Robert Crais was born in Louisiana in 1954. He grew up in a family of oil workers and police officers. His education consisted of training as a mechanical engineer. In 1976, he went to Hollywood and became a scriptwriter for television, doing series like Quincy, LA Law, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, Cagney and Lacey, and Hill Street Blues. Hill Street Blues actually got him an Emmy nomination.
Robert quit scriptwriting and wanted to write books. This didn't work out very well until his father died. Something clicked after that and he created a character called Elvis Cole. Elvis was a private detective and had been an Army Ranger. His partner was Joe Pike, who had been a Marine. He wrote his first real book called The Monkey's Raincoat. This book won him the Best First Novel and the Best Paperback Original awards.
Out of all the books he has written there are only three that don't have Elvis and Joe in them. One of his books, Hostage, was made into a movie with Bruce Willis playing the lead. Even though his books are mysteries, he tries to end them with the people being better than what they were to start with.
Some of his books are Lullaby Town, Voodoo River, Sunset Express, The Forgotten Man, and The Last Detective. His latest book will be out February of 2009, and that one is called Chasing Darkness.
As of now, Robert lives with his family and three cats in the mountains of Santa Monica, California. He also enjoys backpacking, and being a gourmet cook.
