L.A. Requiem (Hardcover)

by Robert Crais (Author) "Uniformed LAPD Officer Joe Pike could hear the banda music even with the engine idling, the a.c. jacked to meat locker, and the two-way crackling..." (more)
Key Phrases: coroner investigator, evidence kit, cigarette boy, Joe Pike, Karen Garcia, Parker Center (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
More than 10 years ago, I was shocked to learn that some puerile piece of fluff had won the Edgar for Best Paperback Original, when it was so obvious to me and virtually everyone else in the Western Hemisphere that the award should have gone to The Monkey's Raincoat, the book that introduced Elvis Cole, private eye, and is to this day one of the funniest books I've ever read.

The terrific Elvis Cole series has grown through the years, each book better than the last, but nothing prepared me for the quantum leap (yes, it's a cliché, but it belongs here) that Crais has made with L.A. Requiem. It's not as funny as the other books in the series, but it's a beautifully plotted detective story, rich with police procedure, and it will keep even the most sophisticated reader at sea right until the end. And that's what elevates this book to the level of literature.

This one is more about Joe Pike, Elvis's silent sidekick, than it is about Elvis. We learn, through Pike's own eyes, how his childhood made him the way he is today. It's also about a friendship so strong that it threatens Elvis's relationship with his beloved Lucy. It is a tender but dark book--a serial killer book--but it doesn't attempt to outgross the other serial killer books on the shelf. It is funny at times and chilling at other times, making it one of the rare books that can't help but linger in the memory long after it's been read and put away. --Otto Penzler

From Publishers Weekly
In his eighth book about wise-cracking Los Angeles private detective Elvis Cole, Crais has expanded his narrative reach and broadened his characters' horizons to produce a mature work that deserves to move him up a notch or twoAinto Parker or Connelly country. He's done this by focusing on Joe Pike, Cole's tough and hitherto totally enigmatic partner. It's Pike who breaks in on Cole's reunion with Lucy Chenier, his lawyer/broadcaster lover who has just moved from New Orleans, to ask for Elvis's help in tracking down the missing daughter of a rich and powerful Hispanic businessman. When the girl turns up murdered in Griffith Park, it's Pike who gives a nerdy medical examiner valuable assistance; and when it turns out that the girl's death is linked to several other murders, it's Pike who is charged with killing the chief suspect. Through flashbacks to Joe's past life as an abused child, a highly motivated teenage soldier and an L.A. cop fighting to keep a corrupt partner from destroying his family, we learn more about Pike than we did in the seven previous Cole books. This new focus also allows Crais to keep Elvis's often annoying throwaway lines to a minimumAalthough more pruning could have been done with no loss of flavor. The book's scope is wide enough to include many other memorable characters, especially a rough-edged, vulnerable police officer named Samantha Dolan, plus a choice of plausible villains. There may be one too many metaphoric descriptions attempting to link aspects of the L.A. landscape with the moods and deeds of its inhabitants, but overall Crais seems to have successfully stretched himself the way another Southern California writerARoss MacdonaldAalways tried to do, to write a mystery novel with a solid literary base.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (June 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385495838
• ISBN-13: 978-0385495837
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (188 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #409,825 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 8 in The Elvis Cole Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Exceptional Book, May 29, 2000

By	Old Fisherman "Jim" (Orange, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: L.A. Requiem (Elvis Cole Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

As with most of the reviewers, I've followed Robert Crais from the beginning and this is his best book yet.

It starts with Joe Pike's ex-girlfriend, Karen Garcia, being gunned down by the Hollywood Reservoir as she's out jogging. Karen's father, an Hispanic with huge political clout, doesn't trust the police to work the case so he asks Joe to act as an overseer to the case, and Joe involves Elvis Cole. As more evidence surfaces it looks like a serial killer may be at work and when the prime suspect is himself murdered, Joe Pike is arrested for the killing.

First, the plot is very well done. It has the requisite twists and turns and I don't think many people will figure this one out before the author wants you to.

Secondly, the writing is superb. Crais has always been a good writer in a mild breezy way, but with this book he shows us he can handle deeper emotions. This is a darker, more serious, book than his others and he handles it with aplomb. I, at first considered this series as a Spenser wannabee, but his writing has now pushed him beyond that. He is a very good writer.

Third, his characterization is rich. Joe Pike, who up until now has been Elvis Cole's spear carrier, emerges as the complex human being we've always felt he might be. Far from being the emotionless killer, we find that Joe's emotions are there but well hidden. The book does a wonderful job of explaining what made Joe the way he is. Some others have remarked that Joe is a little too unbelievable, but I don't think so. There really are men like this in the world.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. I gave it five stars and I don't give out that rating lightly. You won't be disappointed.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crais at his best, December 27, 1999

By	Kenneth Heard "cornerbook" (Arkansas) - See all my reviews

Fans of Robert Crais have seen his writing style progress with each of his Elvis Cole novels. All are entertaining, but L.A. Requiem suddenly vaults way ahead of anyone else this year and propels Crais to the top of the heap of detective writers. In fact, list Crais as one of the best writers of any fiction.

This, by far, is the best book I've read this year. And I read a lot--I own a used bookstore.

L.A. Requiem has its funny stuff, but it's darker than the rest. The book deals more with Joe Pike and his background. At times I felt like I was eavesdropping on Pike, knowing things about him he probably doesn't want us to know. Crais' portrayal of L.A. is a character of itself. The fires in the hills act as a metaphor for the conflict/tension building. The plot is great; they're searching for a killer. But Crais' use of language, thought, description really supercedes the plot.

I've always been a big fan of Crais and grab as much of him as I can. I recommend him all the time at our store. L.A. Requiem is outstanding and more readers will take notice. I can't wait for his next book.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Giri and Ninjo in Los Angeles, October 27, 2005

By	Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

This review is from: L.A. Requiem (Elvis Cole Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

The odd thing about this story is that it is much more about Joe Pike, Elvis Cole's partner than it is about Cole. Pike was originally in the L.A. Police, but left under the cloud of the accidental shooting of his partner. Now Pike is trying to find the murderer of Karen Garcia, a woman he left several years ago, in spite of his feeling about her. The old events seem destined to intertwine with current history as Joe and Elvis come into conflict with Harvey Krantz, a detective in homicide who desperately wants to punish Pike for his old sins.

The case becomes more complicated when Elvis discovers that Karen was killed with the same M.O. as several other victims. Everything points to a serial killer, but the victims seem to have nothing in common. And Krantz is doing everything in his power to keep Cole and Pike in the dark. Cole manages to strike a friendship with Samantha Dolan, another detective, and gains some headway, but with the friendship comes a host of other problems.

Lucy Chenier and her son have moved to Los Angeles because of the relationship between her and Elvis. To all appearances things are working between them. But this case will put Cole as a crisis point in chosing between Joe Pike, a friend, and Lucy, a lover. Suffice it to say, Elvis Coles shows himself as a master at making the wrong choices and Crais' normal noir style turns even darker as the murders, Joe Pike, Dolan, and Lucy all vie for his commitment. When you combine this with Cole's natural tendency to go off half-cocked, you get a situation which threatens not only relationships, but lives.

The problem with this story is Elvis Cole, who manages to get so conflicted that it interferes with the flow of the novel. You keep waiting for someone to have an attack of good sense, but it never happens. Only Pike seems able to keep his head, but he is also fixated on getting revenge for Karen Garcia, so he carries his doom around with him. He is the most interesting character in the story, as Cole seems to be parodying himself with malice aforethought.

For the reader this all becomes a question of loving the plot despite some wobbly character work. The themse of love and loss intertwine into a complex whole. The ending is the typical, grueling Crais ending, full of shocks and surprises. With the little loose ends that are a trademark of the noir detective story. I've liked other Crais tales more, but there is no denying the power behind this anguished conflict between the samurai values of duty and desire.