Ellen Lang walks into Elvis Cole's Disney-Deco office and hires him to find her husband and son. Elvis and his partner Joe Pike's search leads to Hollywood where they find a world of drugs, sex, and murder. Abridged standard play recording.
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Ellen Lang walks into Elvis Cole's Disney-Deco office and hires him to find her husband and son. Elvis and his partner Joe Pike's search leads to Hollywood where they find a world of drugs, sex, and murder. Abridged standard play recording.
Read Less
Add this copy of The Monkey's Raincoat to cart. $3.90, good condition, Sold by The Yard Sale Store rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Narrowsburg, NY, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by Brilliance Audio.
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Seller's Description:
Good. 4 AUDIO CASSETTES in the original printed box. Some shelf wear and fold mark to the box. Each cassette tape is tested before shipping for quality of sound. You will receive a worthwhile set. Enjoy this AUDIO CASSETTE performance.
Add this copy of The Monkey's Raincoat to cart. $14.00, very good condition, Sold by Take Five Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Ashland, OR, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by Brilliance Audio.
Add this copy of The Monkey's Raincoat (Elvis Cole/Joe Pike Series) to cart. $44.80, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hialeah, FL, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by Brilliance Audio.
Elvis Cole is original; he' a wise-cracking private eye with a side-kick whose other name should be Rambo. However, it is Joe Pike. This is the first in the series but I've read several of the Elvis and Joe Pike books before.
I have a personal belief that the strength of the author can be seen by just how nice the villain is (versus the totally nonredeemable degenerate that most new writers create for their bad boy). Crais' former matador is charming and interesting -- as well as being a Mexican drug lord.
It was more interesting to see the Elvis - Joe Pike relationship, rather than wading through thousands of words trying to describe a very complex association.
This book is not as good as the later stories but sets up the characters for the future. Elvis is a cross between a sarcastic cynic and a psychologist. Elvis' thoughts carry the plot; he helps Joe Pike navigate a world where Joe seems to be a semi-alien.
Elvis Cole
1. The Monkey's Raincoat (1987)
2. Stalking the Angel (1988)
3. Lullaby Town (1992)
bookwormandapple
Aug 28, 2011
A Good Place to Start
I read this book 20 years ago and remembered it fondly enough to pick it up again this year. In fact, I decided to read the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike novels in chronological order this summer.
What I discovered was a real treat. The Monkey's Raincoat is actually only a fair novel. You can tell it was his first with a less polished style and a heavy reliance on dated cultural references that makes reading the novel now a little harder.
But stick with it and then continue on. What you will see is both a real development of a writer and of the characters Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. Somewhere along the way, Crais really develops his skills and by the time I hit L.A. Requiem, I thought, this is a damn fine story and the characters became fully fleshed out and compelling.
Subsequent books are a little uneven, but the writing quality is still high, and with every book, I fall in love with Elvis and Joe a little bit more.
You might, however, skip Crais' stand-alone novels. Demolition Angel was good, but the others seem like a miss after the Cole and Pike books.
