Rating: 
Summary: Counterfeiter
Review: Three children and their father are moving. To each of them two boxes for belongings have been assigned. The destination is Salt Lake City. At the new location different names are to be taken. The move is to take place under the auspices of the U.S. Marshals.
Three years later the children are in Los Angeles consulting Elvis Cole because the father has disappeared. Since they are minors Elvis follows them to learn that they are living in a house in seemingly decent circumstances. The children used the family car to find his office. He agrees to take the case for a reduced fee and will not contact the child welfare authorities at the present time.
The investigation creates a need to travel to Seattle to visit a former associate of the father It is learned that the father was a printer and a counterfeiter. He may be on the run from a Ukranian, a Russian mob. Elvis runs into federal agents in Seattle who are pursuing the case.
Days later Elvis sees the three children and the father in California. Later a partner of the father is found to have been tortured to death. A part of the equation bearing upon current circumstances and mysteries is that the father has cancer.
The PI, Elvis Cole, is an outstanding character. The story is exciting.
Rating: 
Summary: Chinese Dinner
Review: Two of my favorite Elvis adventures are "The Monkey's Raincoat" and "L.A. Requiem." "The Last Detective" is likewise very well written. This isn't. Elvis takes another case for nothing. He must not only be the World's Greatest Detective, but the The World's Greatest Detective Who Doesn't Need Any Money, too. Like a blue collar boxer from the east coast who tires in anonimity, taking the wrong fights for the right reason, you keep hoping he'll have a million dollar payday sometime. Here, Elvis helps three children find their lost father on the run from the Russian Mob. It's a nice twist and Robert Crais, as always, pulls it off well. But the children are tedious. One acts out and curses constantly. You're hoping that the mob gets him. The father is tedious. He complains from page five and we have him figured out by page fifteen. Joe is tedious. He lacks that hard, scary edge that never fails to interest us. Here he has one liners that are a cross between Clint Eastwood and Jack Benny. Heavily armed. Not a page turner and a book that would be a poor place to start what is a very well written series. Elvis Cole and Joe Pike maybe the best series around. "Indigo Slam" isn't.
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