Elvis Cole Books in Order: How to read Robert Crais’s Series?

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Mystery awaits, why aren’t you reading Elvis Cole and Joe Pike books? Here is where to start.

What’s the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Books series about?

Created by Robert Crais, this hard-boiled detective series of books is about a private investigator named Elvis Cole and his partner Joe Pike.

This pair of Hollywood unorthodox private eyes focuses mainly on cases of abused and battered women and children – with some exceptions. Elvis is the tough and conscientious type, and Joe is the strong and silent partner.

That’s mostly all you need to know to start reading!

How to read the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Books in Order?

Every book in the Cole and Pike series works as a standalone story, but the lives of the different characters evolve from one novel to the other.

    1. The Monkey’s Raincoat (1987)
    2. Stalking the Angel (1988)
    3. Lullaby Town (1992)
    4. Free Fall (1993)
    5. Voodoo River (1995)
    6. Sunset Express (1996)
    7. Indigo Slam (1997)
    8. L. A. Requiem (1999)
    9. The Last Detective (2003)
    10. The Forgotten Man (2005)
    11. The Watchman (2007)
    12. Chasing Darkness (2008)
    13. The First Rule (2009)
    14. The Sentry (2010)
    15. Taken (2012)
    16. The Promise (2015)
    17. The Wanted (2017)
    18. A Dangerous Man (2019)
    19. Racing the Light (2022)

What is the plot of the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike novels?

For more information about the books in the Cole& Pike series by Robert Crais, you’ll find below the official synopsis for all the books:

The Monkey’s Raincoat – Elvis Cole, a literate, wisecracking Vietnam vet, finds himself embroiled in an investigation into a missing husband and son that could cost him his life.

Stalking the Angel – The blonde who walked into Cole’s office was the best-looking woman he’d seen in weeks. The only thing that kept her from rating a perfect ‘10’ was the briefcase on one arm and the uptight hotel magnate on the other. Bradley Warren had lost something very valuable – something that belonged to someone else: a rare thirteenth-century Japanese manuscript called the Hagakure.

Lullaby Town – Hollywood’s newest wunderkind is Peter Alan Nelson, the brilliant, erratic director known as the King of Adventure. His films make billions, but his manners make enemies. What the boy king wants, he gets, and what Nelson wants is for Elvis to comb the country for the airhead wife and infant child the film-school flunkout dumped en route to becoming the third biggest filmmaker in America.

Free Fall – Private Detective Elvis Cole takes Jennifer Sheridan’s case, which involves her decorated Los Angeles-cop boyfriend in some mysterious trouble, and Cole and his partner Pike are soon plunged in police corruption, gangs, and the depiction of themselves as armed killers.

Voodoo River – Elvis Cole is hired by television star Jodie Taylor to delve into her past and identify the biological parents. It seems all too clear cut. But when he gets to Louisiana and begins his search, Cole finds that there’s something much darker going on. Other people are also looking for Taylor’s parents, and some are ending up dead.

Sunset Express – Prominent restaurateur Teddy Martin is facing charges in his wife’s brutal murder. His hotshot attorney hires P.I. Elvis Cole to find proof that Detective Angela Rossi tampered with the evidence. As Cole and his partner Joe Pike work their way through a tangle of witnesses and an even greater tangle of media, they begin to suspect that it’s not the police who are behind the setup.

Indigo Slam – Three years ago, a Seattle family ran for their lives in a hail of bullets. Hired by three kids to find their missing father, Elvis now must pick up the cold pieces of a drama that began that night. What he finds is a sordid tale of high crimes and illicit drugs.

L.A. Requiem – For private investigator Joe Pike, the city will never be the same again. His ex-lover, Karen Garcia, is dead, brutally murdered with a gun shot to the head. Now Karen’s powerful father calls on Pike and his partner, Elvis Cole, to keep an eye on the LAPD as they search for his daughter’s killer

The Last Detective – P.I. Elvis Cole’s relationship with attorney Lucy Chenier is strained. Then the unthinkable happens. While Lucy is away on business and her ten-year-old son Ben is staying with Elvis, the boy vanishes without a trace. When the kidnappers call, it’s not for ransom, but for a promise to punish Cole for past sins he claims he didn’t commit.

The Forgotten Man – Elvis Cole receives the phone call. The LAPD has found an injured man in an alleyway. He has told the officer on the scene that he is looking for his son, Elvis Cole. Minutes later, the man is dead. Haunted throughout his life by a lack of knowledge about his father, Elvis turns to the one person who can help him navigate the minefield of his past, Joe Pike.

The Watchman – A wild-living young heiress slams into trouble in the L.A. night. After her Aston Martin collides with a mysterious car, Larkin Conner Barkley attempts to help the accident victims – and becomes the sole witness in a federal investigation. Whisking her out of her Beverly Hills world is Joe Pike, hired to shield Larkin from a relentless team of killers.

Chasing Darkness – It’s fire season, and the hills of Los Angeles are burning. When police and fire department personnel rush door to door in a frenzied evacuation effort, they discover the week-old corpse of an apparent suicide. But the gunshot victim is less gruesome than what they find in his lap: a photo album of seven brutally murdered young women – one per year, for seven years.

The First Rule – When Frank Meyer and his family are executed during a home invasion, the police begin investigating the secret life they’re sure Meyer had. Joe Pike’s on a hunt of his own: to clear his friend’s name, and to punish the people who murdered him.

The Sentry – When gangbangers shake down the modest owner of a Los Angeles eatery, Joe Pike intervenes. For all intents and purposes, Pike saved Wilson Smith’s life. But for reasons of their own, Smith and his lovely niece, Dru, are curiously resentful.

Taken – When Nita Morales hires Elvis Cole to find her missing daughter, she’s sure it’s a ruse orchestrated by the girl and her boyfriend. She’s wrong. They’ve been taken by bajadores – border bandits who prey on the innocent by buying, selling, and disposing of victims like commodities.

The Promise – Elvis Cole is hired to find a woman who’s disappeared, a seemingly ordinary case, until he learns the missing woman is an explosives expert and worked for a Defense Department contractor.

The Wanted – When single-mother Devon Connor hires Elvis Cole, it’s because her troubled teenage son Tyson is flashing cash and she’s afraid he’s dealing drugs. But the truth is devastatingly different. With two others, he’s been responsible for a string of high-end burglaries, a crime spree that takes a deadly turn when one of them is murdered and Tyson and his girlfriend disappear.

A Dangerous Man – Joe Pike didn’t expect to rescue a woman that day. He went to the bank same as anyone goes to the bank, and returned to his Jeep. So when Isabel Roland, the lonely young teller who helped him, steps out of the bank on her way to lunch, Joe is on hand when two men abduct her. Joe chases them down, and the two men are arrested. But instead of putting the drama to bed, the arrests are only the beginning of the trouble for Joe and Izzy.

Racing the Light – Adele Schumacher isn’t a typical worried mom. When she hires Elvis Cole to find her missing son, a controversial podcaster named Josh Shoe, she brings a bag filled with cash, bizarre tales of government conspiracies, and a squad of professional bodyguards. Finding Josh should be simple, but Elvis quickly learns he isn’t alone in the hunt–a deadly team of mysterious strangers are determined to find Josh and his adult film star girlfriend first.

Bonus: Elvis Cole and Joe Pike: A Mysterious Profile – In this short piece, Robert Crais brings us into the world of quirky and likable Los Angeles PI Elvis Cole and his friend Joe Pike, a survivor and an enigmatic man of few words. The discussion revolves around the choices they’ve made, the obstacles they’ve overcome, the things that drive them to be who they are, and the hope that keeps them persevering through the darkness.

What should you read if you like Cole and Pike’s novels?

If you like reading Robert Crais’ Elvis Cole and Joe Pike stories, you may be interested in the Myron Bolitar series by Harlan Coben, or the Jackson Brodie series by Kate Atkinson.

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2 Comments

  1. I thought LA Requiem was an absolutely wonderful read! That book/story should seriously be considered for a movie. Very Good!

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