Slam Dunk! Robert Crais scores another winner.... (Indigo Slam - Robert Crais)

Member Name: sparkymarky1973

Product:	Indigo Slam - Robert Crais
Date:	01/05/09 (58 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tough, gritty and uncompromising- this is everything you want from a modern-day Private-Eye thriller

Disadvantages: None- this is thriller writing at it's highest level

Indigo Slam is the seventh Elvis Cole, P.I novel written by Robert Crais, a veteran writer on shows such as Cagney And Lacey and Hill Street Blues, who devised this Detective series to explore themes he felt he couldn't do justice on American television. The Elvis Cole series has earned Crais a whole host of well-deserved literary awards and no end of critical acclaim and, picking this up, it is easy to see why. Not only are these books tense and highly-crafted but also action-packed and full of dark, dry and sarcastic humour that often gets Cole into trouble. What is even more appealing is that you don't have to had read any of the previous novels to delve into this series; though some storylines kind of carry over from novel to novel, it is not enough to spoil the enjoyment of new readers of the series who may be picking up Crais for the first time! This is good because it enables the reader to pick up the books in any paticular order leading to a much wider appeal than those crime series which make more sense when read in a linear fashion.

This time around, Cole is approached in his office by a young girl and her two siblings eager to locate their father. Clark Hewitt is a printer by trade and often goes off looking for work leaving the kids to fend for themselves which they do quite adequately. This time though, Clark has been gone longer than normal and the kids have started to worry. At first Cole is tempted to pass over the case to Children's Services but when he sees how well the kids are managing, he agrees to help for a limited fee. His investigation takes him to Seattle, where he discovers that Clarke is much more than he appears to be, and alerts the attentions of Russian mobsters, U.S Marshall's Witness Relocation Officers and a group of Vietnamese Revolutionists looking to overthrow the Communist Regime in Vietnam, still bitter from the war many years earlier that has left them without a home. Once again, a routine investigation takes Elvis Cole in way over his head and it is only his silent partner, Joe Pike, who is himself more than he appears to be, that keeps Cole from being killed. And then there is Cole's girlfriend's ex-husband who also turns up to stir the mix, complicating things further. With Indigo Slam, Crais has again crafted a very clever tale around the simplest of plots and come up with a winner of a novel that cries out to be read and enjoyed. Once started, I found myself hooked to the story and didn't put this down until two o'clock the next morning! And it's not often that books cause me to do that anymore.....

One of the best things about this series is that it doesn't take itself too seriously; think of the kind of wise-cracks that Spiderman used to come out with in the good ol' days before Marvel started taking itself too seriously and you won't go too far wrong with the level of the humour. Cole's worst habit is his inability to keep his mouth shut in a tight situation and this invariably leads to him getting a hiding or two. But thats no bad thing because this is one of those series where sometimes it pays to know that even the good guys don't always come away with the merest of scratches and lends a very important air of realism to the proceedings. If you're looking for tough, gritty Detective drama then look no further because Crais is one of the bestest crime writers around and shows no sign of slowing his pace!

Summary: A search for a missing father leads Cole into more than he bargained for.....