Book Review: The Forgotten Man

Reviewed By: Woodstock - RAM

The Forgotten Man     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Robert Crais
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Series: Elvis Cole # 10
Doubleday, 2005, 342 pages

As readers of earlier books know, Elvis Cole grew up in uncertain circumstances, with a mother who suffered from an undiagnosed mental illness and provided fanciful stories when her young son asked about his father. As a result, Cole is drawn - almost against his will - into an LAPD investigation of a body found shot to death in a downtown alley. According to investigators who reached the man before he died, the victim claimed to be in Los Angeles seeking for his son, Elvis Cole.

Working scrupulously within the regulations governing private investigators who work on active LAPD cases, Cole and his sidekick Joe Pike begin to piece together the details of the man's life. They receive assistance from LAPD officer Kelly Diaz who found the victim, and from Carol Starkey. Starkey is a character from earlier entries in the Elvis Cole series, and readers learn that she has developed a full blown adolescent crush on Elvis. This complicates her life, but puts her in the right place at several crucial moments in the chain of events.

Eventually, a number of deaths and disappearances which have remained unsolved for generations become pertinent to the case. A vicious sociopath stalks Cole, and a violent showdown is in the works as Cole begins to understand the truth.

Woodstock - RAM

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