's help, learns that Dru and her uncle are not who they seem. It soon emerges that everything Pike thought he knew about them, their relationship to the gang, and the reasons they fled New Orleans have been lies. Now, a vengeful and murderous force from their past is catching up with them, pitting Pike and Cole against the combined forces of South American crime lords, rogue federal agents, and contract assassins on the bloody hunt for twelve million dollars in missing stolen cash.

Book 15

Taken

by Robert Crais

Published 1 January 2012
When the police tell a wealthy industrialist that her missing son has faked his own kidnapping, she hires Elvis Cole and Joe Pike-and Cole soon determines that it was no fake. The boy and his secret girlfriend have been taken, and are now lost in the gray and changing world of the professional border kidnappers who prey not only on innocent victims but also on one another-buying, selling, and stealing victims like commodities. Fortunately, the kidnappers don't yet know who the boy is, but when Cole goes undercover to try to buy the two hostages back, he himself is taken and disappears. Now it is up to Pike to retrace Cole's steps, burning through the hard and murderous world of human traffickers ... before it is too late.

Book 17

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"--

Book 18

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

Book 19

Racing the Light

by Robert Crais

Published 1 November 2022
*On Reader's Digest's list of "30 new books we can't wait to read in 2022"*

Private investigator Elvis Cole and his enigmatic partner, Joe Pike, are back on the case in this brilliant new thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Robert Crais.


        Adele Schumacher isn't a typical worried mom. When she hires Elvis to find her missing son, a controversial podcaster named Josh Shoe, she brings a bag filled with cash, bizarre tales of government conspiracies, and a squad of professional bodyguards. Finding Josh should be simple, but Elvis quickly learns he isn't alone in the hunt—a deadly team of mysterious strangers are determined to find Josh and his adult film star girlfriend first.
        With dangerous secrets lurking behind every lead, Elvis needs his friend Joe Pike more than ever to uncover the truth about Josh, corrupt politicians, and the vicious business cartels rotting the heart of Los Angeles from within. And when Elvis's estranged girlfriend, Lucy Chenier, and her son, Ben, return, he learns just how much he has to lose...if he survives.
        Written with the heart, humor, and relentless suspense for which Crais is famous, Racing the Light delivers Elvis Cole's most dangerous case yet.

Book 20

Untitled Elvis/Pike Novel

by Robert Crais

Published 6 August 2024
Private investigator Elvis Cole and his enigmatic partner, Joe Pike, are back in this brilliant new thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Robert Crais.

Suspect

by Robert Crais

Published 1 January 2013
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series comes a thrilling novel featuring LAPD K-9 Officer Scott James and his German shepherd, Maggie.

Nine months ago, a shocking assault by unidentified men killed Scott James' partner, Stephanie, nearly killed him, and left him enraged, ashamed, and ready to explode. He is unfit for duty—until he meets his new partner.

Maggie is not doing so well, either. A German shepherd who survived two tours in Afghanistan sniffing explosives before losing her handler, her PTSD is as bad as Scott’s.

They are each other’s last chance. And they’re about to investigate the one case no one wants them to touch: identifying the men who murdered Stephanie. But what they find could ultimately break them both.

One of Booklist's 10 Best Crime Fiction Books of the Year

The Promise

by Robert Crais

Published 4 November 2015
When Elvis Cole is hired to locate a woman who may have disappeared with a stranger she met online, it seems like an ordinary case -- until Elvis learns the missing woman worked for a defense contractor and was being blackmailed to supply explosives components for a person or persons unknown. Meanwhile, LAPD officer Scott James and his patrol dog, Maggie, enter an abandoned building to locate an armed and dangerous thief, only to discover far more than they expected: The fugitive is dead, the building is filled with explosives, and Scott and Maggie are assaulted by a hidden man who escapes in the chaos, all as a bloodied Joe Pike watches from the shadows. Soon, Scott and Maggie find themselves targeted by that man, and, as their case intertwines with Elvis and Joe's, joining forces to follow the trail of the missing woman as well. From inner-city drug traffickers to a shadowy group of Afghan war veterans with ties to a terrorist cell, the people they encounter on that trail add up to ever-increasing odds, and soon the four of them are fighting to find the woman not only before she is killed but before the same fate happens to one of them.