The Monkey's Raincoat (Elvis Cole) Mass Market Paperback – March 1, 1992

Looking for some light reading material for purposes of amusement, while spending some quiet time at the local library one day; lo and behold, I found The Monkey's Raincoat, by Robert Crais, published in 1987. The client depicted in the novel isn't as weak, defenseless, and pathetic as you might imagine at first glance. She does have a well-meaning friend upon whom she confides for support and guidance. She leans on her for comfort in her hour of need. Neither of them exactly fits the bill for the stereotypical "Wonder Woman" criteria. The private eyes they meet from the detective agency to help resolve her problem are interesting to say the least. You might be tempted to call them "Frank" and "Reliable." You discover that Lady Luck smiles upon them repeatedly. You get the idea. They are the kind of fellows who would make good friends and neighbors. They would bail you out and be there for you in a pinch, "when push comes to shove," as some might say. Yet, they are believable characters, as caring and lovable as teddy bears. You get the picture. The setting is Hollywood Hills, with all of the glitz and glamour. Not unlike the bumper sticker visible on a customized farm truck in sparkling show-room condition dragging Main Street which offers a quick assessment of the situation, "too cool for New York, but savvy enough for L.A." The plot--no job too tough for our illustrious, esteemed gumshoe investigators; involves a case of mistaken identity coupled with misplaced trust, amidst a raging monsoon of megalomania on the part of the antagonist. Before long, you start thinking, "Somebody ought to go over there and spank that monkey." No doubt, you will want to read more about these detectives and their daring deeds in a future novel. Putting them together with the damsels in distress, the score from an arrangement of assorted "Loony Tunes" cartoon theme and poignant classical music, you'd have another "La La Land" movie hit. "You want to remove the toxins from your body," said Meghan in a calm and soothing tone of voice, as she saturated a tub of warm, clear, cleansing bathwater with two handfuls of finely granulated salt crystals. "It's good for the skin and the soul, isn't it?" replied R. Royce. "I don't know about yours," she said, tactlessly, callously. "Shall we change the subject, then?" said Royce, on guard. He was beginning to feel somewhat uncomfortable. He winced and looked away. Feeling mortally wounded, the fleeting thought occurred to him that a door to the next universe had suddenly closed before his very eyes. "Who died and left Alexis Sue Shell in charge?" she burst out, bluntly, spitefully, and somewhat angrily. "What brought that on, Meghan? It's too late for a soap opera." "Someone knocks on Cornelius' door late one night and asks if he can help retrieve a cold and frightened kitten out from under the hood of a parked automobile. He calls Susan and brings her aboard to resolve the situation." "So, she coaxes the cute and cuddle-some creature, forlorn and beyond reach, out with a warm saucer of milk. It's no big deal!" explained Royce. "But then he put her in charge of communications!" said Meghan, frantic. "Somebody has to contact us when there's an alert. We can't all be in the office all of the time, 24-7. He needed to free you up for more pressing matters. We have plans for you." "Oh. What do you have in mind? You're telling me she doesn't have a mean streak or a vindictive bone in her body?" "No, of course not. Neither do you." Royce began to reassure Meghan, and felt the universe expanding, as it should. "Which is why we're all meeting for a friendly breakfast early tomorrow morning." She changed her tune and began to ham it up with a song and dance routine. "Don't tease me, please me. Hug me, kiss me, squeeze me." At Denny's, Cornelius Korn told the others present about the novel he was reading and the solid wooden chair he was building in the shop out of hard-rock maple. "I bet it's sturdy," Meghan commented. Susan laughed inaudibly, contentedly, catching on quickly. About that time Korn showed them the tickets for their next vacation. "Pack your bags," he said, beaming. "We're going on a Caribbean cruise." Never once did he mention the next get-rich-quick scheme. "To Atlantis," said Royce, looking over the itinerary. "A resort hotel named after the fabled lost city at the bottom of the ocean. Are we searching for sunken pirate treasure?"

Elvis Cole is the natural progression of McDonald’s Travis McGee and Parker’s Spenser.Pike is a force of nature and this duo works just fine.Five stars.

I got the audio of this book from the library. I enjoyed it so much, I bought a paperback for my son. He is also an avid reader!

Elvis Cole is a graduate with a 2 year degree from Saigon U ( i.e . a tour in Vietnam in Uncle Sam's Army) He is a detective in 1987 L.A. with a Pinnocchio cuckoo clock with moving eyes in his office. He overcomes morning depression with a yoga, tai chi, tae quan do routine. He shares a beer with his cat. He is a good looking private dick who has a way with the ladies. Two teary eyed dames in a powder blue Mustang GT crossed his path to seek out a missing husband and kid. Elvis starts crisscrossing town looking under rocks for sleazy agents and third rate actresses. I am liking Robert Crais so far on page 40. I am using this work as an entre to this author after reading good things. I would like to advise the readers, though, that the BANTAM BOOKS EDITION paperback which I purchased from Amazon has TINY PRINT. And I have perfect eyes. Beware, with this pot-boiler you will feel like Sherlock Holmes because you will need a magnifying glass to read the tiny words. Well things are heating up. Elvis sexes up the victims hard-bodied best friend. He has her moaning with pleasure. They say Elvis looks like a young John Cassavettes. The client's husband Mort turns up dead. Time to call Elvis's partner Joe Pike. Joe is tall, lean, and all stringy muscle. He is a man of few words behind his tinted aviator glasses. His office which shares a door with Elvis has no furniture and is empty. He is a buddy from Nam. When Elvis needs Joe to put a tail on two bad Mexican dudes with thick necks Joe is on it like white on rice. Joe only needs to know if Elvis also wants them "gutted and cleaned". Elvis knows with a man as dangerous as Joe Pike; he better be careful how he answers. Elvis sits in his Corvette on a stake out on the bad side of town. He is on his second good taco with real meat that puts Taco Bell to shame when he has action. His client is held hostage in a dumpy bungalow. Elvis sneaks in and frees his client; but he has to cap two thick-necked Mexicans to escape whole. The action is coming to a boil. Two pounds of pharmaceutical cocaine are missing. Unless Elvis finds the coke in a hurry a rich, evil Mexican industrialist will kill the clients kid. Just to bring home the point the kidnappers let Elvis listen on the phone as they torture the kid to elicit heart piercing wails. Elvis Cole and Joe Pike go on a little road trip. They go Rambo in 1987 L.A. There is heart thumping gun play and hand to hand combat. The pair tie up the adventure in a neat bow. This book generated a good buzz. These two are a dynamic duo of a detective team. This is a very solid foundation for a series. I recommend this book to all readers. I will now look for the rest of the Elvis Cole series.

Elvis is fun and likeable, Pike is a stone cold killer. Neither character is realistic but it doesn't make the story any less enjoyable.

enjoyable ,quick read and held my interest, with quirky characters

I enjoyed the budding relationships as they developed between the characters

Cole and pike just never disappoint, good stories stand up to time, go ahead and read all of them, you won’t regret it

Having fancied this series for some time, I took advantage of a Kindle Daily Deal. My first impression was that the formatting was terrible, every line break followed by blank lines such that a page of snappy dialogue might only contain 8 rows. Not Robert Crais' fault, but a poor effort by whoever was responsible. It didn't ruin the reading experience, but it was distracting.My second impression was that I had picked up a Myron Bolitar novel - fans of Harlan Coben's creation will feel instantly at home here. Like Bolitar, Cole is a smart-ass, wisecracking, tough guy with an even tougher buddy waiting in the wings for those occasions when things get messy. Crais piles the bodies up a bit more willingly than Coben and doesn't try to fool the reader with so many twists and turns, but there are plenty of similarities.My opinion of Cole is much the same as that of Bolitar. The Monkey's Raincoat is a fun read (there is some nasty violence, but it's all a bit cartoon-like) that doesn't require too much of an attention span. It's written in an easy style that makes for a fast and enjoyable read. I'll definitely read more of the series but will need a break between books as I can imagine Cole grating after a while. Too much of a good thing perhaps.

The Monkey’s RaincoatThis is the first in a series of books featuring Los Angeles private detective Elvis Cole. Written by Robert Crais who for many years made a living by writing scripts for TV series such as Hill Street Blues, Cagney and Lacy and LA Law.Cole is asked by a client to trace her husband who has gone missing with their nine year old son. The client is very apologetic about her request and feels she may be making an unnecessary fuss. Then the husband is found dead.In what seems initially to be a hum-drum straightforward issue it soon escalates into a frenzy of violence with organised crime heavily involved and with the life of a young boy integral to the process. Cole is both mystified and confused by the polices unwillingness to get directly involved.Despite seeing at first-hand the brutality and sadistic nature of the criminal gang involved Cole decides to take his chances and ignore the warnings not to get to close. Backed up by his partner and friend Joe Pike they end up confronting head on both the criminals and the police. Oh and the client who was initially apologetic she ends up being more resilient than any of them.Written in a style almost reminiscent of a TV detective series of the seventies and eighties it would never be described as a literary classic. However it is a good story which was well-written and over the years has led to a number of books featuring the same characters. Well worth a look.

I enjoyed The Monkey's Raincoat very much. It is the first Robert Crais that I have read, but it definitely won't be the last.Written and set in 1987, The Monkey's Raincoat introduces us to Elvis Cole, an LA private detective and his partner, the near-silent and entirely deadly Joe Pike. Narrated in the first person by Cole, he takes a job to find a missing husband and his nine-year-old son, which becomes embroiled in drugs, Hollywood sleaze and organised crime. It's just about plausible (other than the huge body count without any noticeable consequences) and it's an entertaining, well written story. Cole is an engaging narrator with a penchant for a wisecrack (he even quotes Raymond Chandler at one point, so we can see where he's coming from) and the plot is well-paced and constructed with an exciting (and very violent) climax.Highbrow Literature, this ain't, but it's a very well written, readable book which kept me hooked and left me wanting to read more in the series. What more could you want?

This is my first Robert Crais and also the first in the series of books featuring Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. I always like to start books at the beginning of a series and in this case this first book of his was published back in 1987. The book starts off a little strangely and straight away you can tell that Elvis Cole is not going to be your typical `hero' of a book. He is a Private investigator who has a case trying to locate a missing husband and son for Ellen Lang.What at first seems like an open and shut case of finding the missing husband and son takes Elvis down a deep and murky path of sex drugs and murder. I couldn't help but really like Elvis from the very beginning. He is sarcastic, witty and very, very readable. His partner Joe Pike doesn't seem to make that much of an impact in this first book and seems very much a background addition, albeit an interesting one. Pike is an ex-Marine who says very little but still seems to make an impact.I admit that this first book I found myself struggling with in parts where I felt it dragged a little bit, but soon enough the personality of Elvis Cole dragged me back. There are quite a few things going on plot wise and it held my interest, but I felt that this was more of a book to establish the characters and use this as a great springboard for the rest of the series.Towards the end it got a bit more interesting and when I had finished I knew I was on to a winner because I certainly wanted to read more about Elvis and Cole. Overall, the story wasn't the best, but the writing of Robert Crais and the production of two great partners has spurred my interest. When I consider this book was written over twenty years ago I realise that as a debut novel it's a pretty good one. All I can say is that I have an awful lot of catching up to do with the series and I'm looking forward to it!

My 2nd Robert Crais book. I read The First Rule first, and by virtue of that fact this is my first Elvis Cole book.Crais has an easy going style that is economical and clear. He doesn't dress up his prose or hit the thesaurus too hard so its very, very accessible - this is airport literature and I don't have a problem with that. The story is pretty straight forward and I was never surprised or shocked - but this was a first novel so that is too be expected - but the characters all felt a little lightweight but I hope that to change as the series progresses.The main character, Elvis, is a little bit of a louche, quipping P.I. straight off day time TV but I sometimes found his misogyny a little difficult to stomach. He assesses each woman in the novel by her physical attributes first and everything else second and it didn't sit right with me. He seems to make a joke out of everything and this on the whole works as it seems that every cameo character has crossed paths with Elvis at some point and have come to expect this.His partner, Joe Pike, is a virtual walk-on part in the book and is just a bit of an Easter Island head character and I didn't get any feel for him at all, but I hope that to change.What I really liked about the book was the honest to goodness investigative work that Elvis does. He hits the leads hard and follows everything up and makes his own luck. I liked that he was never afraid to show his gun so that he could avoid a fight and when he was in a fight he would fight dirty, real street rules. He spoke to the police, a lot. He does a lot of things that you would expect him to do and only doesn't when he has no other viable option.I have bought the 2nd Elvis Cole book as I liked it a lot in the end.