Stalking the Angel

An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel, Book 2

By: Robert Crais

Narrated by: David Stuart

Meet Elvis Cole, L.A. private eye...he quotes Jiminy Cricket and carries a .38. He’s a literate, wise-cracking Vietnam vet who is determined never to grow up.

The blonde who walked into Cole’s office was the best looking woman he’d seen in weeks. The only thing that kept her from rating a perfect "10" was the briefcase on one arm and the uptight hotel magnate on the other. Bradley Warren had lost something very valuable - something that belonged to someone else: a rare thirteenth-century Japanese manuscript called the Hagakure.

Just about all Cole knew about Japanese culture he’d learned from reading Shogun, but he knew a lot about crooks - and what he didn’t know his sociopathic sidekick, Joe Pike, did. Together their search begins in L.A.’s Little Tokyo and the nest of notorious Japanese mafia, the yakuza, and leads to a white-knuckled adventure filled with madness, murder, sexual obsession, and a stunning double-whammy ending. For Elvis Cole, it’s just another day’s work.

Praise for Stalking the Angel

"Stalking the Angel is a righteous California book: intelligent, perceptive, hard, clean."--James Ellroy

"Out on the West Coast, where private eyes thrive like avocado trees, Robert Crais has created an interesting and amusing hero in Elvis Cole."--The Wall Street Journal

"Devotees of the rock ‘em, sock ‘em school should find [Stalking the Angel] tasty."--The San Diego Union

©1992 Robert Crais (P)2006 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Stalking the Angel is a righteous California book: intelligent, perceptive, hard, clean."--James Elroy

"Elvis Cole provides more fun for the reader than any L.A. private eye to come along in years."--Joseph Wambaugh

"Stuart brings the quirky Cole to life quickly, combining his strengths (tenacity, incorruptibility, frequent flashes of humor) with his oddities (his love of the Disney artifacts that litter his office) to make a credible whole person. Other characters emerge with equal vocal skill: the enigmatic Joe Pike, Cole's muscular sidekick; a glowering Los Angeles property developer, his alcohol-impaired wife and their fragile adolescent daughter, who winds up being kidnapped by Japanese gangsters. Cole, hired to find a rare Japanese manuscript, discovers that the teenager's fate is very important to him personally forging a bond between the detective and children in peril that has become a hallmark of the series. For those who have been fans of Elvis since book one, The Monkey's Raincoat, it's good to have his early adventures around to listen to. For more recent Crais converts, this could prove an eye-opening revelation of how Cole got to be who he is."--Publishers Weekly

Love Elvis and Joe

But feel like telling him that he knows full well that Falstaff wasn’t brewed in Tumwater WA. 😂

Entertaining yet nothing exceptional

It passed some time but I am far from thinking it would be repeatable. I like the unexpected and this was too predictable.

Elvis Cole just gets better

I liked book one, and I really liked book two. Elvis is a real guy, he's not the toughest, biggest or baddest guy around, but the PI you'd really want to hire if you needed one. The realism, the emotion the conflict all have sense of realism. The characters act is a manner the seems probable but not predictable. The narration by David Stuart makes it. RIght up there with John Sandford and Richard Ferrone. I can't wait for book 3

Pike’s Gun Speed Shooting Range

I have owned this story on cassette now on download to re listen. Ah wonderful on 1.2 speed, thank heavens for modern technology. I have re purchased all of David Stuart’s Crais reads. He does a lovely job but James Danials in the Watchman is my all time favorite. Do not miss LA Requiem, Pikes back story.
This is a faster pace Crais story of Stockholm syndrome in Chinatown.
Were my comments of help?

disapointing

My 1st book Robert Crais book I listened too. It had 4 stars but it was disappointing for me. Just took too long to get started and when it did nothing very exciting happened. 'Joe Pike's role was pretty small. To be fair I will try another Crais book.