When THE MONKEY'S RAINCOAT was suggested as a book to read, I
probably wouldn't have bothered if someone had said, "It's
about a wise-cracking L.A. private eye who gets hired by a
woman who can't afford to pay him and gets mixed up with a
mobster and a suave, rich Mexican, but saves the day by
loading lots of guns and breaking into the Mexican's house
with his pal from Vietnam, a supertough mercenary who always
wears sunglasses."
As it was, I almost tossed it after each of the first few
chapters. Cole's wisecracking was extremely annoying and the
plot seemed entirely unoriginal. I kept going though, and the
more I read it the more I liked it, although on reflection
there was practically nothing new about it. I suppose it was
Crais' writing ability that overcame the limitations of his
inventiveness. I'm going to look for the next one.
From what people have said here, his last couple of books are
excellent. What happened between then and now? Did he keep
getting better as a writer, and come up with better plots?
Does the Cole/Pike pairing get fleshed out?
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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