Download or read book The Watchman written by Robert Crais and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-02-27 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At last, the enigmatic partner of Elvis Cole (The Two Minute Rule) takes center stage in this pulse-racing thriller. When Joe Pike is charged with safeguarding a wealthy heiress, he discovers protecting the sole witness to a crime is nothing compared to protecting an LA party girl from her own self-destruction… Larkin Conner Barkley lives like the City of Angels is hers for the taking. Young and staggeringly rich, she speeds through the city during its loneliest hours, blowing through red after red in her Aston Martin as if running for her life. Then suddenly she sees another car’s metal-on-metal explosion of a terrible accident and, dazed, finds herself the single witness in a secret federal investigation. For maybe the first time in her life, Larkin wants to do the right thing. But in doing so she becomes the target for a relentless team of killers. And when the US Marshals and the finest security money can buy can’t protect her, Larkin’s wealthy family turns to the one man money can't buy―Joe Pike. Pike lives a world away from the palaces of Beverly Hills. He’s an ex-cop, ex-Marine, ex-mercenary who owes a bad man a favor, and that favor is to keep the uncontrollable Larkin alive. Pike commits to protecting the girl, but it becomes clear someone in their circle is selling them out. Taking matters into his own hands, Joe drops off the gird with Larkin and follows his own survival rules: strike fast, hit hard, hunt down the hunters. With the help of private investigator Elvis Cole, Pike uncovers a web of lies and betrayals, and the stunning revelation that even the cops are not who they seem. As the body count rises, Pike’s biggest threat might come from the girl herself, a lost soul in the City of Angels, determined to destroy herself unless Joe Pike can teach her the value of life...and love.

Download or read book The Monkey s Raincoat written by Robert Crais and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Elvis Cole provides more fun for the reader than any L.A. private eye to come along in years.”—Joseph Wambaugh WINNER OF THE ANTHONY AND MACAVITY AWARDS FOR BEST NOVEL • NOMINATED FOR THE EDGAR AND SHAMUS AWARDS FOR BEST NOVEL Meet Elvis Cole, L.A. Private Eye. . . . He quotes Jiminy Cricket and carries a .38. He’s a literate, wisecracking Vietnam vet who is determined to never grow up. When quiet Ellen Lang enters Elvis Cole’s Disney-Deco office, she’s lost something very valuable—her husband and her young son. The case seems simple enough, but Elvis isn’t thrilled. Neither is his enigmatic partner and firepower, Joe Pike. Their search down the seamy side of Hollywood’s studio lots and sculptured lawns soon leads them deep into a nasty netherworld of drugs, sex—and murder. Now the case is getting interesting, but it’s also turned ugly. Because everybody, from cops to starlets to crooks, has declared war on Ellen and Elvis. For Ellen, it isn’t Funtown anymore. For Elvis, it’s just a living . . . He hopes. Praise for The Monkey's Raincoat “Outstanding characters, tight plot, and scintillating prose style. . . . This fast-paced story speeds Elvis Cole to a chilling, heart-stopping ending.”—Mystery Scene “Is Bob Crais good? Put it this way: if they're taking you out to put you against the firing squad wall, and you want to enjoy your last moments on earth, pass on the last cigarette and ask for an Elvis Cole novel.”—Harlan Ellison “Far and away the most satisfying private eye novel in years. Grab this one—it's a winner!”—Lawrence Block “The best private eye novel of the year . . . lots of action; bright, crisp dialogue; and sharply drawn characters.”—The Denver Post “Robert B. Parker has some competition on his hands. . . . Elvis Cole is an appealing character and Crais's style is fresh and funny.”—Sue Grafton “In Crais, a new star has appeared on the private eye scene—a dazzling first novel.”—Tony Hillerman

Download or read book Racing the Light written by Robert Crais and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2023-05-30 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book A Dangerous Man written by Robert Crais and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brilliant new crime novel from the beloved, bestselling, and award-winning master of the genre, A Dangerous Man centers on Joe Pike's most perilous case to date. Joe Pike didn't expect to rescue a woman that day. He went to the bank same as anyone goes to the bank, and returned to his Jeep. So when Isabel Roland, the lonely young teller who helped him, steps out of the bank on her way to lunch, Joe is on hand when two men abduct her. Joe chases them down, and the two men are arrested. But instead of putting the drama to rest, the arrests are only the beginning of the trouble for Joe and Izzy. After posting bail, the two abductors are murdered and Izzy disappears. Pike calls on his friend, Elvis Cole, to help learn the truth. What Elvis uncovers is a twisted family story that involves corporate whistleblowing, huge amounts of cash, the Witness Relocation Program, and a long line of lies. But what of all that did Izzy know? Is she a perpetrator or a victim? And how far will Joe go to find out?

Download or read book The Wanted written by Robert Crais and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-12-28 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Just keeps getting better and better' Evening Standard As addictive as Lee Child and as explosive as Michael Connelly – THE WANTED is the new thriller from Robert Crais, and a NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ‘Another rewarding page-turner by one of the most reliable storytellers in modern crime fiction’ Daily Mail Seventeen-year-old Tyson seems a normal teenager: socially awkward, obsessed with video games and always hungry. But his mother has a feeling that her sweet, nerdy son is hiding something … and she’s just found a $40,000 Rolex watch under his bed. Suddenly very frightened that Tyson is involved in something bad, she gets in touch with private investigator Elvis Cole and asks him to do some digging. The information that Cole uncovers surprises everyone. Tyson spooks and runs. And then people start dying ... ‘Cleverly plotted, stylishly written’ Washington Post ‘[Crais] expertly delivers his customary modern-day riff on the 1940s hardboiled idiom’ Guardian

Download or read book The Forgotten Man written by Robert Crais and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2005-02-15 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[A] riveting novel with a vivid sense of place . . . Anyone who enjoys a well-written, fast-paced, noirish thriller with a great aha! moment shouldn’t miss The Forgotten Man.”—The Boston Globe In an alleyway in Los Angeles, an old man, clutching faded newspaper clippings and gasping his last words to a cop, lies dying of a gunshot wound. The victim claims to be P.I. Elvis Cole’s long-lost father—a stranger who has always haunted his son. As a teenager, Cole searched desperately for his father. As a man, he faces the frightening possibility that this murder victim was himself a killer. Caught in limbo between a broken love affair and way too much publicity over his last case, Cole at first resists getting involved with this new case. Then it consumes him. Now a stranger’s terrifying secrets—and a hunt for his killer—give Cole a frightening glimpse into his own past. And he can’t tell if it’s forgiveness or a bullet that’s coming next. . . . “Robert Crais is a crime writer of incredible talent—his novels are not only suspenseful and deeply atmospheric but very hard to put down.”—Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code “A brutal but exhilarating climax.”—USA Today

Download or read book The Last Detective written by Robert Crais and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2003-02-18 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With his acclaimed bestsellers, Hostage and Demolition Angel, Robert Crais drew raves for his unstoppable pacing, edgy characterizations, and cinematic prose. Now, Crais returns to his signature character, Los Angeles private investigator Elvis Cole, in a masterful page-turner that probes the meaning of family and the burdens of the past. Elvis Cole is back... Elvis Cole's relationship with attorney Lucy Chenier is strained. When she moved from Louisiana to join Elvis in Los Angeles, she never dreamed that violence would so easily touch her life—but then the unthinkable happens. While Lucy is away on business and her ten-year-old son, Ben, is staying with Elvis, Ben disappears without a trace. Desperate to believe that the boy has run away, evidence soon mounts to suggest a much darker scenario. Joining forces with his enigmatic partner, Joe Pike, Elvis frantically searches for Ben with the help of LAPD Detective Carol Starkey, as Lucy's wealthy, oil-industry ex-husband attempts to wrest control of the investigation. Amid the maelstrom of personal conflicts, Elvis and Joe are forced to consider a more troubling lead—one indicating that Ben's disappearance is connected to a terrible, long-held secret from Elvis Cole's past. Venturing deep inside a complex psyche, Crais explores Elvis's need for family—the military that embraced him during a troubled adolescence, his rock-solid partnership with Pike, and his floundering relationship with Lucy—as they race the clock in their search for Ben. The Last Detective is Robert Crais' richest, most intense tale of suspense yet.

Download or read book Suspect written by Robert Crais and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-01-22 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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

Download or read book Sunset Express written by Robert Crais and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2014-02-18 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When a wealthy entrepreneur is accused of murder in Los Angeles, wisecracking private eye Elvis Cole is hired to prove that the evidence was corrupted and becomes suspicious about the defense attorney's motivations. Prominent restaurateur Teddy Martin is facing charges in his wife's brutal murder. But he's not going down without spending a bundle of cash on his defense. So his hotshot attorney hires P.I. Elvis Cole to find proof that Detective Angela Rossi tampered with the evidence. Detective Rossi needs a way back to the fast track after falling hard during an internal investigation five years ago. But Cole needs to know if she's desperate enough to falsify the case against Martin in order to secure her own position. As Cole and his partner Joe Pike work their way through a tangle of witnesses and an even greater tangle of media, they begin to suspect that it's not the police who are behind the setup. The sixth book in the Elvis Cole series, Sunset Express is marked by Robert Crais's dark humor and edge-of-your-seat suspense.

Download or read book Elvis Cole and Joe Pike written by Robert Crais and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2022-04-26 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The #1 New York Times–bestselling author invites you into a conversation with his two most popular characters—one well-liked and the other, not so much. In this short piece, Robert Crais brings us into the world of quirky and likable Los Angeles PI Elvis Cole and his friend Joe Pike, a survivor and an enigmatic man of few words. The discussion revolves around the choices they’ve made, the obstacles they’ve overcome, the things that drive them to be who they are, and the hope that keeps them persevering through the darkness. It’s a fresh look at this “superb series” (Kirkus Reviews), and a fascinating visit with its “whip-smart” author (Booklist), who has also written for such television classics as Cagney and Lacey and Hill Street Blues. “Cole and Pike make a terrific pair.” —Seattle Times

Download or read book Chasing Darkness written by Robert Crais and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2010-04-08 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Crais is on top form in CHASING DARKNESS. It's a first-rate puzzle, with many twists and nothing quite as it seems' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Elvis Cole continues to be up there with the best of them ... the climax and denouement are terrific' THE TIMES Three years ago Elvis Cole's actions may have freed a killer. Now three more young women are dead... It is fire season, and the hills of Los Angeles are burning. As the Police and Fire Departments evacuate the inhabitants, they find something no one expected: the days-old corpse of a middle-aged recluse who apparently committed suicide. Then comes an even more horrible discovery. 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, and could only have been taken by the killer. 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' there is a link. Only one suspect had been charged in any of those cases but, with evidence supplied by Elvis Cole, in the end he walked free. That suspect was the suicide now discovered in the fire... and now the police are out for Cole...

Download or read book The First Rule written by Robert Crais and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-01-12 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joe Pike and his partner Elvis Cole must solve the murder of an old friend and his entire family in this gripping thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Robert Crais. When Frank Meyer and his family are executed during a home invasion, the police begin investigating the secret life they're sure Meyer had. Joe Pike's on a hunt of his own: to clear his friend's name, and to punish the people who murdered him. What starts out as a simple trail gets twisted fast by old grudges, double crosses, blood vengeance, and a crime so terrible even Pike and his partner Elvis Cole have no way to measure it.

Download or read book Demolition Angel written by Robert Crais and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2020-05-26 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Crais is at the top of his game, and Demolition Angel delivers the goods. With a bang. . . . It’s Silence of the Lambs meets Speed. . . . Crais knows how to press all the right buttons in keeping the story line taut and the action, well, explosive.”—San Francisco Chronicle Carol Starkey is struggling to pick up the pieces of her former life as L.A.’s finest bomb squad technician. Fueled with liberal doses of alcohol and Tagamet, she’s doing time as a Detective-2 with LAPD’s Criminal Conspiracy Section. Three years have passed since the event that still haunts her: a detonation that killed her partner and lover, scarred her body and soul, and ended her career as a bomb tech. When a seemingly innocuous bomb call explodes into a charred murder scene, Carol catches the case and embarks on an investigation of a series of explosions that reveal chilling intentions. The bombs are designed expressly to kill bomb technicians. Now, as the one tech who survived the deadliest of blasts, Carol is in for the most perilous fight of her life. . . . Praise for Demolition Angel “Terrific . . . explosive . . . [a] high powered thrill ride.”—The Wall Street Journal “Gripping . . . Crais piles on plot twists . . . gathering the separate threads at the end and igniting them like a string of fireworks.”—People “A powerful, self-contained novel of suspense that has the compactness, velocity, and effectiveness of a well-aimed bullet . . . This is a thriller that works on every level, a pivotal work from a crime novelist operating at the top of his game.”—Los Angeles Times “Fascinating and frighteningly believable . . . Starkey is one of the toughest characters to grace the crowded field of thriller books in a long time.”—USA Today “A flammable techno-thriller with the kind of force that knocks out windows.”—The New York Times Book Review "Packs an explosive punch. Though the pace of the book moves like a quick-burning fuse, Crais still takes the time in Demolition Angel to sketch out some memorable characters: Starkey, haunted and hollow-eyed, covering up her pain with a Bogart-tough demeanor; and John Michael Fowles (aka Mr. Red), a sociopath who gets all sorts of information from the Internet without breaking a sweat. . . . Crais keeps things wound so tight that readers will be getting paper cuts in their rush to finish this one.”—The Denver Post

Download or read book Stalking the Angel written by Robert Crais and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2020-01-28 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meet Elvis Cole, L.A. private eye . . . he quotes Jiminy Cricket and carries a .38. He’s a literate, wisecreacking Vietnam vet who is determined never to grow up. The blonde who walked into Cole’s office was the bestlooking woman he’d seen in weeks. The only thing that kept her from rating a perfect “10” was the briefcase on one arm and the uptight hotel magnate on the other. Bradley Warren had lost something very valuable—something that belonged to someone else: a rare thirteenth-century Japanese manuscript called the Hagakure. Just about all Cole knew about Japanese culture he’d learned from reading Shogun, but he knew a lot about crooks—and what he didn’t know his sociopathic sidekick, Joe Pike, did. Together their search begins in L.A.’s Little Tokyo and the nest of notorious Japanese mafia, the yakuza, and leads to a white-knuckled adventure filled with madness, murder, sexual obsession, and a stunning double-whammy ending. For Elvis Cole, it’s just another day’s work. Praise for Stalking the Angel “Stalking the Angel is a righteous California book: intelligent, perceptive, hard, clean.”—James Ellroy “Out on the West Coast, where private eyes thrive like avocado trees, Robert Crais has created an interesting and amusing hero in Elvis Cole.”—The Wall Street Journal “Devotees of the rock ‘em, sock ‘em school should find [Stalking the Angel] tasty.”—The San Diego Union

Download or read book The Sentry written by Robert Crais and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2012-01-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Private investigators Joe Pike and Elvis Cole get double-crossed in this twisty, gripping New York Times bestseller that will have readers on the edge of their seats. When gangbangers shake down the modest owner of a Los Angeles eatery, Joe Pike intervenes. For all intents and purposes, Pike saved Wilson Smith's life. But for reasons of their own, Smith and his lovely niece, Dru, are curiously resentful. It's only when Pike's feelings for the woman deepen that he and his partner, Elvis Cole, discover that Dru and her uncle are not at all who they seem, and everything Pike has learned about them is a lie. But it's much more than a deception. It's a trap. And with every new twist it's proving to be a killer.

Download or read book Lullaby Town written by Robert Crais and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Quick, cutting wit . . . a keen ear.”—The New York Times Book Review Hollywood’s newest wunderkind is Peter Alan Nelsen, the brilliant, erratic director known as the King of Adventure. His films make billions, but his manners make enemies. What the boy king wants, he gets, and what Nelsen wants is for Elvis to comb the country for the wife and infant child the film-school flunkout dumped en route to becoming the third-biggest filmmaker in America. It’s the kind of case Cole can handle in his sleep—until it turns out to be a nightmare. For when Cole finds Nelsen’s ex-wife in a small Connecticut town, she’s nothing like he expects. She has some unwanted—and very nasty—mob connections, which means Elvis could be opening an East Coast branch of his P.I. office...at the bottom of the Hudson River. “Elvis [Cole] is the greatest . . . [ he is] perhaps the best detective to come along since Travis McGee.”—San Diego Tribune “[Crais is] far better at the private-eye-novel racket than most writers.”—Newsweek

Download or read book The Promise written by Robert Crais and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2015-11-10 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'One of the most entertaining thrillers of the year... THE PROMISE is filled with suspense, surprises and ably-drawn characters. ... putting him in the company of such greats as James Lee Burke, Sue Grafton, Stephen King and Elmore Leonard. THE PROMISE shows once again why he belongs there' WASHINGTON POST Loyalty, commitment, the fight against injustice - these are the things that have always driven Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. If they make a promise, they keep it. Even if it could get them killed. 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 defence contractor and was being blackmailed to supply explosives components for a person or persons unknown. Meanwhile, in another part of the city, 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. Soon, Scott and Maggie find themselves targeted and, as their case intertwines with Elvis and Joe's, join 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.