The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais

Title: The Monkey's Raincoat
Author: Robert Crais
ISBN: 0553275852, Bantam Books, 1992
Genre: Private Investigator, #1 Elvis Cole mystery
Rating: A

First Line: "I'm sorry, Mr. Cole, this has nothing to do with you."

Several years ago people began mentioning Elvis Cole to me. Hmm...my last name, my mother's favorite singer.... I duly filed away the information. The people doing the mentioning probably thought I'd blown them off, to which I would reply: Just because I don't lay rubber the second you mention an author I might like doesn't mean I'm not paying attention. Sometimes I think part of my brain is an aquifer; it takes time for some of these authors to percolate down to the Do Something Level. I finally reached the Do Something Level with Elvis Cole, and now I've got a big smile on my face knowing what I've got in store for me.

Elvis Cole is a private investigator with a shadowy partner, Joe Pike. Joe isn't around all that much, which suits most people just fine. Let's face it-- the man scares people to death, and according to Elvis, "Pike thinks Clint Eastwood talks too much." Elvis has a life that suits him just fine. A Vietnam vet, his hero is Peter Pan, and he thinks very highly of Jiminy Cricket. (So do I. Jiminy taught me how to spell encyclopedia.) I also have to admit that the Pinocchio clock he has on his office wall fascinates me. Peter Pan...Jiminy Cricket...Pinocchio...when Ellen Lang walked into his office to hire him to find her missing husband and son, I knew that I was about to embark on a rather unusual investigation. I was led to a viper's den of criminals, drugs and sex, but I feared not, for Cole and Pike were with me.

By the time I finished, I had some new friends in Elvis and Joe. (I have a healthy respect for Joe, but he doesn't scare me. Yet.) The investigation itself isn't all that complex or unusual, but it moves quickly and taught me to pay attention to small clues and subtle nuances. The real reason why this book is such a standout rests squarely on the shoulders of Elvis Cole. It's as though, once he made it out of Vietnam in one piece and decided he wanted to be Peter Pan, his decision stripped away several layers of adult apathy and cynicism. This man can eat ice cream, watch an obnoxious customer torment the counter girl...and be incapable of pretending it isn't happening. When Mr. Obnoxious is persuaded to leave, Elvis leaves his business card with the girl. "If anyone ever bothers you...let me know."

And that's the strength of Elvis Cole--he cares. If that's what happens when a person decides to be Peter Pan, I say we should all start flapping our arms and taking flying lessons. In The Monkey's Raincoat, Robert Crais has set his stage with two superb characters in Cole and Pike, and I just happen to have Acts Two (Stalking the Angel) and Three (Lullaby Town) waiting in the wings.

Now if I could only find myself one of those Pinocchio clocks....





[A word of warning: anyone who has a low tolerance of violence may want to pass on this series.]

Dog On It by Spencer Quinn

Title: Dog On It
Author: Spencer Quinn
ISBN: 9781416585831/ Atria Books, 2009
Genre: P.I., #1 Chet & Bernie mystery
Rating: B+

First Line: I could smell him--or rather the booze on his breath--before he even opened the door, but my sense of smell is pretty good, probably better than yours.

I'd better get this off my chest first: when I was little, I'd never miss an episode of "Lassie" on television, even though Mom would make remarks about Lassie coming in to spell H-E-L-P in the mashed potatoes. I've been all grown up now (at least physically) for quite some time, and once I put childish things aside, I've never been a fan of talking animal books. Perhaps I'm entering my second childhood, but now I find myself a fan of a talking dog, and his name is Chet. (Actually he never does "talk"...he just thinks really loud.)

After a run-in with a cat, Chet flunked K-9 school and now finds himself a partner in the Little Detective Agency. Life with private investigator Bernie Little is tops in Chet's book, and when divorcee Cynthia Chambliss hires Bernie to find her missing fifteen-year-old daughter Madison, Chet is ready to get to work.

Although Quinn never comes right out and tells us where the book is set, he mentions saguaro cacti a few times, so that does an excellent job of narrowing down the location. Chet and Bernie are in Arizona. (Probably Phoenix after reading Bernie's comments about the growth of the city.) Told entirely from Chet's point of view, I enjoyed this book immensely--and not just because of Chet. Bernie is a very strong character, too, with his own highly developed smarts and his views on the environment. One of the pleasures of reading Dog On It was seeing everything from a canine perspective and wondering how the author would work those clues so that Bernie could pick them up and go to work on them himself. (Unlike Lassie, Chet can't leave messages in the spuds.)

Strong characters, a fast-paced engrossing plot, and the added bonus of seeing everything from a very different perspective makes this debut a fun read.

There has been quite a lot of speculation about author Spencer Quinn's true identity. Sarah Weinman seems to have figured it out. Chet also seems to be turning into quite the celebrity. He has his own blog, you can find him on Twitter, and he has his own Facebook page.

Here's to many more mysterious adventures with Chet and Bernie!

REVIEW: Rat City

Title: Rat City
Author: Curt Colbert
Protagonist: hard-boiled gumshoe, Jake Rossiter
Setting: Seattle, Washington, 1947
Series: #1
Rating: B+

First Line: I'd never used my new pistol.

Nothing like trying to have your first cup of java in the morning when a big palooka storms in your office and tries to punch your ticket to the Pearly Gates.

The above sentence is one reason why Rat City sat on my TBR shelves for a few years. I've seen more than one comedy sketch about the tough private eye, and each time I had to decipher what in the world the characters were saying. I bought the book because of its setting, but when I opened it and realized what sort of book it was, visions of Humphrey Bogart, Maltese Falcons, Mike Hammer and the like began tap dancing in my head and I got a bit queasy. This week, I decided to do some Detesto Testing. I chose three books that I'd had for several years and decided that, one by one, I'd give each a chance. If I wasn't hooked by page 50, they were History. Rat City was the first of the three.

Jake Rossiter, former Marine in the South Pacific during World War II, is back home in Seattle and set up in his own private investigation business. He even has his own gal Friday, Miss Jenkins. When Big Ed, a very big, very angry bookie comes into his office and fires two shots at him, Rossiter doesn't have any alternative but to fire back. Big Ed lives just long enough to gasp, "Gloria!" Not long after that, someone else has another crack at killing him and gasps, "Gloria!" before he dies. It's enough to give Jake a complex, and he sure as shooting wants to know who this Gloria is. He calls in some extra help so he can work the Gloria investigation as well as continue with an old case that's been going nowhere.

Fortunately for me, although Rat City has the look and the feel of 1940s hard-boiled noir, Colbert didn't feel the necessity to use all the period private eye jargon. Colbert has an excellent cast of characters, and the plot moved right along like Rossiter's eight-cylinder Buick Roadmaster. I wouldn't even mind reading the next book in this series just to find out how Miss Jenkins' correspondence course is doing. It's nice to have my expectations kicked in the seat of the pants once in a while, and that's what Colbert certainly did.

A word of warning for anyone thinking of reading this book: it does have some rough language, and I'm not just talking about swear words. If racial slurs bother you at all, I would gently advise you not to read Rat City.