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Elvis Cole and Joe Pike #1-2
The Monkey's Raincoat / Stalking The Angel
470 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
2 people are currently reading
331 people want to read
About the author
Robert Crais
179 books4,569 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 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 21, 2020
Robert Crais is one of those popular authors whose name I regularly stumbled upon, leaving me curious about the author’s work. I went in with high hopes, but they weren’t quite met.
The first two Elvis Cole and Joe Pike books – The Monkey’s Raincoat and Stalking the Angel – certainly gripped me and had me curious to see how the story would play out, but I was never as invested in them as I could have been. They were interesting, they kept my attention, but I was left wanting a wee bit more from them.
I can understand the appeal of the series, but it wasn’t quite enough for me.
The first two Elvis Cole and Joe Pike books – The Monkey’s Raincoat and Stalking the Angel – certainly gripped me and had me curious to see how the story would play out, but I was never as invested in them as I could have been. They were interesting, they kept my attention, but I was left wanting a wee bit more from them.
I can understand the appeal of the series, but it wasn’t quite enough for me.
March 22, 2021
Loved this book, so much action and drama with loveable characters. Would recommend to others.
September 1, 2022
Elvis moves in tto save the day again. A woman's husband is missing, and he took their son with him. He is hired to bring them back. The usual stuff, but it confuses me how a distraught mother, not knowing if her young son is alive or dead, just falls in bed with Elvis. A man wrote this!
August 9, 2024
The book contains a compendium of the first two books in the "Elvis Cole & Joe Pike" series. I've written separate reviews on goodreads for each standalone novel.
My ratings for each novel:
5 stars The Monkey's Raincoat
3 stars Stalking the Angel
My ratings for each novel:
5 stars The Monkey's Raincoat
3 stars Stalking the Angel
Read
June 18, 2019good
Read
March 29, 2021Great every time I read it.
August 10, 2014
I started reading Cole because i read Pike...and like it.
Style of witting is different. Cole is written in the first person, so we know what Cole thinks about all the time. Cole, unlike Pike, drips with sarcasm which is OK.
Unlike other private eyes, Cole is a little more laid back, he does yoga, eat healthy food and keeps a cat in the house. He doesn't go bank bang all the time but when he does, he and Pike can be real mean. And because the stories are written in the first person, there is a lot of down time, when Cole finds himself not doing anything at home.
There is plenty of that at the beginning and things usually speeds up towards the end.
This version is a 2 books omnibus comprising the first and the second adventures of Elvis Cole.
The Monkey's raincoat introduces the readers to Elvis Cole, a yoga practicing, health food eating, cat loving detective. A man goes out to pick up his son never came home. Distraught wife with best friend contacts Cole to look for the man. Cole later found the man dead, but not the son. Some digging later found that man was planning to run away with a hottie but gunned down at close range being suspected of stealing a bag o drugs by some nasty baddies.
The Stalking angel is about a rich investor who was into everything Japanese. He had in his possession the Hagakure, a super valuable ancient book on the way of the warrior which was then stolen. Rich man, Bradley Warren, under the advisory of his lady advisory Jillian Becker, hires Cole to look for the book and then when after a a threatening phone call for his daughter Mimi, guard his family. During the man of the month ceremony, mimi was kidnapped. However, Cole along with the chief of Warren's security, were fired. Unhappy over issues not nicely tied up, Cole and Pike went hunting for Mimi and the Hagakure.
The stories were OK, not as memorable as my outing with Pike. Would I read another Cole? Why not, if I have the time. Would i go hunting for another Cole book, why not, if I can get them cheap as I did this one.
Perhaps like all other heroes, I would eventually warm up to Cole. But these two outings with Cole had not done it for me.Not yet.
Style of witting is different. Cole is written in the first person, so we know what Cole thinks about all the time. Cole, unlike Pike, drips with sarcasm which is OK.
Unlike other private eyes, Cole is a little more laid back, he does yoga, eat healthy food and keeps a cat in the house. He doesn't go bank bang all the time but when he does, he and Pike can be real mean. And because the stories are written in the first person, there is a lot of down time, when Cole finds himself not doing anything at home.
There is plenty of that at the beginning and things usually speeds up towards the end.
This version is a 2 books omnibus comprising the first and the second adventures of Elvis Cole.
The Monkey's raincoat introduces the readers to Elvis Cole, a yoga practicing, health food eating, cat loving detective. A man goes out to pick up his son never came home. Distraught wife with best friend contacts Cole to look for the man. Cole later found the man dead, but not the son. Some digging later found that man was planning to run away with a hottie but gunned down at close range being suspected of stealing a bag o drugs by some nasty baddies.
The Stalking angel is about a rich investor who was into everything Japanese. He had in his possession the Hagakure, a super valuable ancient book on the way of the warrior which was then stolen. Rich man, Bradley Warren, under the advisory of his lady advisory Jillian Becker, hires Cole to look for the book and then when after a a threatening phone call for his daughter Mimi, guard his family. During the man of the month ceremony, mimi was kidnapped. However, Cole along with the chief of Warren's security, were fired. Unhappy over issues not nicely tied up, Cole and Pike went hunting for Mimi and the Hagakure.
The stories were OK, not as memorable as my outing with Pike. Would I read another Cole? Why not, if I have the time. Would i go hunting for another Cole book, why not, if I can get them cheap as I did this one.
Perhaps like all other heroes, I would eventually warm up to Cole. But these two outings with Cole had not done it for me.Not yet.
April 16, 2012
I hear his books get better. This is slight.
March 9, 2013
All his books are a good read.
February 3, 2014
boring... no suspense... bad writing...
April 26, 2014
enjoying
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews