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Critics' Opinion:
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First Published:
Feb 2005, 352 pages
Paperback:
Jan 2006, 368 pages
A stunning, edge-of-your-seat suspense novel that leads Detective Elvis Cole to the very thing he's always searched for— the dark secrets of his own life and the father he never knew—as well as a brutal killer determined to stop him.
In his major New York Times bestseller, The Last Detective, Robert Crais returned to
his signature characters, private investigator Elvis Cole and his enigmatic
partner, Joe Pike. Now Crais delivers a stunning, edge-of-your-seat suspense
novel that leads Elvis to the very thing he's always searched for— the dark
secrets of his own life—as well as a brutal killer determined to stop him.
Los Angeles, 3:58 a.m.: Elvis Cole receives the phone call he's been
waiting for since childhood. Responding to a gunshot, 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— his
longtime partner and confidant, Joe Pike. Together with hard-edged LAPD
detective, Carol Starkey, they launch a feverish search for the dead man's
identity—even as Elvis struggles between wanting to believe he's found his
father at last and allowing his suspicions to hold him back. With each
long-buried clue they unearth, a frightening picture begins to emerge about who
the dead man might have been and the terrible secret he's been guarding.
At the same time, Elvis has no way of knowing he has awakened a sleeping
monster. The further he goes in his investigation, the closer he draws to a
merciless killer who is violently connected to the unidentified man's past.
This psychopath believes Cole is hunting him, and he goes on the attack to find
Elvis before Elvis can find him.
Summoning all the powerful elements that have made Robert Crais one of the
preeminent crime writers today, The Forgotten Man is a spectacular
tour-de-force of suspense and intrigue.
1
They called me to view the body on a wet spring morning when darkness webbed my
house. Some nights are like that; more now than before. Picture the World's
Greatest Detective, reluctant subject of sidebar articles in the Los Angeles
Times and Los Angeles magazine, stretched on his couch in a redwood
A-frame overlooking the city, not really sleeping at 3:58 A.M. when the phone
rang. I thought it was a reporter, but answered anyway.
"Hello."
"This is Detective Kelly Diaz with LAPD. I apologize about the time, but I'm
trying to reach Elvis Cole."
Her voice was coarse, reflecting the early hour. I pushed into a sitting
position and cleared my throat. Police who call before sunrise have nothing to
offer but bad news.
"How'd you get my number?"
I had changed my home number when the news stories broke, but reporters and
cranks still called.
"One of the criminalists had it or got it, I'm not sure. Either way, I'm
sorry for calling like this,...
Before Crais published his first standalone thriller, Demolition Angel, in 2000, followed by Hostage in 2001, he wrote a series of eight books featuring Elvis Cole, a 'sensitive and wisecracking collector of Disneyana' and his 'heavy-artillery partner, Joe Pike', set in the seamy streets of Los Angeles. In 2003 he returned to the series with The Last Detective. The Forgotten Man is the 10th in the series.
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