Category: Branches Books

Watching You -Michael Robotham

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Watching You – Michael Robotham (Joseph O’Loughlin #7)

 The Story

As Watching You begins, Marnie Logan has problems her husband Daniel has been missing for a year and times are tough. Her missing husband  Daniel left a pile of gambling debts behind and Patrick Hennessey a mobster wants to collect. So Marnie is forced to take a job at with an escort service to help settle her debt and pay her bills. One night she meets and saves a businessman from committing suicide. She collects no money from the distressed John. Her pimp beats her! The next morning his body is fished out of the river. He has been stabbed and killed by a kitchen knife!

This isn’t the first time that something bad has happened to Marnie and revenge has been taken on the perpetrator! Is Marnie making these people pay or is it someone else? Maybe someone who has been watching over Marnie and her children. Maybe it’s the man who has recently helped her daughter Zoe or her son’s secret friend?? As Joe and Victor Ruiz try to unravel the mystery the situation only gets more cloudy, until the explosive ending!!

The Press for Watching You…

“Robotham slowly, expertly begins tightening the screws…Revelations increase rather than release tension until the last page…It will be a long time before memories of this one retreat back into the shadows.”——Booklist (starred review)

“Full of surprises. Well written and slightly creepy, it will keep readers intrigued to the final page.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“[A] commanding book with an ending that’s sure to give even the most jaded reader a shock”—Publishers Weekly

 

My Take on Watching You

Rating : 4.5 out of 5 

 

Joe O’Loughlin, for me, is one of the most interesting characters in the mystery and thriller genre.Joe’e life is anything but perfect he suffers from Parkinson’s Disease and it is a constant battle for Joe to keep his body doing what he wants. And Joe;s dedication to his patients and their troubles has torn his family apart.

In Watching You Joe is faced with a challenging client in Marnie Logan a seemingly loving mother with a missing husband trying to get her life together. Only problem is that Marnie does experience unexplained “blackouts” sometimes losing substantial periods of time! Could Marnie have anything to do with her pimp’s murder? Joe doesn’t think so but the detective assigned to the case and former detective and Joe’s friend Victor Ruiz are not so sure, and neither is the reader!!

I have read all the books in the series and they are all great especially the series opener Suspect and Book #3 Shatter.. The characters and the story lines are always well above average! So Check out Watching You which I think stands on its own and then go back and read the other books! You won’t be disappointed!!

 

 

Dance of Death – Preston & Child

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Dance of Death – Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Book 6 of Pendergast Series Books 2 of Diogenes

 

So I am not sick that often so when I am I really hate it!! The last two days have been spent nursing a bad cold. Yesterday I flt like I had been run over by a Mack Truck, Today I was better and the damage was done  by a pesky little Mini-Cooper which I believe just keeps circling the block and running me over just about the time that I think that I have this thing knocked!!

The only good thing about yesterday was that I finished Book 21 of 2015 Dance of Death by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Dance of Death is Book # 6 of t  the Aloysius Pendergast series and the second book to feature his twisted  sibling Diogenes. Dance of Death, along with The Book of Death and Cemetery Dance. I thought were the books in the trilogy that features Diogenes Pendergrast. Aloysus’ evil sibling.. Not!! In actuality, while Dance of Death is Book 6 and The Book of Death is Book 7, Cemetery Dance is Book 9!!

About Dance of Death

It didn’t take long  while I was reading Dance of Death to realize that it was the second book in the sub-series, but by the time I did figure it out, I was engrossed enough in the book that I just kept reading!! Actually Book 5 of the Pendergast series and Book 1 of the Diogenes series, Brimstone is also on my TBR pile. Needless to say it is one of the books that I plan to read in May. In fact I am already on page 74!! Dance of Death is only the third book in the Pendergast series that began with Relic which is the first Preston & Child book that I have read. I read it back in 1997 ,when it was only two years old!!  The last one I read was Still Life with Crows (Book 4). Both books were great!

Other Books I’ve read By Preston and Child

But while I have not kept up with the Pendergast series, through the years, I have read other works by these authors. One of the books is Book 1 of the Gideon Crew series Gideon’s Sword, which they co-authored. The other three books that I read were all from Douglas Preston two novels Mount Dragon and The Codex and one nonfiction work The Monster Florence which chronicles Preston’s real life adventures with a serial killer in Italy, which even resulted in his arrest!! (Note to self- there are no Lincoln Child books on your Goodreads bookshelf, get cracking!)

The inside flap of Dance of Death describes the book perfectly

Two Brothers,
One a top FBI agent,
the other a brilliant,
twisted criminal

An  undying hatred
between them,

Now, a perfect crime.

And the
ultimate challenge:
stop me if you can….

Bottom line:

Dance of Death is certainly a four star plus book (out of five)  for me. Aloysius Pendergast is certainly one of the most original and well-drawn characters in the mystery genre! Why I have let these books sit on my TBR pile for so long is beyond me!! I think I say that every time I read one of these books! Let’s see there are 14 books in the series. I have read 3 of the books that leaves 11 unread. At the rate of one book a month, I should be almost a year catching up on the series!, at which time, I’m sure there will be a new book or two!

Links for Further Explorations of Preston & Child

The Official Website of Preston & Child
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Amazon: Preston & Child<
Amazon: Lincoln Child
Goodreads: Douglas Preston 

Endangered by C. J. Box Joe Pickett Series # 15

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Endangered - C.J. Box Joe Pickett

 

Stealing an idea for a friend of Goodreads, I am going to start this review with the first paragraph of Endangered the latest Joe Pickett novel from C.J. Box….

When Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett received the call every parent dreads, he was standing knee-high in thick sagebrush, counting the carcasses of sage grouse. He was up to twenty-one

That simple paragraph sets the stage for the whole book and tells the new reader a lot about Joe Pickett. For those who don’t know Joe it lets you know that he lives in Wyoming and he is a game warden, but it also tells you that he is a caring parent Throughout the fifteen plus books in the series, Joe’s wife Mary Beth and children Sheridan, Lucy and April have been there, along with Joe’s mother-in-law Missy.now Templeton and Joe’s right-hand man and the families protector Nate Romanowski..If you do know Joe you know that the presence of those dead sage grouse will not make Joe happy and he won’t quit until h discovers who killed them. Oh and also that their slaughter may be associated with the book’s title Endangered.

The call Joe received told him that a young girl was found badly beaten in a roadside ditch and she looked like his adopted daughter April. April had runaway a while back with a young rodeo star Dallas Cates. Joe never liked Dallas who was a member of a family that Joe has had numerous run ins with as game warden. Dallas of course is the prime suspect and Joe is out to make sure he pays for his crime!!

Meanwhile Joe’s friend Nate Romanowski, an ex-special forces soldier is set to be released from prison and used as bait to flush out the missing Wolfgang Templeton whose murder for hire business Nate had worked for (see Stone Cold) Soon after Nate is released he is ambushed and shot!!

Soon Joe has a lot of problems – will April survive and did Dallas beat her? To solve that puzzle Joe has to go up against the Cates family and that is no easy task. Led by Mama Brenda the family is about as dysfunctional as you can get. Dallas brother Bull lost his livelihood thanks to you know who – yes Joe Pickett.and brother Timber is in prison!!

Joe also has to worry about Nate. Could what happen to Nate and April be related??? And don’t forget those sage grouse. The species were ready to be placed on the endangered species list so a lot of people have a reason to eliminate members of the dwindling species, but who did it??

Joe won’t quit until he finds out and this time finding out just may cost Joe his life!!

Bottom Line: Endangered is a winner!! Several books ago I set aside Cold Wind. I just couldn’t get into it and I thought that I would quit this series. But since then C J Box has come back roaring with four great books and Endangered may be the best of the four! Bookpage says….

“C.J. Box moves from strength to strength with each new installment. I would say that he is at the top of his form, but the top just keeps moving ever upward”

How true. Endangered was a real page-turner for me. The plot kept me in suspense to the last pages, and of course the characters that Pickett has created along the way are a vivid and real as it gets. You know, it’s hard some time to remember that Joe and his family are not real!! Since I have to wait a bit for the next Joe Picket book I think I’ll check out The Highway a stand alone that features Cody Hoyt from previous Joe Pickett books!!.’

Links for Further Explorations of C J Box

Website
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Goodreads
Amazon

Green-Eyed Lady – Chuck Greaves

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Green-Eyed Lady –  Chuck Graves – Jack MacTaggart No 2

 

Green-Eyed Lady from Chuck Greaves has a great opening. Liberal Democratic candidate for the Senate in California Warren Burkett three weeks before the election, encounters a damsel in distress. The young lady’s pursue and keys have been stolen by an unknown assailant. Burkett offers to give the beautiful green-eyed lady a ride back to her mansion. Reminiscent of another Democrat, this one was elected President, Burkett’s libido doesn’t stop. He believes he has hit the mother lode with this young woman! So much so, he helps break into her mansion (remember her keys were in her purse, which was stolen!) But when the door to her bedroom bangs open,  where a lust-filled Burkett  lies in wait for a thankful young woman to repay her debt it’s not the damsel who enters the room, but the police. They had responded the break-in at the mansion! When the dust settles, the green-eyed lady is gone along with a 2 million dollar plus painting and  maybe Burkett’s hopes of winning the election!

In steps attorney Jack MacTaggart,, who is hired to defend Burkett and unravel the mystery! When the painting surfaces in a most unusual place, the election is rocked again! And it appears that MacTaggart has stepped into some deep, you now what, as he takes on not one but two swarmy politicians, a mobster, and an urban artist! This tale has lots of twists and turns and it’s hard to tell who the good guys are. Hint it may not be the politicians!!

I started this book early in the month and liked it, but I set aside, and I raced through both Alex Kava’s Breaking Creed and Parnell Hall’s Safari.When  I came back to the book, within a few pages of where I had left off, Greaves hooked me and he didn’t let go until the final pieces of the puzzle f ell into place! Douglas Preston says this about the book…..

“GREEN-EYED LADY by Chuck Greaves is the wickedest read of the year, smart, real, vivid as hell, and so plausible it could be in the Times. Greaves is a master of the language. I loved this book.”

Green-Eyed Lady is the second book in the Jack MacTaggart series. Book One is Hush Money which may soon be on its way to me from my library!!  Hush Money won the Southwest Writers International Writing Contest and was named a finalist for several national honors including the Rocky Award from Left Coast Crime, the Reviewers Choice Award from RT Book Reviews and the Audie Award from the Audio Publishers Association.

Bottom Line: Green-Eyed Lady was definitely a 4 star out of 5 book for me. I really enjoyed Jack MacTaggart and his associates. The story was well-crafted with lots of twists and turns and you really didn’t know who was responsible for the various murders, and there are a few. Mr. Greaves who was a trial lawyer for 25 years certainly knows both his stuff – both the law and writing!..So here I go again with another series to follow and one of the few that features a lawyer!!

Breaking Creed -Alex Kava

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Breaking Creed – Ryder Creed #1 – Alex Kava

Alex Kava has been one of my favorite authors ever since I read A Perfect Evil, the debut Maggie O’Dell novel. That was one helluva way to start a series. Over the years, Kava wrote 10 more Maggie O’Dell books, each one a wild ride.

In Breaking Creed, Kava introduces a brand-new character to her fans: Ryder Creed. Like Maggie’s debut, Ryder’s first outing is a gripping, well-crafted thriller that pulls you in from the start.

Introducing Ryder Creed

Ryder Creed is a retired Marine who rescues homeless dogs and trains them to sniff out contraband and track down criminals. In this case, Ryder is called to search the Choque Azul, a ship suspected of carrying drugs. Working with his fearless Jack Russell Terrier, Grace, Ryder searches the hold beneath the ship’s fish catch. What he finds isn’t drugs — it’s something far worse: children being trafficked. The discovery upends Creed’s life and puts him in the crosshairs of dangerous people.

Enter Maggie O’Dell

Meanwhile, Maggie and the FBI receive a gruesome package: a body floating in the Potomac, accompanied by a promise of more to come. When Ryder is called in to help Maggie locate the murder scene, sparks fly — both professionally and personally.

The pairing of Maggie O’Dell and Ryder Creed feels natural, much like Karin Slaughter blending her Grant County and Will Trent series. The chemistry between the two suggests this won’t be their only case together — and fans will be glad for that.

Why It Works

One of Kava’s trademarks is giving her characters unique, high-stakes challenges — from Ebola exposure (years before the 2014 outbreak) to tangling with violent cartels. That carries over here, with Creed and O’Dell facing off against ruthless criminals while relying on the specialized skills of Creed’s dogs. Grace, in particular, is a standout character you can’t help but root for.

The Bottom Line

Breaking Creed earns 4 stars from me. Ryder Creed is a welcome addition to the thriller genre — a memorable, compelling character with a unique skill set. As author Gayle Lynds put it:

“Creed is special, a memorable character — he trains homeless dogs to sniff out contraband and hunt criminals. When he teams up with Kava’s iconic FBI forensics specialist Maggie O’Dell, you’ll discover the most exciting crime-solving duo of the year.”

And with Grace at his side, he’s even harder to beat. So check them out — this is the start of something special.

Book 11 of 2015015

 

 

 

 

 

Hard Rain – Barry Eisler (John Rain # 2)

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Hard Rain – Barry Eisler – Book 9 for 2015

 

It’s been a while since I visited Japan and the world of assassin John Rain. In fact it’s been so long that I have forgotten most of what happened in Rain Fall, Book 1 of the Barry Eisler series, when I started Hard Rain Book 2 in the series. What I didn’t forget was that the half-American, half Japanese Rain was a killer and a good one. What he is particularly good at is making his hits look like the victim died of  “natural causes” I also remembered that he has rules, no children, no one else is involved except rain and his client, and the victim has to be a principal, someone of importance!

When Hard Rain opens John Rain has left his Tokyo home for Osaka and is considering getting out of the business. But a former nemesis from the Japanese FBI, Tatsu doesn’t want him to retire, in fact, Tatsu has a job for him. The hit is on an assassin at large, who unlike Rain has no rules and kills indiscriminately.  Before Rain will take the job though, he goes to Tokyo to determine how difficult the hit will be. When Rain arrives in Tokyo he meets with his friend, a hacker, named Harry. Harry has a new girlfriend that seems way out of Harry’s league and that doesn’t sit well with Rain. Rain’s first assumption is that someone is setting Harry up, as he investigates he discovers Harry is also being followed,,,,,, soon Rain is sucked back into the world of violent criminals, and US government officials. The hit may be the most difficult  that Rain had ever faced and the deadliest!!!

John Rain is one of those characters that I would never like in real life, but hey, when he is going up against the Japanese underworld, and shifty CIA agents I’m going to root for the guy! He’s loyal to his few friends and he knows his job, as does Barry Eisler. Eisler does a great job of making Tokyo come alive and the descriptions of Japanese culture, the fights and surveillance tactics were great. The one thing that did bother me  was that Rain dispatched more people than I thought necessary, Not that they didn’t need it!

Bottom Line: Hard Rain is a solid four stars (really liked it). I like John Rain and will continue to read the series, which is now up to book 8. I book 6 Requiem for an Assassin is on my TBR shelves but I do think I will try to read the books in order! I  also hope I can shorten the time between visits with Mr. Rain!

Throne of Glass – Sarah J Maas

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Throne of Glass – Sarah J Maas – (Book 6 for 2014)

 

So the question is: Can a 63 year-old grandfather love a book that features an eighteen year-old kick-ass female protagonist? The answer is a resounding hell yes!! The book is Throne of Glass and the heroine is Celaena Sardothian the Adarlan Assassin who has been captured and sent to a slave labor camp. Celaena has amazingly survived 1 and 1/2 years in the Endovier Salt Mines, when the story begins. The novel opens when Crown Prince Dorian Havillliard of Adarlan visits and makes Celaena and offer she can’t refuse return with him to Rifchold and be his champion in a competition to be his father, the King’s Champion! If she wins and serves the King for four years, she will be set free. Soon Celaena is on her way to join a competition against twenty-three killers, thieves and warriors to become the King’s Champion and ultimately be set free.

Soon Celaena is in the competition of her life against not only the assembled competitors but against an evil that is lose in the Castle. An evil that is brutally slaying the competitors one by one. But Celaena is not in the fight alone, along the way she is helped by the spirit of the first Queen of Adarlan Elena, and from Princess Nehemia Ytger of Eyllwe, Celaena’s naive land. A land that has been subjugated by Adarlan forces. Celaena’s presence upsets the whole castle as Crown Prince Dorian sees her as more than just his champion in the competition and Chaol the Captain of the Guard must not only protect Celaena from danger, but also Dorian from the dangerous Celaena!!

I thought that the book was a well-written page turner with just the right mix of mysticism and suspense. I enjoyed all the main characters Celaena, Dorian, Chaol and Nehemia. I also thought that the attraction between Chaol and Celaena and Dorian and Celaena was handled just about right!

Here’s a quote from Kirkus Reviews that sums up my thoughts about Throne of Glass fairly well…..

“Woven in the vein of a Tolkien fantasy….This commingling of comedy, brutality and fantasy evokes a rich alternate universe with a spitfire young woman as its brightess star.”

Bottom line: Throne of Glass is a strong 4.5 out of 5 book. It was exciting and entertaining throughout the book. It was a great choice for my first exploration of the Young Adult genre and I look forward to checking out similar books! I already have the second book in the series checked out of the library. I don’t know if I can put off reading it long enough to finish some of the other books that I am reading or planned to read!! Oh, what the hell maybe I’ll just start it. What do you think??

Links for Further Explorations of Sarah J Maas and Throne of Glass

Sarah J Maas Website
Facebook: Throne of Glass
Twitter: Sarah J Maas
Amazon:Sarah J Maas

Storm Front (Dresden Files Book #1) – Jim Butcher

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Storm Front- Jim Butcher

Storm Front Book #1 of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series, is the fourth book that I have read in 2015.

This is the first of Jim Butcher’s books that I have read. Reading Storm Front counts as a book read for several of my 2015 Reading Challenges. First  Storm Front has been on my to be read (TBR) pile for several years now (don’t ask me why!!) so it fits into the TBR Pile Reading Challenge. It is a murder mystery so it count toward my goal for the2015 Clock and Dagger Reading Challenge. And since Storm Front features Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, a wizard  and the series spawned a TV show on the SciFi Network it definitely belongs in the Science Fiction/Fantasy category!

Harry’s ad reads….

HARRY DRESDEN – WIZARD
Lost Items found. Paranormal Investigations
Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates
No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties, or Other
Entertainment

 The Story

In Storm Front, Harry  is called in by Chicago Police  Lieutenant Karrin Murphy, director of Special Investigations to help solve the gruesome murder of Tommy Tomm, bodyguard for Chicago mobster Johnny Marcone  and Jennifer Stanton an employe of The Velvet Room escort service. (their hearts were ripped out) in the Madison Hotel. That same evening, Harry is contacted by Monica Sells to help  find her husband  Victor,  who just packed some things and left his home. Monica believes, that his disappearance has something to do with his new-found interest in magic, hence she has called on a wizard rather than the police to help find him!!

Since the murders required some very powerful black magic, Harry has become a prime murder suspect, not of the police (at least at first) but by the White Council that watches Harry and other wizards to assure that they do not bend or break any of the Laws of Magic! If the White Council finds that Harry did commit the crime he would have broken the First Law of Magic and would be executed!!  So Harry is soon on the trail of  a very powerful practitioner of black magic maybe even a little more powerful than Harry but without they years of training or the willingness to obey the Laws of Magic!!

My Take on Storm Front

Obviously this debut book was a winner and has led to a succesful series that now stands at 16, soon to be 17 books. Book 16 Skin Game finished at #3 in this years poll at Goodreads for the Best Fantasy Book!

I love Storm Front both as a murder mystery and as a suspenseful fantasy novel  with a great lovable protagonist in Harry Dresden battling some pretty challenging demons!

Bottom line: Storm Front

Bottom line: Storm Front is certainly a very strong 4.5 to 5 star book! A well crafted fast-paced page turner that works as both a mystery and fantasy book with a wonderfully humorous main character! I am definitely ready for Book 2 Fool Moon!!

Post Update 2026

By the time I read Storm Front in 2015 there were 15 books in the Harry Dresden series! And sadly I haven’t read any of them! I guess I need to create a new Reading Challenge!

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About Jim Butcher

Don’t Talk to Strangers (Keye Street Series # 3) – Amanda Kyle Williams

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So I wasn’t really sure about Amanda Kyle Williams Keye Street series after book one TheStranger You Seek, But I liked the book enough to move onto book two in the series Stranger in the Room. In that book, as Keye and Atlanta Police Detective Aaron Rauser chased the Wishbone Killer, and I became a fan of Keye Street. Now after reading Don’t Talk to Strangers Keye Street has joined Alex Kava’s Maggie O’Dell, Carol O’Connell‘s Kathleen Mallory and Tess Gerritsen‘s Jane Rizzoli, among my favorite female protagonists!

In book three of the series, Keye Street leaves the streets of Atlanta and her new live-in boyfriend Rauser for the rural confines of Whisper, Georgia, Sheriff Ken Meltzer of Hitchiti County in which Whisper lays, calls Keye in as a consultant on the murder of two thirteen year-old girls brutally murdered years apart, with their bodies dumped at the same location! Both girls had been kidnapped and held captive for months before being killed. Once Keye arrives in Whisper she is viewed as an outsider not only by the residents of this tight-knit community but by the fellow members of the sheriff’s department Major Tina Brolin and Detective Raymond. Sheriff Meltzer though admires Keye for more than just profiling abilities!  As Keye developes her profile of the killer, as someone who stalks and plans and waits, the  killer ups his game and taunts Keye and the Sheriff by snatching a third girl!! Can Keye and Meltzer save the third victim from the grizzly death that they know awaits her?

Keye Street is a very intriguing character, a brilliant profilier with the FBI, whose career imploded when Keye lost her battle with the bottle. Now as a recovering alcoholic, she heads her own detective agency, Corporate Intelligence & Investigations (CI&I) with her stoner/hacker business partner Neil Donovan and their only employee Latischa the daughter of a bail bondsman whose skips Keye chases down! Keye also acts as a consultant for the Atlanta Police Department and Detective/Friend/Lover Aaron Rauser!

This storyline in Don’t Talk to Strangers, like those in the preceding books in the series is well-developed, fast-paced, and packs a punch at the end that leaves you saying…. “Please write faster Ms. Williams!!” The Atlanta Journal Constitution says that “Keye Street is one of the most addictive new series heroines” and  Tess Gerritsen writes…..

“Keye Street immediately puts herself in the TOP ECHELON of SUSPENSE HEROES. She is a brutally funny and powerful human-one of the most realistic protagonists in crime fiction that I’ve had the thrill to read”

I agree with both of those sentiments! So check out Keye Street in all three books in the series.

Bottomline: A strong 4 plus stars out of 5 for maybe the best book yet in this series. While all three books can be enjoyed separately, my recommendation is to start at beginning to get to know Keye Street, Aaron Rauser and the crew!

Book 3 for 2015 and Book 3  in the 2015 Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge!!

Links for Further Explorations of the Works of Amanda Kyle Williams

Author Website
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Amazon

The Monkey’s Raincoat – Robert Crais (Elvis Cole #1) – A Great Series Starter

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The Monkey's Raincoat - Rboert Crais

Robert Crais began the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series in 1987 with the release of The Monkey’s Raincoat. Since then Crais has written fourteen more novels featuring the two members of  Elvis’ detective agency. I have read seven of the novels, starting with 1993’s release Free Fall (Book #4) and ending with Book #11 Chasing Darkness in 2008.

I missed No 6 Sunset Express released in 1996). also missed books 1,2 and 3! Don’t ask me why!.

At the beginning of this month I wrote two posts. The first post, Six Great Mystery Series and Their First Books lists six books that I have read that start a great mystery series.

The second post was Books to Read to Start Three Great Series. In the second post, one of the books was The Monkey’s Raincoat, which was sitting on my TBR bookshelves!

When I discovered the2015 TBR Pile Challenge at Carpe Librum Girl,  it became a no-brainer that I was going to read The Monkey’s Raincoat and I did so in a little over one day!!

Remember when I said before don’t ask me why, I hadn’t read this book before, well, that was the question that I asked myself when I was done!!

The second question, which followed quickly was – why did you STOP reading this series?? T

he answer must lie in the saying “Too Many Books, Too Little Time” because it doesn’t lay in the quality of the books. I love both of the lead characters in the series and the storylines were always great. All I can say is, that I hope to get back into the later books of the series, soon!

But now back to The Monkey’s Raincoat released back in 1987. The book received the following accolades:

Macavity Award for Best First Mystery Novel (1988),
Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original (1988),
Shamus Award Nominee for Best Original PI Paperback (1988),
Edgar Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original (1988)

From the Back of the Book…..

Ellen Lang has lost something very valuable indeed -her husband and young son. The case seems simple enough, but PI Elvis Cole and his sociopath sidekick Joe Pike aren’t thrilled by the prospect of another straightforward domestic…

But all is not what it seems. Their search down these seamy side of Hollywood’s studio lots and sculpted lawns soon lands Elvis and Joe deep in the non-Disney world of drugs sex and murder. Things are looking up – and soon everybody, from the cops to starlets to crooks has declared war on the good guys. For Ellen, Hollywood isn’t Funtown any more. For Elvis it’s a good living. He hopes.

Bottomline:

The Monkey’s Raincoat is a solid 4 to 4.5 out of 5!! I loved the plot, along with both Elvis and Joe! Elvis’ humorous personality adds relief from the grim reality that Ellen Lang has to deal with, and Joe Pike protects them both!! Just don’t ask how?? 

Now Book #2 in the series is Stalking the Angel and is available for Kindle at $5.99 and Book #3Lullaby Town is on my TBR Pile. Do I read # 2 first and then #3 or just jump to #3??? Decisions. Decisions!!

2026 Post Update

Well the decision made was to read #3 Lullaby Town. However, I never read Stalking the Angel. In fact I didn’t read Crais’s 2015 release The Promise (Elvis Cole #16) until 2019. In 2019 I also read Taken (Elvis Cole #15 which was released in 2012.

Since 2019 four Elvis Cole novels have been released of which I have read only one A Dangerous Man (Elvis Cole #18). Overall, I have read 14 of the 20 Elvis Cole novels. The ones I missed were #2, #6, #14,#17,#19,#20. This year I hope to read at least 2 of them!

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About Robert Crais

Robert Crais is the author of the bestselling Cole & Pike novels. A native of Louisiana, Crais moved to Hollywood in the late 70s where he began a successful career in television, writing scripts for such major series as Cagney & Lacey, Miami Vice and Hill…Read full bio