[.ca] Indigo Slam: An Elvis Cole Novel (ISBN 0786862610)

From Amazon.com:
Readers who complain that there's too much wisecracking and cute icon worship in Robert Crais's books about Los Angeles private eye Elvis Cole will be glad to find these traits downplayed (but not totally disappeared) in this story about Cole's search for a missing printer whose specialty is funny money. The book is centered by the presence of the printer's three children--especially the motherly 15-year-old Teri and the obnoxious 12-year-old Charles--who hire Elvis from the phone book. Cole, hoping to become the stepfather of the son of his own lady love, gets sucked in by the children's combination of need and family unity, and soon finds himself in the middle of a shooting war between Russian gangsters, Vietnamese patriots, and ambiguous Federal agents. Previous Elvis outings in paperback: Sunset Express, Free Fall, Lullaby Town, The Monkey's Raincoat, Stalking the Angel, Voodoo River.

Gripping:
This Elvis Cole/Joe Pike story is more gripping than most others, and one recommended. The story has an interesting beginning when a teen-age girl, taking care of her two younger siblings, comes into Cole's office and tries to hire him to find her missing father. This improbable request is initially denied, but Cole's soft heart leads him into a mystery that grows by the day. The father turns out to be truly missing, and the trail leads to a Seattle counterfeiting operation for the Russian mob, and before Cole knows what is going on, he is arrested by the feds and knocked around by a team of US Marshals. And that is just the beginning. The action leads from Seattle back to the large L.A. area, and the search generates more threats and banging-around, and Cole, and then his partner, Pike, end up taking shots from Orientals as well as Russians, while dodging both the Secret Service and the US Marshals, and the complex conflicts taxes even these best of private detectives. And the kids of the missing man keep getting in the way as well, and there is considerable interesting reading here, and this book is recommended.

Good BOT:
I liked this BOT (book on tape.) The only negetive thing I have to say is that the format of using 2 tracks per side (1 on right side and 1 on the left side of stereo) has some draw backs. but the price savings of this feature are nice.

Elvis Rules!:
Another great Elvis Cole novel! Lots of plot, great quirky characters, the romance heating up between Elvis and Lucy, action galore and a great Disney-Land finale. If you want to be up until dawn reading great mystery, pick up a copy of any Robert Crais novel. You will be glad you did!

Crais does it again!:
This is my second time into the world of Elvis Cole and I loved every single second of it! Elvis Cole is a sensational and hilarious PI that gets involved in a case finding the father of 3 children that have been left to fend for themselves. This 'missing' persons cases leads Cole into a world of drugs, the Russian Mafia, funny money and kidnapping. Cole and his band are so damn good that you forget that they aren't real and that is what keeps you so engrossed in the story and characters that you will not be able to put this book down! I really enjoy crimer/thrillers with a bit of humour and old-fashioned psychos to make it interesting & Crais is what I really needed after a few 'classical' crime books. If you love your crime to keep you laughing and guessing until the end, then you will love Indigo Slam..I can't wait to get the rest of this books!

A real disappointment -- save your money:
I've enjoyed the Elvis Cole series but this was indeed a sub-subpar effort. Even for what is expected to be a "light read," there was nothing remotely credible about the plot or the characters. Improbable, unlikely -- the willing suspension of disbelief can only be stretched so thin. The bit about the mysterious klling machine partner (Pike) who always shows up at the right time is also getting tedious and makes Harvey the six-foot rabbit seemed grounded in reality. Let's face it -- characters like Pike and Hawk (in the Spenser series) are as pathetic fantasies as anything found in some bodice-ripping romance novel. Buy Michael Connelly's latest (or any book of his) rather than this book. For real writing, emotion and character development there is just no comparison.