Stalking the angel

Along with Robert Campbell's Whistler, the detective of choice these days in Los Angeles is Elvis Cole, whose first adventure, The Monkey's Raincoat [BKL Jl 87], won an Edgar for best paperback original. Now Cole moves to hardcover, and, fortunately, nothing has changed: his mouth is still smart, his idiosyncratic streak still runs deep, and his taste for ethnic food remains insatiable. It's a good thing, too, because rummaging around L.A.'s Japantown in search of a missing copy of the Hagakure--a sort of how-to book on becoming a samurai--gives him plenty of opportunity to sample octopus sushi. The purloined manuscript soon involves Elvis in a Yakuza power struggle, multiple murders, and the fate of a runaway teenager. Like Whistler, Elvis finds himself up against a world so tainted with evil that attempts to separate right from wrong usually only make things worse. We admire Elvis' bullheaded determination to wear a white hat, but we shudder at the chaos that can result from futile gestures. Out of such ambivalence the best mysteries are born. --Bill Ott

Undoubtedly prompted by the success of recent Crais bestsellers (Demolition Angel; Hostage), his audio publishers have gone back to the second book in his increasingly popular Elvis Cole series, originally published in 1989, for a lively and colorful outing that manages to capture much of the author's early innocence and freshness. Stuart brings the quirky Cole to life quickly, combining his strengths (tenacity, incorruptibility, frequent flashes of humor) with his oddities (his love of the Disney artifacts that litter his office) to make a credible whole person. Other characters emerge with equal vocal skill: the enigmatic Joe Pike, Cole's muscular sidekick; a glowering Los Angeles property developer, his alcohol-impaired wife and their fragile adolescent daughter, who winds up being kidnapped by Japanese gangsters. Cole, hired to find a rare Japanese manuscript, discovers that the teenager's fate is very important to him personally forging a bond between the detective and children in peril that has become a hallmark of the series. For those who have been fans of Elvis since book one, The Monkey's Raincoat, it's good to have his early adventures around to listen to. For more recent Crais converts, this could prove an eye-opening revelation of how Cole got to be who he is. Based on the Bantam mass market. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Hard-nosed private detective Elvis Cole returns ( The Monkey's Raincoat ) to do battle for a teenaged girl kidnapped as part of a scheme involving the theft of a priceless Japanese manuscript outlining samurai behavior. While Cole's wry sarcasm and attempts at ``cute'' often fall flat, his humanity and integrity carry him through an apparently convoluted but mostly transparent plot. Los Angeles settings, Japanese heavies, wild action, and businesslike prose, however, make this better than many. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Hard-nosed private detective Elvis Cole returns ( The Monkey's Raincoat ) to do battle for a teenaged girl kidnapped as part of a scheme involving the theft of a priceless Japanese manuscript outlining samurai behavior. While Cole's wry sarcasm and attempts at ``cute'' often fall flat, his humanity and integrity carry him through an apparently convoluted but mostly transparent plot. Los Angeles settings, Japanese heavies, wild action, and businesslike prose, however, make this better than many. Copyright 1989 Cahners Business Information.