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Elvis Cole and Joe Pike #10
The Forgotten Man (Elvis Cole/Joe Pike Series) by Robert Crais
Elvis Cole is back...
With his acclaimed bestsellers, Hostage (a New York Times Notable Book) and Demolition Angel, Robert Crais drew raves for his unstoppable pacing, edgy characterizations, and cinematic prose. Now, in The Last Detective, 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.
Los Angeles, 3:58 A.M.: Elvis Cole receives the phone call he's been waiting for since childhood. Responding to a gunshot, the LAPD has found an injured man in an alleyway. He has told the officer on the scene that he is looking for his son, Elvis Cole. Minutes later, the man is dead.
Haunted throughout his life by a lack of knowledge about his father, Elvis turns to the one person who can help him navigate the minefield of his past - his longtime partner and confidant, Joe Pike. Together with hard-edged LAPD detective Carol Starkey (who is harboring her own growing feelings for Cole), they launch a feverish search for the dead man's identity. Elvis, meanwhile, struggles between wanting to believe he's found his father at last and allowing his suspicions to hold him back. With each long-buried clue they unearth, a frightening picture begins to emerge about who the dead man might have been - and the terrible secret he's been guarding.
At the same time, Elvis has no way of knowing he has awakened a sleeping monster. The further he goes in his investigation, the closer he draws to a merciless killer who is violently connected to the unidentified man's past. This psychopath believes Cole is hunting him, and he goes on the attack to find Elvis before Elvis can find him.
With his acclaimed bestsellers, Hostage (a New York Times Notable Book) and Demolition Angel, Robert Crais drew raves for his unstoppable pacing, edgy characterizations, and cinematic prose. Now, in The Last Detective, 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.
Los Angeles, 3:58 A.M.: Elvis Cole receives the phone call he's been waiting for since childhood. Responding to a gunshot, the LAPD has found an injured man in an alleyway. He has told the officer on the scene that he is looking for his son, Elvis Cole. Minutes later, the man is dead.
Haunted throughout his life by a lack of knowledge about his father, Elvis turns to the one person who can help him navigate the minefield of his past - his longtime partner and confidant, Joe Pike. Together with hard-edged LAPD detective Carol Starkey (who is harboring her own growing feelings for Cole), they launch a feverish search for the dead man's identity. Elvis, meanwhile, struggles between wanting to believe he's found his father at last and allowing his suspicions to hold him back. With each long-buried clue they unearth, a frightening picture begins to emerge about who the dead man might have been - and the terrible secret he's been guarding.
At the same time, Elvis has no way of knowing he has awakened a sleeping monster. The further he goes in his investigation, the closer he draws to a merciless killer who is violently connected to the unidentified man's past. This psychopath believes Cole is hunting him, and he goes on the attack to find Elvis before Elvis can find him.
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First published February 15, 2005
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About the author
Robert Crais
180 books4,570 followers Robert Crais is the author of the best-selling Elvis Cole novels. A native of Louisiana, he grew up on the banks of the Mississippi River in a blue collar family of oil refinery workers and police officers. He purchased a secondhand paperback of Raymond Chandler’s The Little Sister when he was fifteen, which inspired his lifelong love of writing, Los Angeles, and the literature of crime fiction. Other literary influences include Dashiell Hammett, Ernest Hemingway, Robert B. Parker, and John Steinbeck.
After years of amateur film-making and writing short fiction, he journeyed to Hollywood in 1976 where he quickly found work writing scripts for such major television series as Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, and Miami Vice, as well as numerous series pilots and Movies-of-the-Week for the major networks. He received an Emmy nomination for his work on Hill Street Blues, but is most proud of his 4-hour NBC miniseries, Cross of Fire, which the New York Times declared: "A searing and powerful documentation of the Ku Klux Klan’s rise to national prominence in the 20s."
In the mid-eighties, feeling constrained by the collaborative working requirements of Hollywood, Crais resigned from a lucrative position as a contract writer and television producer in order to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a novelist. His first efforts proved unsuccessful, but upon the death of his father in 1985, Crais was inspired to create Elvis Cole, using elements of his own life as the basis of the story. The resulting novel, The Monkey’s Raincoat, won the Anthony and Macavity Awards and was nominated for the Edgar Award. It has since been selected as one of the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.
Crais conceived of the novel as a stand-alone, but realized that—in Elvis Cole—he had created an ideal and powerful character through which to comment upon his life and times. (See the WORKS section for additional titles.) Elvis Cole’s readership and fan base grew with each new book, then skyrocketed in 1999 upon the publication of L. A. Requiem, which was a New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller and forever changed the way Crais conceived of and structured his novels. In this new way of telling his stories, Crais combined the classic ‘first person’ narrative of the American detective novel with flashbacks, multiple story lines, multiple points-of-view, and literary elements to better illuminate his themes. Larger and deeper in scope, Publishers Weekly wrote of L. A. Requiem, "Crais has stretched himself the way another Southern California writer—Ross Macdonald—always tried to do, to write a mystery novel with a solid literary base." Booklist added, "This is an extraordinary crime novel that should not be pigeonholed by genre. The best books always land outside preset boundaries. A wonderful experience."
Crais followed with his first non-series novel, Demolition Angel, which was published in 2000 and featured former Los Angeles Police Department Bomb Technician Carol Starkey. Starkey has since become a leading character in the Elvis Cole series. In 2001, Crais published his second non-series novel, Hostage, which was named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times and was a world-wide bestseller. Additionally, the editors of Amazon.com selected Hostage as the #1 thriller of the year. A film adaptation of Hostage was released in 2005, starring Bruce Willis as ex-LAPD SWAT negotiator Jeff Talley.
Elvis Cole returned in 2003 with the publication of The Last Detective, followed by the tenth Elvis Cole novel, The Forgotten Man, in 2005. Both novels explore with increasing depth the natures and characters of Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. RC’s third stand-alone novel, The Two Minute Rule, was published in 2006. The eleventh entry in the Elvis Cole series, The Watchman, will be published sometime in 2007.
After years of amateur film-making and writing short fiction, he journeyed to Hollywood in 1976 where he quickly found work writing scripts for such major television series as Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, and Miami Vice, as well as numerous series pilots and Movies-of-the-Week for the major networks. He received an Emmy nomination for his work on Hill Street Blues, but is most proud of his 4-hour NBC miniseries, Cross of Fire, which the New York Times declared: "A searing and powerful documentation of the Ku Klux Klan’s rise to national prominence in the 20s."
In the mid-eighties, feeling constrained by the collaborative working requirements of Hollywood, Crais resigned from a lucrative position as a contract writer and television producer in order to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a novelist. His first efforts proved unsuccessful, but upon the death of his father in 1985, Crais was inspired to create Elvis Cole, using elements of his own life as the basis of the story. The resulting novel, The Monkey’s Raincoat, won the Anthony and Macavity Awards and was nominated for the Edgar Award. It has since been selected as one of the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.
Crais conceived of the novel as a stand-alone, but realized that—in Elvis Cole—he had created an ideal and powerful character through which to comment upon his life and times. (See the WORKS section for additional titles.) Elvis Cole’s readership and fan base grew with each new book, then skyrocketed in 1999 upon the publication of L. A. Requiem, which was a New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller and forever changed the way Crais conceived of and structured his novels. In this new way of telling his stories, Crais combined the classic ‘first person’ narrative of the American detective novel with flashbacks, multiple story lines, multiple points-of-view, and literary elements to better illuminate his themes. Larger and deeper in scope, Publishers Weekly wrote of L. A. Requiem, "Crais has stretched himself the way another Southern California writer—Ross Macdonald—always tried to do, to write a mystery novel with a solid literary base." Booklist added, "This is an extraordinary crime novel that should not be pigeonholed by genre. The best books always land outside preset boundaries. A wonderful experience."
Crais followed with his first non-series novel, Demolition Angel, which was published in 2000 and featured former Los Angeles Police Department Bomb Technician Carol Starkey. Starkey has since become a leading character in the Elvis Cole series. In 2001, Crais published his second non-series novel, Hostage, which was named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times and was a world-wide bestseller. Additionally, the editors of Amazon.com selected Hostage as the #1 thriller of the year. A film adaptation of Hostage was released in 2005, starring Bruce Willis as ex-LAPD SWAT negotiator Jeff Talley.
Elvis Cole returned in 2003 with the publication of The Last Detective, followed by the tenth Elvis Cole novel, The Forgotten Man, in 2005. Both novels explore with increasing depth the natures and characters of Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. RC’s third stand-alone novel, The Two Minute Rule, was published in 2006. The eleventh entry in the Elvis Cole series, The Watchman, will be published sometime in 2007.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 644 reviews
December 24, 2017
Into every series, a little unevenness must fall. Besides the first two books in the Elvis Cole series, this was my least favorite. But that's mostly because it hit a couple of personal triggers: the perspective-from-the-killer-viewpoint and the angsty relationship.
In this one, Elvis is recovering from the events of The Last Detective, when his girlfriend's son Ben was kidnapped in a bizarre scheme. Girlfriend Lucy and Ben have gone back to Wherever, Bayou, and Elvis is spending his days in a blue funk, moping about and watching the Disney clock tick. His inaction comes to an end when a dying man declares Elvis to be his son. It's most likely not, but it's intriguing enough to pull Elvis into the case and down memory lane. One of the detectives on the case insists on keeping Elvis part of the official investigation (as contrasted with many of his other police interactions), and Elvis finds himself working again with Carol Starkey, detective and main contact from The Last Detective.
Narrative takes a complicated turn in this book. We learn a bit about Coles' younger years, but in a very piecemeal way. Interestingly, the reader gets the perspective of a younger boy rather than insight from a mature Cole. They are time flashbacks, and Elvis doesn't share much interpretation, leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions about his mother and grandfather. Narration is also offered from Carol Starkey and another detective, Wilson. Then Crais makes the error of including a murderer's viewpoint.
I generally assume that when an author brings in the perspective of a murderer in a series book, they're getting a little bit bored and relying on a pov-change to add tension. But quite honestly, it has the opposite effect for me. It's generally simply done, relying on tropes (sociopath killer or the mentally ill killer) over full characterization. Added into it is that I read these books for positive structure, the relatively clear-cut construction of personal ethics winning out over systemic and/or personal injustice. As far as I can tell, the three possible reasons for killers to be included at all are as a character study, to add tension, or to titillate with torture porn. I'm thankful that Crais stays away from the latter here, but other than that, it's a miss.
I don't usually scrutinize the plotting too closely in these books. As far as I'm concerned, it passes the first-sniff test. What I didn't appreciate is Cole's lingering despondency about Lucy and Lucy's push and pull with their relationship. I appreciate that Crais may want to humanize Cole and perhaps give readers another emotional hook, but the combination of Cole's issues surrounding a missing father and ex-girlfriend leaves both of us in an emotionally unpleasant place. If I wanted relationship drama and storm-crossed lovers with unrealistic expectations, I'd read YA.
In this one, Elvis is recovering from the events of The Last Detective, when his girlfriend's son Ben was kidnapped in a bizarre scheme. Girlfriend Lucy and Ben have gone back to Wherever, Bayou, and Elvis is spending his days in a blue funk, moping about and watching the Disney clock tick. His inaction comes to an end when a dying man declares Elvis to be his son. It's most likely not, but it's intriguing enough to pull Elvis into the case and down memory lane. One of the detectives on the case insists on keeping Elvis part of the official investigation (as contrasted with many of his other police interactions), and Elvis finds himself working again with Carol Starkey, detective and main contact from The Last Detective.
Narrative takes a complicated turn in this book. We learn a bit about Coles' younger years, but in a very piecemeal way. Interestingly, the reader gets the perspective of a younger boy rather than insight from a mature Cole. They are time flashbacks, and Elvis doesn't share much interpretation, leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions about his mother and grandfather. Narration is also offered from Carol Starkey and another detective, Wilson. Then Crais makes the error of including a murderer's viewpoint.
I generally assume that when an author brings in the perspective of a murderer in a series book, they're getting a little bit bored and relying on a pov-change to add tension. But quite honestly, it has the opposite effect for me. It's generally simply done, relying on tropes (sociopath killer or the mentally ill killer) over full characterization. Added into it is that I read these books for positive structure, the relatively clear-cut construction of personal ethics winning out over systemic and/or personal injustice. As far as I can tell, the three possible reasons for killers to be included at all are as a character study, to add tension, or to titillate with torture porn. I'm thankful that Crais stays away from the latter here, but other than that, it's a miss.
I don't usually scrutinize the plotting too closely in these books. As far as I'm concerned, it passes the first-sniff test. What I didn't appreciate is Cole's lingering despondency about Lucy and Lucy's push and pull with their relationship. I appreciate that Crais may want to humanize Cole and perhaps give readers another emotional hook, but the combination of Cole's issues surrounding a missing father and ex-girlfriend leaves both of us in an emotionally unpleasant place. If I wanted relationship drama and storm-crossed lovers with unrealistic expectations, I'd read YA.
November 11, 2012
An old man is gunned down in an alley and his last words were that he was looking for his son, Elvis Cole. Was the old man really the father Elvis never knew? That's what Elvis is trying to find out. But will he be able to live with what he finds?
Much like The Last Detective, Robert Crais digs into Elvis Cole's past with the Forgotten Man. In the wake of the events of The Last Detective, the possible appearance of Elvis' unknown father drags him out of his depression and sets him into motion. It makes for a great story. Crais had me flip-flopping on whether or not Faustina was Cole's father for a good portion of the book.
Like The Last Detective before it, The Forgotten Man deviates from the old formula of Cole and Pike stirring things up until the shootout at the end and spends more time exploring Cole's past. Cole has come a long way from being a Spenser ripoff.
The friendship of Cole and Pike has been fleshed out quite a bit more in the last couple books and I had to fight back some man tears at the end. While they aren't as in love as Spenser and Hawk are, I find their relationship much more believable than Cole and Lucy's. Speaking of Lucy, she's beginning to annoy me as much as Susan Silverman. Not to spoil anything but I wish she'd stop vagina-blocking Starkey and let her and Cole get together.
There is one thing in recent Elvis Cole books I'm not a fanatic about and that's the increasingly frequent changes in viewpoint from Elvis to one of the supporting cast. It's not bad and actually heightens the suspense sometimes but it makes it feel like I'm watching TV. Not necessarily bad but I'm not a huge fan.
That's about all I can say without giving away too much. Cole's a clever guy but not unbelievably so and I recommend his adventures, especially the later ones, to all crime and mystery fans.
Much like The Last Detective, Robert Crais digs into Elvis Cole's past with the Forgotten Man. In the wake of the events of The Last Detective, the possible appearance of Elvis' unknown father drags him out of his depression and sets him into motion. It makes for a great story. Crais had me flip-flopping on whether or not Faustina was Cole's father for a good portion of the book.
Like The Last Detective before it, The Forgotten Man deviates from the old formula of Cole and Pike stirring things up until the shootout at the end and spends more time exploring Cole's past. Cole has come a long way from being a Spenser ripoff.
The friendship of Cole and Pike has been fleshed out quite a bit more in the last couple books and I had to fight back some man tears at the end. While they aren't as in love as Spenser and Hawk are, I find their relationship much more believable than Cole and Lucy's. Speaking of Lucy, she's beginning to annoy me as much as Susan Silverman. Not to spoil anything but I wish she'd stop vagina-blocking Starkey and let her and Cole get together.
There is one thing in recent Elvis Cole books I'm not a fanatic about and that's the increasingly frequent changes in viewpoint from Elvis to one of the supporting cast. It's not bad and actually heightens the suspense sometimes but it makes it feel like I'm watching TV. Not necessarily bad but I'm not a huge fan.
That's about all I can say without giving away too much. Cole's a clever guy but not unbelievably so and I recommend his adventures, especially the later ones, to all crime and mystery fans.
May 24, 2020
I’ve learned quite a bit about private eye Elvis Cole during my random walk through this series, but I think this book really helped provide me with a real identity for the man. I already knew that he’s a smart talking guy who women find attractive and he enjoys badging himself (slightly tongue in cheek) as the world’s greatest detective and, if necessary, he’s not averse to a little violence. But where did he come from and how did he spend his formative years? Well, I was about to find out.
A dying man is found in a seedy motel in Los Angeles and before he passes he states that he’s looking for his son, Elvis Cole. Newspaper articles about Elvis are also found on his person. Could this really be his father? After being called to the scene he fails to recognise the man but then we learn that his father disappeared early in his life, so the lack of any physical recognition cannot be definitive. To add salt to the wound, the abrasive detective in charge of what now appears to be a murder investigation gives Elvis short thrift in terms of answering any questions he has and, in fact, hints that Cole himself may be a person of interest in the case.
In a separate thread we learn of a garage owner who has disappeared and who one of his employees is desperately seeking. It seems that there is a crime of some sorts in the background and the employee is worried that he may be left holding the can if the owner has run off somewhere after confessing his crime to the local priest. This might be linked to the body in LA but then again it may not be. From what we know of the identification of the murdered man the names do not match, so where does this fit in?
These tales are always well crafted and with Cole’s sidekick Joe Pike ever ready to add stealth and muscle to proceedings there’s the ever present promise of physical action. But this is a more subtle tale than most and I really enjoyed the way we were flipped back in time to explore the early years of Elvis where we learn how he got his name and witnessed his increasingly desperate search for a father who had deserted him before he’d got to know him. For me this exploration really brought Cole to life and added depth to his character. There’s also a heart wrenching romantic element to this tale that I’ll not disclose here. All together I think it’s amongst the very best books I’ve read in this series. Well done Mr Crais, I’ll definitely be back for more.
A dying man is found in a seedy motel in Los Angeles and before he passes he states that he’s looking for his son, Elvis Cole. Newspaper articles about Elvis are also found on his person. Could this really be his father? After being called to the scene he fails to recognise the man but then we learn that his father disappeared early in his life, so the lack of any physical recognition cannot be definitive. To add salt to the wound, the abrasive detective in charge of what now appears to be a murder investigation gives Elvis short thrift in terms of answering any questions he has and, in fact, hints that Cole himself may be a person of interest in the case.
In a separate thread we learn of a garage owner who has disappeared and who one of his employees is desperately seeking. It seems that there is a crime of some sorts in the background and the employee is worried that he may be left holding the can if the owner has run off somewhere after confessing his crime to the local priest. This might be linked to the body in LA but then again it may not be. From what we know of the identification of the murdered man the names do not match, so where does this fit in?
These tales are always well crafted and with Cole’s sidekick Joe Pike ever ready to add stealth and muscle to proceedings there’s the ever present promise of physical action. But this is a more subtle tale than most and I really enjoyed the way we were flipped back in time to explore the early years of Elvis where we learn how he got his name and witnessed his increasingly desperate search for a father who had deserted him before he’d got to know him. For me this exploration really brought Cole to life and added depth to his character. There’s also a heart wrenching romantic element to this tale that I’ll not disclose here. All together I think it’s amongst the very best books I’ve read in this series. Well done Mr Crais, I’ll definitely be back for more.
January 24, 2013
Recent events haven’t been kind to Elvis Cole, and he’s moping around the house in the middle of the night when he gets a phone call from the police telling him that a man murdered in an alley claimed to be Elvis’s long lost father with his dying breath.
Well, if that doesn’t cheer him up, nothing will.
Elvis has never had a real clue about who his father was and thinks that the man was just another wack-a-doo that has come out of the woodwork following an unwelcome amount of publicity after his last case. Still, even the possibility that the victim may have been his pops inspires Elvis to start trying to figure out who the man was and brings up a lot of old feelings as well as unknowingly putting him on a collision course with a killer.
Once again Crais serves up an intriguing plot that zig-zags in unexpected directions. The previous two books, L.A. Requiem and The Last Detective, along with this one have filled a lot of the history of Elvis and his partner Joe Pike so that now they seem like fully formed characters with some serious damage in their pasts that cause them to hide behind the personas of smart ass detective and his bad ass buddy.
Another thing I liked in this is that the bad guy is crazy. I don’t mean crazy in the clichéd Hannibal Lector way where the serial killer is insane but also a genius and capable of making intricate plans. I mean crazy in the sense of crazy town banana pants. I mean this son-of-a-bitch is CRAZY in the kind of random way where he’ll convince himself that invisible assassins are sneaking up on him, and there’s no telling when he may explode into unpredictable and brutal violence. After so many portrayals of the insane villains also being brilliant in crime fiction, it was refreshingly terrifying to have a true Crazy McCrazyperson with poor impulse control and a shotgun lurking around.
My one complaint on this one requires a massive spoiler. I’m giving up the end of the book here so don’t click if you don’t want to know. .
This is a series in which the author has managed to raise the bar with almost every book.
Well, if that doesn’t cheer him up, nothing will.
Elvis has never had a real clue about who his father was and thinks that the man was just another wack-a-doo that has come out of the woodwork following an unwelcome amount of publicity after his last case. Still, even the possibility that the victim may have been his pops inspires Elvis to start trying to figure out who the man was and brings up a lot of old feelings as well as unknowingly putting him on a collision course with a killer.
Once again Crais serves up an intriguing plot that zig-zags in unexpected directions. The previous two books, L.A. Requiem and The Last Detective, along with this one have filled a lot of the history of Elvis and his partner Joe Pike so that now they seem like fully formed characters with some serious damage in their pasts that cause them to hide behind the personas of smart ass detective and his bad ass buddy.
Another thing I liked in this is that the bad guy is crazy. I don’t mean crazy in the clichéd Hannibal Lector way where the serial killer is insane but also a genius and capable of making intricate plans. I mean crazy in the sense of crazy town banana pants. I mean this son-of-a-bitch is CRAZY in the kind of random way where he’ll convince himself that invisible assassins are sneaking up on him, and there’s no telling when he may explode into unpredictable and brutal violence. After so many portrayals of the insane villains also being brilliant in crime fiction, it was refreshingly terrifying to have a true Crazy McCrazyperson with poor impulse control and a shotgun lurking around.
My one complaint on this one requires a massive spoiler. I’m giving up the end of the book here so don’t click if you don’t want to know. .
This is a series in which the author has managed to raise the bar with almost every book.
March 20, 2022
In reviewing the previous book in the Elvis Cole series, The Last Detective, I complained about the fact that Cole spent the novel mired in family difficulties resulting from the kidnapping of his girlfriend’s young son who was taken while in Cole’s care. I expressed the hope that he would soon get back to kicking ass and taking names while investigating an interesting mystery of some sort.
I was thus disappointed to discover that in the next edition of the series, The Forgotten Man, Cole is still caught up in family matters, albeit of a different sort. The detective is still moping around, dealing with the fallout of the events that closed the last book, when he gets a call from a police detective. A man has been shot to death in a dark alley and with his dying words, he told the police at the scene that he was trying to find his son, Elvis Cole.
Cole had a troubled relationship with his mother and never knew his father, not even the man’s name. Cole’s mother handed him a ridiculous story about the man who had fathered him and, as a young impressionable boy, Cole took the story to heart and acted upon it.
Cole is certain that the man who has just died was not really his father. Elvis has been much in the news lately because of the fallout from his last case, and he assumes that this confused old man was spouting nonsense as he died.
Still…
Cole is thus drawn into the investigation of the man’s death and in the process, spends a fair portion of the book recollecting about his childhood. Much of this story is told from the perspective of Elvis as a young boy and gradually fills in the background of the detective’s life story. The problem, for me at least, was that I didn’t find the backstory all that compelling, and I really didn’t care about it. Again, as was the case with the last book, I was annoyed because Cole was mucking around with this business, rather than doing something interesting.
Truth to tell, I have gotten along perfectly well as an avid fan of crime fiction without knowing about the childhood and early life story of Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe, or Spenser, or a dozen other protagonists that I enjoy following. As was the case with the last book, though, I admit that I am in the minority. Apparently, a lot of other readers enjoyed this book and the discussion of Cole’s roots.
I thought the story was okay, and I enjoyed the interactions between Cole and Carol Starkey, the police detective who plays a prominent role here. But again, I didn’t find this book nearly as entertaining as many of the others in the series.
Oddly, I don’t remember if I had this reaction to these two books when I first read them years ago; perhaps I’m just getting harder to please in my advancing years. Still, I plan to soldier on and continue rereading the entire series in order, and I’m hoping that I will find the next Elvis Cole novel to be more satisfying than the last two.
I was thus disappointed to discover that in the next edition of the series, The Forgotten Man, Cole is still caught up in family matters, albeit of a different sort. The detective is still moping around, dealing with the fallout of the events that closed the last book, when he gets a call from a police detective. A man has been shot to death in a dark alley and with his dying words, he told the police at the scene that he was trying to find his son, Elvis Cole.
Cole had a troubled relationship with his mother and never knew his father, not even the man’s name. Cole’s mother handed him a ridiculous story about the man who had fathered him and, as a young impressionable boy, Cole took the story to heart and acted upon it.
Cole is certain that the man who has just died was not really his father. Elvis has been much in the news lately because of the fallout from his last case, and he assumes that this confused old man was spouting nonsense as he died.
Still…
Cole is thus drawn into the investigation of the man’s death and in the process, spends a fair portion of the book recollecting about his childhood. Much of this story is told from the perspective of Elvis as a young boy and gradually fills in the background of the detective’s life story. The problem, for me at least, was that I didn’t find the backstory all that compelling, and I really didn’t care about it. Again, as was the case with the last book, I was annoyed because Cole was mucking around with this business, rather than doing something interesting.
Truth to tell, I have gotten along perfectly well as an avid fan of crime fiction without knowing about the childhood and early life story of Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe, or Spenser, or a dozen other protagonists that I enjoy following. As was the case with the last book, though, I admit that I am in the minority. Apparently, a lot of other readers enjoyed this book and the discussion of Cole’s roots.
I thought the story was okay, and I enjoyed the interactions between Cole and Carol Starkey, the police detective who plays a prominent role here. But again, I didn’t find this book nearly as entertaining as many of the others in the series.
Oddly, I don’t remember if I had this reaction to these two books when I first read them years ago; perhaps I’m just getting harder to please in my advancing years. Still, I plan to soldier on and continue rereading the entire series in order, and I’m hoping that I will find the next Elvis Cole novel to be more satisfying than the last two.
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March 5, 2018
Audiobook - 8:10 hours - Narrator: James Daniels
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
For the first time some details of Elvis Cole's family background are revealed as he tries to unravel the mystery of a dying gun-shot victim's claim that he is Cole's father. The story did become somewhat convoluted, but as I was confined to my bed at the time, I was able to listen to the entire book pretty much non-stop, finishing it in less than 24 hours, which made the convolutions easier to follow than when I do my normal fall-asleep, wake-up, find-my-place-in-the-book, listen, fall-asleep, tango. A great novel from one of the great crime novelists.
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
For the first time some details of Elvis Cole's family background are revealed as he tries to unravel the mystery of a dying gun-shot victim's claim that he is Cole's father. The story did become somewhat convoluted, but as I was confined to my bed at the time, I was able to listen to the entire book pretty much non-stop, finishing it in less than 24 hours, which made the convolutions easier to follow than when I do my normal fall-asleep, wake-up, find-my-place-in-the-book, listen, fall-asleep, tango. A great novel from one of the great crime novelists.
May 2, 2018
I really enjoyed this 10th book in the "Elvis Cole" series!
July 17, 2025
Elvis is called in the early morning about a man who claims he's Cole's dad he never knew - the problem is those were his dying words.
A decades old mystery involving a murdered family comes back to involve Elvis in a most sinister way.
A decades old mystery involving a murdered family comes back to involve Elvis in a most sinister way.
June 8, 2021
I have read all of the Crais books, and generally like them. I am currently re-reading them in chronological order. I just finished The Forgotten Man. I did not enjoy this book. I consider it quite a departure from the author's usual style. And... I had noted when I read the previous book in the series - The Last Detective, that it was also a bit thin and somehow strained. I'm kind of thinking that Crais was experiencing some sort of difficulties during this 2003, 2004 period. I don't know.
But in this book the flashbacks, the change of point of view, Starkey's nightmare?? Fencing Master?? Some really strange stuff that maybe Crais was experimenting with. Not successfully, in my view. Again, not a pleasant read.
But in this book the flashbacks, the change of point of view, Starkey's nightmare?? Fencing Master?? Some really strange stuff that maybe Crais was experimenting with. Not successfully, in my view. Again, not a pleasant read.
March 17, 2013
Ok, a few rambling thoughts on Robert Crais. Who is this guy, where'd he come from, how'd he get so popular? Well the first thing to know is that Crais is not from California at all. He is a native of Louisiana, grew up in a blue collar family, and read his first crime novel The Little Sister when he was 15. And that's all it took. Chandler gave him his love for writing. Other authors that have inspired him were Hammett, Hemingway (seems like that's true of all the crime writers), Parker, and Steinbeck (huh?).
How'd he get so popular? In short: television and L.A. Requim. Robert Crais has a very impressive resume as a screenwriter for such television series as Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice (damn, I loved that show too!), Cagney & Lacey. But what hits home the most with Crais himself is his work on the 4 hour mini series Cross of Fire which is about the Ku Klux Klan and is probably more relevant to his home state of Louisiana than it is to Hollywood. Following a growing dissatsifaction of a screen writer's constraints, Crais began writing novels. L.A. Requim, which is the 8th Elvis Cole novel, is what landed him as an author that defied all genres and in it outsurpassed even the legendary Ross Macdonald.
Enough about Crais, the guy's good. So, what about Elvis Cole? Naming someone Elvis had to have been a fairly deliberate decision. To me the name seems iconic, Warholish, Disneylandish, a bit theatrical if not cynical. In fact his novels and trinkets therein are suffused with cultural icons: Spider Man mug, Jiminy Cricket (latent fantasy of wanting to be Peter Pan?), and his yellow Corvette. Even his slogan seems hamstrung with Hollywood's obsession with icons: Elvis Cole is The world's Greatest Detective! But in reality there's nothing ridiculous about Cole: he's tough, honest, ponders morality and ambiguity and hypocrasies while staring out the balcony window in his office.Yes, he's cynical, a smart ass, a comic relief in many ways...but behind the seeming humor lies a Dan Wesson .38, the Vietnam War, martial arts and his biggest gun of all: Joe Pike.
Joe Pike, the avenging angel, is a tool used sparingly by Crais. Use him too much and you wonder why he isn't the main character (we know Crais has struggled with this as he produced 4 separate novels featuring Pike as the hero); use him too little and you start wondering why the big guns aren't being pulled out by Elvis. What you want to do is increase the anxiety level of the reader towards the hero, not get the reader frustrated with him. Crais handles this expertly...and uses Pike to increase the anticipation in readers.
The Elvis Cole novels should be considered hard boiled detectives primarily in that Crais deviates from the traditional Romantic tradition found in detective stories and crime fiction by introducing Cole as a detective with a decidedly cynical attitude towards the emotions (i.e. apprehension, horror, terror, and awe such as are found in other crime and thriller stories). And yet, we find sprinkled throughout the books insightful observations of the world as seen through Elvis's eyes. In the following passage, Elvis observes the effects of dry brush fires raging through L.A.:
Picture the detective at work in his office, fourth floor, Hollywood, as the Devil's Wind freight-trains down from the desert. Though dry and brutally harsh, the desert wind is clean. It pushes the smog south to the sea and scrubs the sky to a crystalline blue. The air, jittery from the heat, rises in swaying tendrils like kelp from the seabed, making the city shimmer. We are never more beautiful than when we are burning.
Like I said, it really came together following the publication of his 8th Elvis Cole novel. Pike his side kick, Lou Poitras (Cole's detective friend) gruffy as ever, shifting view points, a relaxation of Cole's zany character...it all came together following L.A. Requim. So, believe me. All in all, you will not be disappointed with the Elvis Cole series. There are a lot of these novels so sit back and enjoy! I most certainly did.
As with all series reviews, this one covers all the Elvis Cole books. So if you've read this review of mine than you've read 'em all.
How'd he get so popular? In short: television and L.A. Requim. Robert Crais has a very impressive resume as a screenwriter for such television series as Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice (damn, I loved that show too!), Cagney & Lacey. But what hits home the most with Crais himself is his work on the 4 hour mini series Cross of Fire which is about the Ku Klux Klan and is probably more relevant to his home state of Louisiana than it is to Hollywood. Following a growing dissatsifaction of a screen writer's constraints, Crais began writing novels. L.A. Requim, which is the 8th Elvis Cole novel, is what landed him as an author that defied all genres and in it outsurpassed even the legendary Ross Macdonald.
Enough about Crais, the guy's good. So, what about Elvis Cole? Naming someone Elvis had to have been a fairly deliberate decision. To me the name seems iconic, Warholish, Disneylandish, a bit theatrical if not cynical. In fact his novels and trinkets therein are suffused with cultural icons: Spider Man mug, Jiminy Cricket (latent fantasy of wanting to be Peter Pan?), and his yellow Corvette. Even his slogan seems hamstrung with Hollywood's obsession with icons: Elvis Cole is The world's Greatest Detective! But in reality there's nothing ridiculous about Cole: he's tough, honest, ponders morality and ambiguity and hypocrasies while staring out the balcony window in his office.Yes, he's cynical, a smart ass, a comic relief in many ways...but behind the seeming humor lies a Dan Wesson .38, the Vietnam War, martial arts and his biggest gun of all: Joe Pike.
Joe Pike, the avenging angel, is a tool used sparingly by Crais. Use him too much and you wonder why he isn't the main character (we know Crais has struggled with this as he produced 4 separate novels featuring Pike as the hero); use him too little and you start wondering why the big guns aren't being pulled out by Elvis. What you want to do is increase the anxiety level of the reader towards the hero, not get the reader frustrated with him. Crais handles this expertly...and uses Pike to increase the anticipation in readers.
The Elvis Cole novels should be considered hard boiled detectives primarily in that Crais deviates from the traditional Romantic tradition found in detective stories and crime fiction by introducing Cole as a detective with a decidedly cynical attitude towards the emotions (i.e. apprehension, horror, terror, and awe such as are found in other crime and thriller stories). And yet, we find sprinkled throughout the books insightful observations of the world as seen through Elvis's eyes. In the following passage, Elvis observes the effects of dry brush fires raging through L.A.:
Picture the detective at work in his office, fourth floor, Hollywood, as the Devil's Wind freight-trains down from the desert. Though dry and brutally harsh, the desert wind is clean. It pushes the smog south to the sea and scrubs the sky to a crystalline blue. The air, jittery from the heat, rises in swaying tendrils like kelp from the seabed, making the city shimmer. We are never more beautiful than when we are burning.
Like I said, it really came together following the publication of his 8th Elvis Cole novel. Pike his side kick, Lou Poitras (Cole's detective friend) gruffy as ever, shifting view points, a relaxation of Cole's zany character...it all came together following L.A. Requim. So, believe me. All in all, you will not be disappointed with the Elvis Cole series. There are a lot of these novels so sit back and enjoy! I most certainly did.
As with all series reviews, this one covers all the Elvis Cole books. So if you've read this review of mine than you've read 'em all.
January 9, 2018
Normally, a man shot in an alley in downtown Los Angeles wouldn’t cross Elvis Cole’s radar. However, this man claimed that he was the PI’s long-lost father in town to make up for lost time with his son. Could it be true? If so, what was he doing in the alley when he got shot?
At some point, this part of Cole’s past had to come into the foreground in the series, and this book does a great job of using that hook to springboard us into a great mystery. As you’d expect, there are some good twists and an exciting climax. I did feel that a flashback to Elvis as an early teen really didn’t do much for the story other than slow it down. We don’t get to see much of Joe Pike, Elvis’ partner. Instead, the sidekick role is filled with Carol Starkey, but I hated how she came across here. Definitely a step down for her character.
Read my full review at Carstairs Considers.
At some point, this part of Cole’s past had to come into the foreground in the series, and this book does a great job of using that hook to springboard us into a great mystery. As you’d expect, there are some good twists and an exciting climax. I did feel that a flashback to Elvis as an early teen really didn’t do much for the story other than slow it down. We don’t get to see much of Joe Pike, Elvis’ partner. Instead, the sidekick role is filled with Carol Starkey, but I hated how she came across here. Definitely a step down for her character.
Read my full review at Carstairs Considers.
September 21, 2020
4 Stars, better work from Crais. This is from 2005, and each books shows improvement in discipline, style and prose. There are some nice quotes below.
As usual with my reviews, please first read the publisher’s blurb/summary of the book. Thank you.
6%
One thing I don't really like is "villain's point of view". It's too omniscient for my tastes.
This book is filled with utter bullshit, weird dreams and someone pining for Cole and endless, long-winded dialogue and padding. Jeez.
And file reports filled with useless bumpf.
I'm skimming here.
The last 1/4 is much better; we're past the "padding" now.
Notes and Quotes
I cocked my head to see him as if we were looking at each other. His eyes were open and would remain that way until a mortician closed them. They were brown, like mine, but dulled by the loss of their tears. That's the first thing you learn when you work with the dead: We're gone when we no longer cry.
-
People who lived on the hillsides would soon emerge from their homes to inspect the slopes, searching for cracks and bulges. The world grew unstable when rain fell in Los Angeles. Soil held firm only moments before it could flow without warning like lava, sweeping away cars and houses like toys. The earth lost its certainty, and anchors failed.
-
I went through the mail. A lot of it was bills and junk, but seven pieces were what I thought of as fan mail: a handwritten marriage proposal from someone named Didi, four letters congratulating me for bringing three mass murderers to justice, an anonymous nude photo of a young man holding his p_nis, and a letter from someone named Loyal Anselmo who described Pike and me as "dangerous vigilantes no better than the monsters you murdered." Some people are never happy.
Father Willies' black Kimber .45-caliber semiautomatic
Full size image here
.
As usual with my reviews, please first read the publisher’s blurb/summary of the book. Thank you.
6%
One thing I don't really like is "villain's point of view". It's too omniscient for my tastes.
This book is filled with utter bullshit, weird dreams and someone pining for Cole and endless, long-winded dialogue and padding. Jeez.
And file reports filled with useless bumpf.
I'm skimming here.
The last 1/4 is much better; we're past the "padding" now.
Notes and Quotes
I cocked my head to see him as if we were looking at each other. His eyes were open and would remain that way until a mortician closed them. They were brown, like mine, but dulled by the loss of their tears. That's the first thing you learn when you work with the dead: We're gone when we no longer cry.
-
People who lived on the hillsides would soon emerge from their homes to inspect the slopes, searching for cracks and bulges. The world grew unstable when rain fell in Los Angeles. Soil held firm only moments before it could flow without warning like lava, sweeping away cars and houses like toys. The earth lost its certainty, and anchors failed.
-
I went through the mail. A lot of it was bills and junk, but seven pieces were what I thought of as fan mail: a handwritten marriage proposal from someone named Didi, four letters congratulating me for bringing three mass murderers to justice, an anonymous nude photo of a young man holding his p_nis, and a letter from someone named Loyal Anselmo who described Pike and me as "dangerous vigilantes no better than the monsters you murdered." Some people are never happy.
Father Willies' black Kimber .45-caliber semiautomatic
Full size image here
.
March 14, 2019
3 1/2 stars, but rounded up because I like the series so much that I was interested in this background on the main character.
This one was disappointing in that the usual humor I like so much was lacking. The story was fairly interesting, I suppose, but the villain was completely crazy and delusional, so it was hard to take him seriously.
Add in a lot of soap opera action, with his old girlfriend coming around, and a new woman who is in love with him but he doesn't seem to care. Blend in some Joe Pike at the end getting all sentimental and holding hands with Elvis at one point, and you have a non-typical Elvis Cole mystery. If you're not a fan, this probably won't get you hooked, but if you are, you may like learning more about the characters.
This one was disappointing in that the usual humor I like so much was lacking. The story was fairly interesting, I suppose, but the villain was completely crazy and delusional, so it was hard to take him seriously.
Add in a lot of soap opera action, with his old girlfriend coming around, and a new woman who is in love with him but he doesn't seem to care. Blend in some Joe Pike at the end getting all sentimental and holding hands with Elvis at one point, and you have a non-typical Elvis Cole mystery. If you're not a fan, this probably won't get you hooked, but if you are, you may like learning more about the characters.
March 29, 2013
Really, it was too long and negative for my taste. It's a good thing author Crais develops his characters better in his other works with more emphasis on the positives with less mental and physical torture on his main guys. 4 of 10 stars
February 26, 2024
Every author has one.. the filler book or the “I phoned it in” book but still want the paycheck. This was that book. Ugh.. after 2 stellar books before this it was jarring to have such a dud of a book.
It starts out at a brutal crime scene and as the reader you are WTF… it doesn’t become clear until much much later… The main players from previous books are not in this one. Starkey is here but she’s so mopey and moody that it was a bit annoying. She thinks she loves Cole. Unfortunately, Cole is going to be hung up on Lucy for the foreseeable future which sucks for me because I hate Lucy. She pops up like a bad penny in this book. Ugh. WTF 🙄🙄🙄go get lost in the bayou already and stop messing with Cole’s emotions.
It ends on very ugh note too. And not everything is explained. Diaz is an after thought… the skulls that were burned.. was this guy a serial killer… obviously unstable… why did the father not do anything about it?? Why just tattoo crosses and let the guy still kill people?!? Like WTH… was the dead priest ever found??
You thought you’d get more insight into Cole’s past but it was all filler. You learn nothing new except he’s desperate to know who his father is. Blah blah
It’s super depressing and you never find out who he is. Cole almost dies. The end. 😑😑😑
It starts out at a brutal crime scene and as the reader you are WTF… it doesn’t become clear until much much later… The main players from previous books are not in this one. Starkey is here but she’s so mopey and moody that it was a bit annoying. She thinks she loves Cole. Unfortunately, Cole is going to be hung up on Lucy for the foreseeable future which sucks for me because I hate Lucy. She pops up like a bad penny in this book. Ugh. WTF 🙄🙄🙄go get lost in the bayou already and stop messing with Cole’s emotions.
It ends on very ugh note too. And not everything is explained. Diaz is an after thought… the skulls that were burned.. was this guy a serial killer… obviously unstable… why did the father not do anything about it?? Why just tattoo crosses and let the guy still kill people?!? Like WTH… was the dead priest ever found??
You thought you’d get more insight into Cole’s past but it was all filler. You learn nothing new except he’s desperate to know who his father is. Blah blah
It’s super depressing and you never find out who he is. Cole almost dies. The end. 😑😑😑
January 14, 2019
This is not a very good book. It is poorly plotted and Crais keeps getting bogged down in boring side stories (like the cheesy flashback of a young Elvis Cole running away to the circus). I also didn’t care for the portions of the book that followed the bad guy. I’m so sick of cookie cutter psychopaths. Murderousness does not by itself make a character interesting. About half way through I started skimming, and then skipping chunks (I don’t seem to have missed anything important using this method). This is probably the worst novel by Crais I have ever read (I really enjoyed my last Crais novel: The Promise.)
SPOILER: this isn’t really a spoiler, I don’t think, but I’ll err on the safe side before mentioning one last thing I didn’t like about this book:
There is a suggestion that the murder vic was Cole’s dad he never knew, but Cole never really believes that the murdered man is his dad so neither do the readers, with the result that one whole big aspect of the plot seems like an utterly pointless waste of time (though it does tie back in with the plot towards the end). We don’t believe or care about the potential father/son relationship between Cole and the vic, so every mention of it is a drag on the story.
SPOILER: this isn’t really a spoiler, I don’t think, but I’ll err on the safe side before mentioning one last thing I didn’t like about this book:
There is a suggestion that the murder vic was Cole’s dad he never knew, but Cole never really believes that the murdered man is his dad so neither do the readers, with the result that one whole big aspect of the plot seems like an utterly pointless waste of time (though it does tie back in with the plot towards the end). We don’t believe or care about the potential father/son relationship between Cole and the vic, so every mention of it is a drag on the story.
February 12, 2020
3.5 stars
June 2, 2025
A dying man tells a detective that he is Elvis Cole’s father. The man was murdered and is covered in tattooed crosses. Elvis investigates which leads us to flashbacks to his childhood and his search for his father.
The story uses the murderers perspective as well. Which is schizophrenic and paranoia in the extreme. The revelation at the end of who the murderer of the old man is not a big surprise and all about revenge.
SPOILERS AHEAD
In the end we find Payne is not Cole’s father. Diaz the female detective was the little girl who survived her family being murdered 20 years ago. Payne’s son a schizophrenic had murdered them and he confessed to her and she killed him and pretended his dying words were he was Cole’s father. She was setting up Cole and wanted him to find the victims son.
Cole does this and Cole is gravely wounded in a shootout with Payne’s son. Diaz is killed and Pike kills David/Fredrick. Cole still hasn’t found his father and survives to investigate another day.
The story uses the murderers perspective as well. Which is schizophrenic and paranoia in the extreme. The revelation at the end of who the murderer of the old man is not a big surprise and all about revenge.
SPOILERS AHEAD
In the end we find Payne is not Cole’s father. Diaz the female detective was the little girl who survived her family being murdered 20 years ago. Payne’s son a schizophrenic had murdered them and he confessed to her and she killed him and pretended his dying words were he was Cole’s father. She was setting up Cole and wanted him to find the victims son.
Cole does this and Cole is gravely wounded in a shootout with Payne’s son. Diaz is killed and Pike kills David/Fredrick. Cole still hasn’t found his father and survives to investigate another day.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 17, 2021
Through the first half of this book I was thinking it was kind of slow, but it turned out to be an excellent entry in the Elvis Cole / Joe Pike series. Pike doesn’t play a major role in the book but you get to see how important Cole is to him. It really added something to the book for me. One of the best series out there!
August 3, 2019
Molto più introspettivo e sentimentale dei precedenti capitoli, manca l'azione ed è un bene (è sempre la parte che mi piace di meno nei libri di Crais). Bello il finale e il rapporto di amicizia tra Cole e Pike. Sempre dispiaciuto per Starkey, spero che abbia migliore sorte nel seguito.
March 22, 2025
2 Stars. This one never really grabbed me. It wasn’t much like any of the other Cole and Pike books. It’s probably, in my case, an expectation problem. I’m just used to Crais really flooring me.
This was a case where the characters never grabbed me. Also, there wasn’t enough Pike. The story wasn’t super compelling. Anyway. Way below average Crais isn’t terrible. I’m sure the next one will be better.
This was a case where the characters never grabbed me. Also, there wasn’t enough Pike. The story wasn’t super compelling. Anyway. Way below average Crais isn’t terrible. I’m sure the next one will be better.
July 29, 2013
The Forgotten Man works on multiple levels. One isn’t quite sure whether it refers to a murder victim, a murderer, the father that Elvis Cole (“World’s Greatest Detective” according to the L.A. media who hyped him prior to the events of this novel) never knew, or Elvis Cole himself (forgotten by his father?). Even upon the conclusion of this novel with events that begin, not in L.A. like the majority of Cole’s cases, but in a Riverside County town called Temecula. In fact, that’s probably my biggest quibble with the novel. Crais seems to have slipped up in one area of his research. Temecula (once almost renamed Rancho California till a sensible referendum stopped that and kept the historical name of the town that was once the hideout of notorious stagecoach robbers) is located in Riverside County but somehow, the murder book for the Temecula murder that sets the stage for The Forgotten Man is found at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office. Of course, if that’s the worst problem in the story, I think most of us can live with that. Just sayin’…
The apparent “forgotten man” early in the story is a murder victim. He claims to be looking for his son, Elvis Cole, in his dying breaths. He has a whole package of clippings calling Cole, essentially, the World’s Greatest Detective. At first, Cole is a fervent disbeliever. Then, he sees possibilities. Then, he’s back to something that just instinctively doesn’t feel right. As a reader of most of Crais’ work, I’m not used to seeing Cole so off-balance. I’ve seen Joe Pike “go off” but Cole is usually the anchor. I wouldn’t claim that this is role-reversal on a large scale, but there are moments when it happens.
There’s also a lot of unexpected cooperation from law enforcement authorities of various kinds in this novel. Except for one rather interesting and challenging encounter, things seem a little too convenient in this mystery. I’m used to seeing jurisdictional disputes and serious threats to back off, but even the one you expect to flare up proves to be a non-event. That was surprising. On the other hand, if that was a major part of every mystery, it would be rather tedious and feel contrived after a while. So, I accept the inter-agency cooperation as a nice change of pace. It beats the FBI mess in the last Joe Pike novel I read.
This is also an important novel in the series because it integrates some of Elvis Cole’s past with the present story. It’s pretty interesting on its own level and it clarifies some of Cole’s obsession with and fascination with vulnerable women. It’s practically right out of Freud. Need I say more? It also may indicate why he hasn’t picked up on any cues from a potential love interest in the series. The conclusion leads you wondering if that’s going to go anywhere or not. There is, shall we say, a certain symmetry in the pairing of these two characters. Both of them deserve a “new birth.”
I really enjoy the books in this series. This one isn’t a home run for me, but it’s at least stuck in the Wrigley Field ivy for a ground rule double.
The apparent “forgotten man” early in the story is a murder victim. He claims to be looking for his son, Elvis Cole, in his dying breaths. He has a whole package of clippings calling Cole, essentially, the World’s Greatest Detective. At first, Cole is a fervent disbeliever. Then, he sees possibilities. Then, he’s back to something that just instinctively doesn’t feel right. As a reader of most of Crais’ work, I’m not used to seeing Cole so off-balance. I’ve seen Joe Pike “go off” but Cole is usually the anchor. I wouldn’t claim that this is role-reversal on a large scale, but there are moments when it happens.
There’s also a lot of unexpected cooperation from law enforcement authorities of various kinds in this novel. Except for one rather interesting and challenging encounter, things seem a little too convenient in this mystery. I’m used to seeing jurisdictional disputes and serious threats to back off, but even the one you expect to flare up proves to be a non-event. That was surprising. On the other hand, if that was a major part of every mystery, it would be rather tedious and feel contrived after a while. So, I accept the inter-agency cooperation as a nice change of pace. It beats the FBI mess in the last Joe Pike novel I read.
This is also an important novel in the series because it integrates some of Elvis Cole’s past with the present story. It’s pretty interesting on its own level and it clarifies some of Cole’s obsession with and fascination with vulnerable women. It’s practically right out of Freud. Need I say more? It also may indicate why he hasn’t picked up on any cues from a potential love interest in the series. The conclusion leads you wondering if that’s going to go anywhere or not. There is, shall we say, a certain symmetry in the pairing of these two characters. Both of them deserve a “new birth.”
I really enjoy the books in this series. This one isn’t a home run for me, but it’s at least stuck in the Wrigley Field ivy for a ground rule double.
January 4, 2017
Crais just keeps getting better.
April 28, 2022
3.5 stars. Not my favorite Elvis Cole/Joe Pike book, probably because I need more Joe Pike. It was a pretty good read though and I’ll continue to follow this series, catching up on the ones I’ve missed.
April 10, 2022
An excellent Elvis novel as he is forced to look into his past some more when a man is murdered and his dying words were, " I am looking for my son. His name is Elvis Cole."
February 21, 2022
This was a really good book.
But it’s not a 5
I can’t figure out how Diaz knew about Cole’s past. It seemed a little far fetched that she knew the details.
Elvis didn’t know his father. His mother never told him who he was. As a kid, he would run away to carnivals that had the human bomb to see if they were his dad. That was because his mother said one time the father was in a carnival and exploded out of cannons.
Elvis became famous from saving Lucy’s son and everyone knew he was the world’s greatest detective.
A dead man is found with pictures of Cole and his last word was that he was Cole’s father and was trying to find him.
This book was very well written. You get perspectives from Cole, Starkey and Frederick.
Like a lot of readers, I too detest Lucy. The similarities between Cole/Pike/Lucy and Spencer/Hawk/Susan is uncanny. I don’t like Susan either. Everyone knows a person is not good for you, except you. I love Starkey’s sense of humor and she really loves Cole and doesn’t play games like Lucy.
This is a great series. One of my favorites.
But it’s not a 5
I can’t figure out how Diaz knew about Cole’s past. It seemed a little far fetched that she knew the details.
Elvis didn’t know his father. His mother never told him who he was. As a kid, he would run away to carnivals that had the human bomb to see if they were his dad. That was because his mother said one time the father was in a carnival and exploded out of cannons.
Elvis became famous from saving Lucy’s son and everyone knew he was the world’s greatest detective.
A dead man is found with pictures of Cole and his last word was that he was Cole’s father and was trying to find him.
This book was very well written. You get perspectives from Cole, Starkey and Frederick.
Like a lot of readers, I too detest Lucy. The similarities between Cole/Pike/Lucy and Spencer/Hawk/Susan is uncanny. I don’t like Susan either. Everyone knows a person is not good for you, except you. I love Starkey’s sense of humor and she really loves Cole and doesn’t play games like Lucy.
This is a great series. One of my favorites.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 28, 2020
Of the series I've read so far, this one is by far my favorite. It was a fluid police procedural, including written attempts of police reports, segments, within the story, to engage the reader into police case work and how cases are logged; confrontational interactions with the working detectives; and why Elvis is thusly named.
This one resonated with better efforts on the characters involved. Elvis came across as human, not just a wise cracking private eye from the 50's. The interactions seemed genuine and believable, for the most part. Cole's back story/flashback, however, was extremely farcical, lazily ripped from some stereotypical tv sitcom about the "running away with the circus" trope.
Crais tried to tie Cole's early efforts trying to find his father into how he became a P.I., as noted in a throw away riff from the detective looking for Cole, and tacked on an aside about that half-assed detective (not Cole) that may reappear somewhere down the line.
Pike was relegated to his strong, silent muscle sidekick role without the repeated physical descriptions that populate every book. He also was humanized effectively toward the end of the story and it was heartfelt.
Carol Starkey was instrumental in this case/story. Believable characterization gave her depth that drew me into her situation. She is a positive addition to the Cole/Pike universe. Way more than Chen, who came across as a token sexist that was very two dimensional and would be better off in some other story. I would include Lucy, who also made an appearance, in the "do away with" category.
The case work was solid, if not predictable. The victim and villain both involved mental illness scenarios that Crais took many liberties with but he really didn't build any credibility. He insinuated the same with Cole's mother but was less descriptive in that area. He missed a clear opportunity to define a psychological pathway, a method to the madness if you will, to develop the psychosis from then to now or the potential "Why?". Instead, he left the gaps for the reader to bridge with speculation, red herrings, and dead bodies while he just skipped to a different point of view.
Crais seemed more intrigued with copying police reports into his story than to give the reader a better bad guy instead of who we read about in the story. Just another murdering delusional talking to himself or hearing voices that have no meaning, yet is handy with any weapon.
Ultimately, this case was another implausibility from Crais' mistrust of the LAPD and police officers in general. His presumption is that emotion always overrides logical honor, sense of duty, and due diligence, while any law enforcement officer can stage a crime scene at will. That, and clearly, everyone dumps cars at LAX (or any long term parking for that matter) to get away with any criminal activity. I would invest in security patrol vehicles with cameras to log and record every car into a national database. I wonder how many crimes we would solve or future crimes we could minimize through this effort?
Otherwise nice addition to the series.
Thanks for reading.
This one resonated with better efforts on the characters involved. Elvis came across as human, not just a wise cracking private eye from the 50's. The interactions seemed genuine and believable, for the most part. Cole's back story/flashback, however, was extremely farcical, lazily ripped from some stereotypical tv sitcom about the "running away with the circus" trope.
Crais tried to tie Cole's early efforts trying to find his father into how he became a P.I., as noted in a throw away riff from the detective looking for Cole, and tacked on an aside about that half-assed detective (not Cole) that may reappear somewhere down the line.
Pike was relegated to his strong, silent muscle sidekick role without the repeated physical descriptions that populate every book. He also was humanized effectively toward the end of the story and it was heartfelt.
Carol Starkey was instrumental in this case/story. Believable characterization gave her depth that drew me into her situation. She is a positive addition to the Cole/Pike universe. Way more than Chen, who came across as a token sexist that was very two dimensional and would be better off in some other story. I would include Lucy, who also made an appearance, in the "do away with" category.
The case work was solid, if not predictable. The victim and villain both involved mental illness scenarios that Crais took many liberties with but he really didn't build any credibility. He insinuated the same with Cole's mother but was less descriptive in that area. He missed a clear opportunity to define a psychological pathway, a method to the madness if you will, to develop the psychosis from then to now or the potential "Why?". Instead, he left the gaps for the reader to bridge with speculation, red herrings, and dead bodies while he just skipped to a different point of view.
Crais seemed more intrigued with copying police reports into his story than to give the reader a better bad guy instead of who we read about in the story. Just another murdering delusional talking to himself or hearing voices that have no meaning, yet is handy with any weapon.
Ultimately, this case was another implausibility from Crais' mistrust of the LAPD and police officers in general. His presumption is that emotion always overrides logical honor, sense of duty, and due diligence, while any law enforcement officer can stage a crime scene at will. That, and clearly, everyone dumps cars at LAX (or any long term parking for that matter) to get away with any criminal activity. I would invest in security patrol vehicles with cameras to log and record every car into a national database. I wonder how many crimes we would solve or future crimes we could minimize through this effort?
Otherwise nice addition to the series.
Thanks for reading.
November 12, 2012
"The Forgotten Man" does for Elvis Cole what "L.A. Requiem" did for Joe Pike. This book, like "Requiem" moves beyond simple detective fiction to add more depth to the character of Elvis Cole. It is a nice evolution. Crais' initial books in this series were for the most part of the Ross MacDonald vein -- quick sketch characters thrown into a twisting plot. Nothing at all wrong with that, and Crais is a master. However, beginning with "Requiem" Crais seems to want to expand into a the more general fiction territory, at least with his two main characters.
In this book, Elvis Cole becomes more than simply a wise-cracking, fast-moving detective. He becomes a man with a history. The backstory for Elvis Cole, for me, read almost like a Flannery O'Connor story. Very original and also very poignant. It transforms Elvis from a fun, funny guy into someone with a history behind him that elicits our sympathy.
That is not to say that Crais has abandoned the mystery genre. The book gets off to an intriguing start, and there are plenty of turns to the story. Carol Starkey is back, and like Pike and Cole, is someone with some real depth. Elvis gets pulled into investigating the murder of a man who had claimed to be his father as he was dying, and unfolds from there.
The book seemed to sag a bit towards the end, mainly due to a few too many changes in location and not enough development of the characters that Cole seeks throughout the book. As in the previous book, Crais switches to point-of-view narrative, which doesn't work well. However, the final scenes are strong, and readers of the series will enjoy cameos from the characters of past books. In, "The Forgotten Man", Robert Crais maintains his mastery of the mystery genre and expands his scope to bring new depth to his main character.
In this book, Elvis Cole becomes more than simply a wise-cracking, fast-moving detective. He becomes a man with a history. The backstory for Elvis Cole, for me, read almost like a Flannery O'Connor story. Very original and also very poignant. It transforms Elvis from a fun, funny guy into someone with a history behind him that elicits our sympathy.
That is not to say that Crais has abandoned the mystery genre. The book gets off to an intriguing start, and there are plenty of turns to the story. Carol Starkey is back, and like Pike and Cole, is someone with some real depth. Elvis gets pulled into investigating the murder of a man who had claimed to be his father as he was dying, and unfolds from there.
The book seemed to sag a bit towards the end, mainly due to a few too many changes in location and not enough development of the characters that Cole seeks throughout the book. As in the previous book, Crais switches to point-of-view narrative, which doesn't work well. However, the final scenes are strong, and readers of the series will enjoy cameos from the characters of past books. In, "The Forgotten Man", Robert Crais maintains his mastery of the mystery genre and expands his scope to bring new depth to his main character.
September 3, 2007
THE FORGOTTEN MAN (Private Investigator-Los Angeles-Cont) – Ex
Crais, Robert – 10th in series
Doubleday, 2005 – Hardcover
PI Elvis Cole has spent his life wondering about, and trying to find, his father. When he receives a call that a victim of a fatal gunshot says he's Cole's father, it leads him on a search for the man's identity. But there's more to the John Doe that anyone can imagine. The result is an unseen, and deadly danger, to Cole.
*** What a well-done book. It's told from the perspective a several people--first person Cole, and third person for the other characters. But rather than detract, for me it added to the intensity and suspense of the story. The writing is crisp and tight. This is an excellent book is a series which continues to evolve.
Crais, Robert – 10th in series
Doubleday, 2005 – Hardcover
PI Elvis Cole has spent his life wondering about, and trying to find, his father. When he receives a call that a victim of a fatal gunshot says he's Cole's father, it leads him on a search for the man's identity. But there's more to the John Doe that anyone can imagine. The result is an unseen, and deadly danger, to Cole.
*** What a well-done book. It's told from the perspective a several people--first person Cole, and third person for the other characters. But rather than detract, for me it added to the intensity and suspense of the story. The writing is crisp and tight. This is an excellent book is a series which continues to evolve.
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