false 3 1 false false Sun Mar 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 08 08:24:47 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 08 08:37:38 -0700 2009 noir Los Angeles, but the plot of this book kept straying into a kind of sleepwalking. I suppose it was necessary for Cole and Pike to have the violent encounter with the Repko brothers in order to get more clues to nail down the serial killer, but that plot detour doesn't add much to the narrative.

Lacking in this book is the edginess that makes the earlier Elvis Cole books fun to read. Even Joe Pike, the silent but powerful sidekick character that seems essential to all these "macho man" mysteries, is subdued.

The denouement is a sly touch, even though I figured it out long before it finally came.

Despite the problems, the atmospheric elements of Elvis Cole's world make this Robert Crais worth reading. ]]>