Chasing Darkness
An Elvis Cole Novel
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4.2 • 66 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Private Investigator Elvis Cole learns that LA fires bring more than heat, they bring his old friend Joe Pike and the past. Cole’s fight to clear his name brings murder and corruption terrifyingly close to home.
It’s fire season, and the hills of Los Angeles are burning. When police and fire department personnel rush door to door in a frenzied evacuation effort, they discover the week-old corpse of an apparent suicide. But the gunshot victim is less gruesome than what they find in his lap: a photo album of seven brutally murdered young women—one per year, for seven years. And when the suicide victim is identified as a former suspect in one of the murders, the news turns Elvis Cole’s world upside down.
Three years earlier Lionel Byrd was brought to trial for the murder of a female prostitute named Yvonne Bennett. A taped confession coerced by the police inspired a prominent defense attorney to take Byrd’s case, and Elvis Cole was hired to investigate. It was Cole’s eleventh-hour discovery of an exculpatory videotape that allowed Lionel Byrd to walk free. Elvis was hailed as a hero.
But the discovery of the death album in Byrd’s lap now brands Elvis as an unwitting accomplice to murder. Captured in photographs that could only have been taken by the murderer, Yvonne Bennett was the fifth of the seven victims—two more young women were murdered after Lionel Byrd walked free. So Elvis can’t help but wonder—did he, Elvis Cole, cost two more young women their lives?
Shut out of the investigation by a special LAPD task force determined to close the case, Elvis Cole and Joe Pike desperately fight to uncover the truth about Lionel Byrd and his nightmare album of death—a truth hidden by lies, politics, and corruption in a world where nothing is what it seems to be.
Chasing Darkness is a blistering thriller from the bestselling author who sets the standard for intense, powerful crime writing.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Crais returns L.A. PI Elvis Cole to center stage after 2007's The Watchman, which showcased Cole's partner, Joe Pike, though Cole doesn't wisecrack as much as usual and he has only a few scenes with close friends to reveal his warmth and decency. This one is all about plot; the story opens with a bang and never slows. While clearing houses in the path of a forest fire in Laurel Canyon, police officers find the body of Lionel Byrd, an apparent suicide. Three years earlier, Cole, working for Byrd's attorney, uncovered evidence that cleared Byrd of a murder charge. Now new evidence suggests that he was guilty of that murder and six others, two of them committed after Cole helped exonerate him. Torn by guilt, Cole plunges into his own investigation, which leads in startling directions. Established fans will enjoy a dramatic story built not on mere twists but on hard 90-degree turns. To get the full richness of Cole and Pike, new readers should start with one of the early novels.
Customer Reviews
Chasing Darkness
Mr. Craig's brings his own brand of excellence to this genre. He names Raymond Chandler, John MacDonald and Robert Parker as having influenced his writing and they are well represented in the Elvis Cole series. Wavering on the edge of good and evil, and having his own moral code, the main character in his books, convey that although good will always win in the battle against evil. However there is always a price to be paid.
Crais entertains, challenges the reader and, in a way, teaches us how to be better people.