Robert Crais

Author profile

born

June 20, 1953 in Louisiana, The United States

gender

male

website

http://www.robertcrais.com/

genre

Mystery & Thrillers

influences

Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Ernest Hemingway, Robert B. Parker ...more

About this author

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Robert Crais is the author of the best-selling Elvis Cole novels. A native of Louisiana, he grew up on the banks of the Mississippi River in a blue collar family of oil refinery workers and police officers. He purchased a secondhand paperback of Raymond Chandler’s The Little Sister when he was fifteen, which inspired his lifelong love of writing, Los Angeles, and the literature of crime fiction. Other literary influences include Dashiell Hammett, Ernest Hemingway, Robert B. Parker, and John Steinbeck.
After years of amateur film-making and writing short fiction, he journeyed to Hollywood in 1976 where he quickly found work writing scripts for such major television series as Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, and Miami Vice, as well as...more Robert Crais is the author of the best-selling Elvis Cole novels. A native of Louisiana, he grew up on the banks of the Mississippi River in a blue collar family of oil refinery workers and police officers. He purchased a secondhand paperback of Raymond Chandler’s The Little Sister when he was fifteen, which inspired his lifelong love of writing, Los Angeles, and the literature of crime fiction. Other literary influences include Dashiell Hammett, Ernest Hemingway, Robert B. Parker, and John Steinbeck.
After years of amateur film-making and writing short fiction, he journeyed to Hollywood in 1976 where he quickly found work writing scripts for such major television series as Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, and Miami Vice, as well as numerous series pilots and Movies-of-the-Week for the major networks. He received an Emmy nomination for his work on Hill Street Blues, but is most proud of his 4-hour NBC miniseries, Cross of Fire, which the New York Times declared: "A searing and powerful documentation of the Ku Klux Klan’s rise to national prominence in the 20s."
In the mid-eighties, feeling constrained by the collaborative working requirements of Hollywood, Crais resigned from a lucrative position as a contract writer and television producer in order to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a novelist. His first efforts proved unsuccessful, but upon the death of his father in 1985, Crais was inspired to create Elvis Cole, using elements of his own life as the basis of the story. The resulting novel, The Monkey’s Raincoat, won the Anthony and Macavity Awards and was nominated for the Edgar Award. It has since been selected as one of the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.
Crais conceived of the novel as a stand-alone, but realized that—in Elvis Cole—he had created an ideal and powerful character through which to comment upon his life and times. (See the WORKS section for additional titles.) Elvis Cole’s readership and fan base grew with each new book, then skyrocketed in 1999 upon the publication of L. A. Requiem, which was a New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller and forever changed the way Crais conceived of and structured his novels. In this new way of telling his stories, Crais combined the classic ‘first person’ narrative of the American detective novel with flashbacks, multiple story lines, multiple points-of-view, and literary elements to better illuminate his themes. Larger and deeper in scope, Publishers Weekly wrote of L. A. Requiem, "Crais has stretched himself the way another Southern California writer—Ross Macdonald—always tried to do, to write a mystery novel with a solid literary base." Booklist added, "This is an extraordinary crime novel that should not be pigeonholed by genre. The best books always land outside preset boundaries. A wonderful experience."
Crais followed with his first non-series novel, Demolition Angel, which was published in 2000 and featured former Los Angeles Police Department Bomb Technician Carol Starkey. Starkey has since become a leading character in the Elvis Cole series. In 2001, Crais published his second non-series novel, Hostage, which was named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times and was a world-wide bestseller. Additionally, the editors of Amazon.com selected Hostage as the #1 thriller of the year. A film adaptation of Hostage was released in 2005, starring Bruce Willis as ex-LAPD SWAT negotiator Jeff Talley.
Elvis Cole returned in 2003 with the publication of The Last Detective, followed by the tenth Elvis Cole novel, The Forgotten Man, in 2005. Both novels explore with increasing depth the natures and characters of Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. RC’s third stand-alone novel, The Two Minute Rule, was published in 2006. The eleventh entry in the Elvis Cole series, The Watchman, will be published sometime in 2007.(less)

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Books by Robert Crais

Average rating: 4.00 · 46,458 ratings · 3,493 reviews · 53 distinct works

	The Watchman (Joe Pike, #1) 4.05 avg rating — 4,830 ratings — published 2007 — 32 editions	My rating:
	The Monkey's Raincoat (Elvis Cole, #1) 3.92 avg rating — 3,694 ratings — published 1987 — 27 editions	My rating:
	L.A. Requiem (Elvis Cole, #8) 4.16 avg rating — 3,282 ratings — published 1999 — 26 editions	My rating:
	The Last Detective (Elvis Cole, #9) 4.13 avg rating — 3,151 ratings — published 2003 — 36 editions	My rating:
	The First Rule (Joe Pike, #2) 4.03 avg rating — 3,165 ratings — published 2009 — 19 editions	My rating:
	The Sentry (Elvis Cole, #12, Joe Pike, #3) 4.05 avg rating — 3,042 ratings — published 2010 — 21 editions	My rating:
	Chasing Darkness (Elvis Cole, #11) 4.02 avg rating — 2,891 ratings — published 2008 — 25 editions	My rating:
	Sunset Express (Elvis Cole, #6) 4.04 avg rating — 2,448 ratings — published 1996 — 23 editions	My rating:
	The Forgotten Man (Elvis Cole, #10) 3.95 avg rating — 2,290 ratings — published 1988 — 30 editions	My rating:
	The Two Minute Rule 3.85 avg rating — 2,149 ratings — published 2006 — 33 editions	My rating:

More books by Robert Crais…

Series by Robert Crais

Elvis Cole (13 books)
by Robert Crais

4.01 avg rating — 32,416 ratings

Joe Pike (4 books)
by Robert Crais

4.05 avg rating — 12,596 ratings

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Quotes by Robert Crais

“She asked me why I always had something flip to say. I said that I didn't know, but having been blessed with the gift, I felt obliged to use it.”
― Robert Crais

tags: humor

25 people liked it

“Adults always wonder what to say and how to say it when they're talking to a child. You want to be wise, but all you are is a child yourself in a larger body. Nothing is ever what it seems. The things that you think you know are never certain. I know that now. I wish that I didn't, but I do.”
― Robert Crais, The Last Detective

6 people liked it

“People want you to be ordinary.”
― Robert Crais, The Last Detective

4 people liked it

See all Robert Crais's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Novel Ladies: Mailbox Monday - April 6, 2009	8	16	Apr 07, 2009 02:12pm
Novel Ladies: Jan's Reading Log - 2009	13	22	Jul 11, 2009 07:05am
Novel Ladies: July '09 - Member of the Month - SCOOZER!	42	48	Jul 20, 2009 03:39pm
Novel Ladies: Meeting an Author	102	49	Jul 29, 2009 01:56pm
Novel Ladies: Karin's Summer Challenge 2009	8	21	Aug 02, 2009 02:01pm
Novel Ladies: The Watchman by Robert Crais	33	21	Aug 03, 2009 09:58am
Novel Ladies: Crystal's Reading Log	62	75	Aug 06, 2009 12:25pm

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Robert Crais

Author profile

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Quotes by Robert Crais

Topics Mentioning This Author

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Robert's Fans (418)

Robert Crais

Author profile

combine editionsBooks by Robert Crais

Series by Robert Crais

Upcoming Events

Quotes by Robert Crais

Topics Mentioning This Author

Add New
Videos

combine editions
Books by Robert Crais