BookBrowse Reviews The Forgotten Man by Robert Crais

'A potent mix of sound detection, black humor and cut-and-run action'. Thriller

Comment: 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.

'Very few thrillers leave readers with teary vision, pondering such profundities as acceptance and forgiveness. This is one of the few. A deeply moving, heartfelt mystery.' - Booklist, Wes Lukowsky.

'A potent mix of sound detection, black humor, cut-and-run action, sensitive-male flapdoodle, and half a dozen first-class surprises. Welcome back, Elvis.' - Kirkus Reviews.

This review first ran in the February 3, 2006 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.