gon8go's review against another edition
4.0
Seems like robert Crais was starting to mature as a writer by the time he got to this one. I won’t say it’s realistic but it’s missing the 80s macheesmo gold that the first book had. Still entertaining, the movie director is such a dick you’ll wish you could punch him yourself.
scott_a_miller's review against another edition
4.0
This was probably the best Cole and Pike book yet. Good all around story. Excellent series and characters.
joetee's review against another edition
5.0
There’s a reason why people recommend starting the Elvis cole series with this book. It’s really good. It’s textbook Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. New York Mafia, Hollywood starlets, and small town USA collide for a great story.
ncrabb's review against another edition
3.0
When she was 18, the woman was Karen Nelson, newly married to a guy who wanted to make it big in pictures and didn’t particularly want her or her as-yet-unborn son. He was Peter Alan Nelson—a name that ultimately came to mean something in the world of movie directing. But when they were young, he just wanted out of the relationship.
Accordingly, she moved east, taking the child with her and erasing all evidence of her connection to Nelsen. Flash forward 12 years: Nelson is now a hotshot Hollywood director whose petulance and immaturity is legendary. These days, he always gets what he wants, and what he wants right now is a relationship with his ex-wife and the son he never met. But first he must find them. That’s where Elvis Cole comes in. Cole, as many of you know, is Robert Crais’s Vietnam vet turned private detective. He’s a decent thoughtful guy, and his character is complex enough that I enjoy my occasional forays into his life. It’s been years since I read one of these Elvis Cole books, and it was good to read this one.
While she doesn’t want to be found, Karen is easily enough tracked down by Cole. Now he has to figure out why she so desperately wants her anonymity. What he discovers is sad indeed. Desperate for money when she first came to the small Connecticut town where Cole finds her, Karen began laundering money for a New York mob boss. But she desperately wants out, and she sees Elvis Cole as her ticket out—eventually.
This is a fast-paced thriller that will keep you reading. Elvis has to grapple with mob influence wherever he goes while solving this case, and as you might expect, his life is in danger more than once.
There are no sexual descriptions here, but the profanity flies almost without restraint. The final wind-up scene occurs in, of all places, an untended pumpkin field! Who says Crais doesn’t have a great imagination? Not me, and neither will you if you decide to read this.
Accordingly, she moved east, taking the child with her and erasing all evidence of her connection to Nelsen. Flash forward 12 years: Nelson is now a hotshot Hollywood director whose petulance and immaturity is legendary. These days, he always gets what he wants, and what he wants right now is a relationship with his ex-wife and the son he never met. But first he must find them. That’s where Elvis Cole comes in. Cole, as many of you know, is Robert Crais’s Vietnam vet turned private detective. He’s a decent thoughtful guy, and his character is complex enough that I enjoy my occasional forays into his life. It’s been years since I read one of these Elvis Cole books, and it was good to read this one.
While she doesn’t want to be found, Karen is easily enough tracked down by Cole. Now he has to figure out why she so desperately wants her anonymity. What he discovers is sad indeed. Desperate for money when she first came to the small Connecticut town where Cole finds her, Karen began laundering money for a New York mob boss. But she desperately wants out, and she sees Elvis Cole as her ticket out—eventually.
This is a fast-paced thriller that will keep you reading. Elvis has to grapple with mob influence wherever he goes while solving this case, and as you might expect, his life is in danger more than once.
There are no sexual descriptions here, but the profanity flies almost without restraint. The final wind-up scene occurs in, of all places, an untended pumpkin field! Who says Crais doesn’t have a great imagination? Not me, and neither will you if you decide to read this.
terraformer's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Classic Crais. Read in one day as per....
plantbirdwoman's review against another edition
3.0
The World's Greatest Detective, Elvis Cole, gets hired by the world's third most famous movie director, Peter Alan Nelson, to locate his ex-wife and son whom he lost contact with when the son was just a baby more than ten years ago. Nelson is a world-class narcissist that the movie studios just can't say no to, because he makes so much money for them with his adventure films. He always travels with an entourage and every sentence, every thought begins and ends with "I."
Finding the ex-wife and son proves to be easy enough for the World's Greatest Detective, even though she has changed her name and tried to obliterate any trace of her relationship with Nelson. She's living in a small town in Connecticut where she has forged a good life for herself and her son. She's the manager of the local bank and a realtor. Unfortunately, her position at the bank has put her in the clutches of a local gangster and mafia-type, who is forcing her to help launder his ill-gotten gains. She is caught and can't get free.
When he talks to her, Elvis learns that she doesn't want any part of her egotistical ex-husband or his money. She has never told her son who his father is. What she does want is to get free of the mafia and to be able to continue to live the quiet, normal life of a small town businesswoman and mother. The World's Greatest Detective offers to help her make that happen.
But in order to accomplish that, of course, Elvis has to call in the big guns - i.e, his partner, Joe Pike. Once Pike is in town, they formulate a plan to try to dislodge that unmovable object, the mafia. Then, Peter Alan Nelson shows up and throws a monkey wrench into the works.
This was the third in Robert Crais' Elvis Cole series and it seems to be a bit of a turning point. The first two books featured Elvis making one wisecrack after another. His response to any and every situation was the sarcastic retort. This one showed Elvis being somewhat more serious. The humor was still evident but it was toned down a bit. That was an improvement, in my opinion. Snark is perfectly fine in small doses, but a little goes a long way, especially when the character is dealing with life or death situations.
The story takes several twists and turns before building toward the final shootout which seems to be
the trademark of a Crais thriller. I lost track of the body count, but all except one were bad guys - mostly very bad guys - and the reader is not unhappy to see them go.
These stories have been compared, both favorably and unfavorably, to Robert B. Parker's Spenser series. They also remind me somewhat of Lee Child's Reacher series. Elvis isn't quite the lone rolling stone that Reacher is, but their military backgrounds and personalities have similarities.
Elvis Cole and Joe Pike are an interesting duo, always on the side of the angels. I find it fascinating that no matter how many bad guys they whack, they never get arrested or asked too many embarrassing questions about the carnage. I guess the angels must be on their side, too.
Finding the ex-wife and son proves to be easy enough for the World's Greatest Detective, even though she has changed her name and tried to obliterate any trace of her relationship with Nelson. She's living in a small town in Connecticut where she has forged a good life for herself and her son. She's the manager of the local bank and a realtor. Unfortunately, her position at the bank has put her in the clutches of a local gangster and mafia-type, who is forcing her to help launder his ill-gotten gains. She is caught and can't get free.
When he talks to her, Elvis learns that she doesn't want any part of her egotistical ex-husband or his money. She has never told her son who his father is. What she does want is to get free of the mafia and to be able to continue to live the quiet, normal life of a small town businesswoman and mother. The World's Greatest Detective offers to help her make that happen.
But in order to accomplish that, of course, Elvis has to call in the big guns - i.e, his partner, Joe Pike. Once Pike is in town, they formulate a plan to try to dislodge that unmovable object, the mafia. Then, Peter Alan Nelson shows up and throws a monkey wrench into the works.
This was the third in Robert Crais' Elvis Cole series and it seems to be a bit of a turning point. The first two books featured Elvis making one wisecrack after another. His response to any and every situation was the sarcastic retort. This one showed Elvis being somewhat more serious. The humor was still evident but it was toned down a bit. That was an improvement, in my opinion. Snark is perfectly fine in small doses, but a little goes a long way, especially when the character is dealing with life or death situations.
The story takes several twists and turns before building toward the final shootout which seems to be
the trademark of a Crais thriller. I lost track of the body count, but all except one were bad guys - mostly very bad guys - and the reader is not unhappy to see them go.
These stories have been compared, both favorably and unfavorably, to Robert B. Parker's Spenser series. They also remind me somewhat of Lee Child's Reacher series. Elvis isn't quite the lone rolling stone that Reacher is, but their military backgrounds and personalities have similarities.
Elvis Cole and Joe Pike are an interesting duo, always on the side of the angels. I find it fascinating that no matter how many bad guys they whack, they never get arrested or asked too many embarrassing questions about the carnage. I guess the angels must be on their side, too.
papi's review against another edition
3.0
Vintage Robert Crais...in the style of Robert B. Parker, but not as ponderous, a little more light-hearted.
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