Byline: DICK LOCHTE
If it accomplished nothing else, the O.J. Simpson
ordeal has served
as a source of endless inspiration for comedians
and writers. Robert
Crais, whose novels about private detective Elvis
Cole contain enough
humor to place him in both categories, cleverly
makes good use of ele-
ments of the "trial of the century" in his latest
highly entertaining mystery,
Sunset Express. Leaving the race card untouched,
he presents a murder
suspect similar to Simpson several ways--he's
wealthy, he's accused of
slaying his wife and he's hired the best legal
minds money can buy. His
chief lawyer, enough of a grandstander to have
a documentary filmmaker
as part of his entourage, hires the private eye
to investigate the female
police officer who discovered the murder weapon
at his client's home.
Did she plant it? True to Philip Marlowe's tenets,
Cole is more
interested in morality than in money, and when
he discovers that he may
not be on the side of the angels, takes appropriate
action. How he and
his sociopathic partner, Joe Pike, seek to right
the scales of justice makes
for what may be the series' strongest entry.
The Crais fan club has been
growing with each novel, and this one, his seventh
(sic), has the potential to make
it all the way to the bestseller lists.
(Note: this is an excerpt from a longer article.)