Background

Robert Crais was born on June 20, 1953 in Independence, Louisiana, United States. He was adopted and raised as an only child.

Education

Robert Crais attended Louisiana State University and studied mechanical engineering.

Career

Robert Crais moved to Hollywood in 1976 where he found work as a screenwriter for the television series Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey and Miami Vice. In addition to that, he worked for several established TV networks, writing pilots and Movies-of-the-Week. He also worked as a television writer whose credits include Cross of Fire, a movie about the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana starring Lloyd Bridges, David Morse, Mel Harris, and John Heard.

However, Crais’ best-know creation is private investigator Elvis Cole. With the release of his first novel, The Monkey's Raincoat, Crais introduced readers to the wisecracking, tough, Los Angeles detective who quickly earned Crais comparisons to legendary mystery writers such as Dashiell Hammet, Raymond Chandler, and Robert B. Parker. Crais continued to explore the seamy side of Hollywood in his next Elvis Cole novel, Stalking the Angel (1989).

Crais built up a fan base and critical acclaim through six more well-reviewed Elvis Cole novels published from 1989 to 1997. One popular title was 1995's Voodoo River , the first in the series to be set in Louisiana. It was personal to Crais in another way as the case Cole investigates is the background of a woman, Jodi Taylor, who was adopted. Like the character, Crais had been adopted as an infant and had been looking for information on the medical history of his birth family because of a medical scare in his own life. He found his birthmother and the information he needed, but they decided not to meet each other.

Crais' success with Cole reached a new level with his eighth novel in the series, L.A. Requiem . It was a hit with readers and critics alike, topping the bestseller lists of both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. After L.A. Requiem, Crais published his first non-Cole novel, a thriller titled Demolition Angel in 2000. Crais followed Demolition Angel with another standalone title, 2001's Hostage. In 2003, Crais published another novel featuring Elvis Cole titled The Last Detective. In 2005's The Forgotten Man, Crais continued to explore Cole's family life as he discovers information about his previously unknown father and gets drawn into LAPD homicide investigations. Most of Crais' books feature the characters Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, with The Watchman (2007), The First Rule (2010) and The Sentry (2011) centering on Joe Pike. Taken is a 2012 detective novel by Robert Crais. His other novels include Suspect (2013), The Promise (2015), The Wanted (2017). His new book A Dangerous Man is announced to appear on August 6, 2019.

Achievements

• Robert Crais is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty novels, most of them featuring private investigator Elvis Cole and his ex-cop partner, Joe Pike. His novels have been published in 62 countries and are bestsellers around the world. Robert Crais received the Ross Macdonald Literary Award in 2006 and was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 2014.

Works

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  • The Promise

    (Elvis Cole is hired to find a woman who’s disappeared, a ...)

    2015
  • Suspect

    (Nine months ago, a shocking assault by unidentified men k...)

    2013
  • The Wanted

    (When single-mother Devon Connor hires Elvis Cole, it’s be...)

    2017
  • The Forgotten Man

    (In an alleyway in Los Angeles, an old man, clutching fade...)

    2005
  • The First Rule

    (When Frank Meyer and his family are executed during a hom...)

    2009
  • Indigo Slam

    (Life in the California sun suits Elvis Cole - until the d...)

    1997
  • Taken

    (When Nita Morales hires Elvis Cole to find her missing da...)

    2012
  • The Monkey's Raincoat

    (When quiet Ellen Lang enters Elvis Cole's Disney Deco off...)

    1987
  • Chasing Darkness

    (Private Investigator Elvis Cole learns that LA fires brin...)

    2008
  • The Two Minute Rule

    (Every seasoned criminal knows the two minute rule: the tw...)

    2006
  • The Watchman

    (At last, the enigmatic partner of Elvis Cole (The Two Min...)

    2007
  • The Best American Mystery Stories 2012

    (The Best American series is the premier annual showcase f...)

    2012
  • Hostage

    (Jeff Talley was a good husband, a fine father, and a fron...)

    2001
  • Lullaby Town

    (Peter Alan Nelsen is a super-successful movie director wh...)

    1992
  • The Sentry

    (When gangbangers shake down the modest owner of a Los Ang...)

    2011
  • Free Fall

    (Elvis Cole is just a detective who can't say no, especial...)

    1993
  • Stalking the Angel

    (The blonde who walked into Cole’s office was the bestlook...)

    1989
  • Sunset Express

    (Prominent restaurateur Teddy Martin is facing charges in ...)

    1996
  • Three Great Novels: The Early Years

    (This book contains Stalking the Angel, Lullaby Town, the ...)

    2001
  • Demolition Angel

    (Carol Starkey is struggling to pick up the pieces of her ...)

    2000
  • The Last Detective

    (Elvis Cole’s relationship with attorney Lucy Chenier is s...)

    2003
  • Two Great Novels

    (This book contains The Monkey's Raincoat and Stalking the...)

    2006
  • A Dangerous Man

    (Joe Pike didn't expect to rescue a woman that day. He wen...)

    2019
  • L.A. Requiem

    (The day starts like any other in L.A. The sun burns hot a...)

    1999
  • Voodoo River

    (L.A. private eye Elvis Cole is hired by popular televisio...)

    1995

Views

When Robert Crais was 15 years old, his life changed after reading Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister. Because of this novel, he became interested in being a writer, specifically in crime fiction, and also grew fascinated with Los Angeles. Crais credits Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Ernest Hemingway, Robert B. Parker, and John Steinbeck for influencing his writing style.

Quotations: "Some of us find our way with a single light to guide us; others lose themselves even when the star field is as sharp as a neon ceiling. Ethics may not be situational, but feelings are. We learn to adjust, and, over time, the stars we use to guide ourselves come to reside within rather than without."

"People want you to be ordinary. They don't like it when people are different. They don't like it when a man soars over their heads while they stand in the dirt. People hate you when you're special; it reminds them of everything that they aren't."

"I admire people who re-create themselves. And it seems to me that what gives us all the opportunity to be heroic in our own lives is that we work to heal ourselves and be better than we were yesterday."

Connections

Robert Crais is married Pat Crais, a child therapist. They have a daughter, Lauren Crais.

Spouse:

Pat Crais

Daughter:

Lauren Crais

References

• Contemporary Authors
  2000
• The Official Website of Robert Crais