Elvis Cole's Mysterious Life

Robert Crais first wrote about detective Elvis Cole in his award-winning first novel “The Monkey’s Raincoat.” Since then, the self-proclaimed “World’s Greatest Detective” has appeared in some twelve novels. Elvis is a private investigator who works out of his Santa Monica office. His beat is mainly Southern California, but he has traveled throughout the country and the world to solve his clients' cases.

Elvis, a Vietnam veteran who served in the U.S. Army Rangers, is trained in martial arts and keeps fit by practicing yoga. He drives a yellow Corvette and partners with another Vietnam era serviceman and former Los Angeles area policeman, Joe Pike.

Cole’s wisecracking and near worship of Disney collectibles, along with his seeming incorruptible nature, has endeared him to his fans. Cole and Pike take on the Mob, money launderers, drug dealers, child molesters, and a steady stream of undesirables in his many cases. The mysterious but dependable Cole faces all of these characters and situations with unswerving aplomb.

The most recent mystery surrounding Elvis and Joe is why a huge company would decide that they can use similar characters and insert them into a video game. Players of the game who have read the novels immediately recognized the characters. Writers through the years are very careful about protecting their characters. Robert Crais has been unyielding is his efforts to keep Elvis Cole in his element, which is his mystery novels. Without approval Activision has developed a game that has used “protected expressionisms” from the Cole and Pike characters, or so says Mr. Crais in his recent lawsuit.