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There was a stretch of time when I didn't read Robert Crais's Elvis Cole novels. My reasoning was that any book featuring a protagonist named "Elvis" was probably semi-satirical, in the Carl Hiaasen sense, and I didn't want any more of that. I don't recall precisely when the scales fell from my eyes, but after checking one out, I basically set everything else aside and read the entire backlist. Semi-satirical? Forget it. This is heart of darkness territory.
Elvis Cole is damaged goods wrapped in a nice, attractive box. He is a private investigator who gets the job done, but not without leaving part of himself behind. Crais uses southern California in general and Los Angeles in particular as a background for Cole (and, incidentally, as a visitor's guide for the reader), an uneasy setting upon which Cole can both blend and clash, sometimes simultaneously.
THE FORGOTTEN MAN begins with an enigmatic but ultimately important prologue concerning the fearsome aftermath of an apparent home invasion that leaves behind a lone survivor by accident rather than through intent. The novel proper begins with Cole being awakened by an early morning phone call that ushers him to a nightmarish scenario. A man has been shot in a nondescript alleyway in downtown Los Angeles. The victim has no identification, but the police officer on the scene reports that with his dying breath the victim said that he was looking for his son, Elvis Cole.
Cole, who never knew his father, is torn between pursuing the identity of the dead man and allowing his naturally suspicious nature to hold him back. His investigation is a slippery slope: the deeper he delves into the background of the mysterious stranger, the less convinced he becomes that the man is his father. Yet his need to determine who and what the man is becomes more and more compelling.
Joe Pike, Cole's de facto partner in his detective agency, is willing to help as always, and his simmering, dangerous presence is a welcome foil to Cole's occasional impulsive excesses. But Cole has no way of knowing that his investigation is about to unearth a monster who has been confined, if not held in check, and who is now pursuing Cole with a haunting deliberateness.
THE FORGOTTEN MAN is Crais at his quietly brilliant best, where each turn of the page potentially hides a bombshell revelation in stark, beautiful, and memorable prose. This one is a winner in every sense of the word. Absolutely not to be missed.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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