The Bottom Line: Elvis Cole's search for the identity of a murdered man segues neatly into his search for his own father - but what he really could might kill him.
scmrak's Full Review: Robert Crais - The Forgotten Man
It took magical words to pull Elvis Cole out from where he'd been hiding from the world for months. Words like, "He said he was your father, and then he died." The murdered man didn't look like much: a skinny sixty-something, arms and torso covered with do-it-yourself tattoos, dozens of crosses all printed upside down. Cole was pretty certain John Doe #1524-05 wasn't the papa he had never known - for one thing, the dead guy had a head shaped like a praying mantis and Cole's head looked like a rutabaga - but there was this whole dying declaration thing to deal with. And that's how Elvis Cole, World's Greatest Detective, ended up doing the legwork for the LAPD on the case.
This was a case that would tax any ordinary detective's ingenuity, even that of The World's Greatest; but Elvis Cole was equal to the challenge. Within hours he knew the dead man was Herbert Faustina, except for the niggling little detail that Herbert Faustina didn't exist. The guy was turning out to be like one of those Russian nesting dolls - every time Cole peeled off a layer of mystery, there was an enigma inside.
Someone else knew who The Forgotten Man really was, though, and that someone else was convinced that Elvis Cole had killed him. And Cole was going to pay for that, yessiree-bob. As Cole unwrapped layer after layer of mystery, it became clear to him that this case was nothing like it seemed on the surface. And that was just the start of his troubles...
When Robert Crais writes noir, the world somehow looks a little blacker. Even though his PI protagonist dresses in loud Hawaiian shirts and motors though LA in a yellow Corvette, he's still noir. So what if he's named after a hillbilly rock-n-roller, so what if he doesn't listen to trad-jazz tracks laid down by heroin addicts, so what if he doesn't chain-smoke unfiltered Camels and drink bourbon straight from the bottle; Elvis Cole's noir. Trust me on that.
The Forgotten Man exposes the dark underbelly of Cole's past. Witness the flashbacks to a childhood with his mentally unstable mother; his runaway episodes chasing carnivals in hopes of finding the father she claimed was a human cannonball; his desperate need to identify a man who just might be that father. Dark, dark, and dark...
Yet there's also a curious lightness to the Elvis Cole series, an energy that leavens a series that could otherwise be almost depressing. Cole's attitude toward his work is always one of self-deprecation. He maintains a deep connection to the obligatory deadly sidekick, Joe Pike, who mixes the deadliness of Hawk (Robert Parker's Spenser) with the mystery of Ranger (Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum). He's adopted a cat with which he shares an almost symbiotic relationship, not unlike that shared by Tony Hillerman's Jim Chee with a stray cat. He has a romantic life, even though it's currently in shambles. Cole it's apparent, is a more complex character than your garden-variety shamus; a man with flaws and insecurities, not to mention a droll sense of humor and a slightly goofy wardrobe.
Fans of the series, which includes The Last Detective and L. A. Requiem, may find The Forgotten Man a little light on the presence of Joe Pike. The deadly ex-cop with the arrow tattoos makes only brief appearances in this installment. His second-banana slot is filled by former LAPD Bomb Squad member Carol Starkey, who first appeared in Demolition Angel. Starkey's combination of professional competence and personal insecurity is a sharp contrast to the cool proficiency the taciturn Pike brings, but her added dimension of a crush on Cole helps to even things out.
Crais skillfully combines elements of several genres in The Forgotten Man. Readers will meet a stone sociopath, watch Cole unravel a case long grown cold, and also watch as Cole unravels the mystery of the dead John Doe. It's hard to argue with Cole's flippant name for himself, The World's Greatest Detective: but even the greatest can have their weaknesses and their off days.
In his major New York Times bestseller The Last Detective, Crais returned to his signature characters, private investigator Elvis Cole and partner Joe...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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