Looking for Clues

Rick Henderson from the December 1994 issue

(Page 3 of 6)

Parker has also imbued Spenser and Hawk with invulnerability. (In the least plausible Spenser novel, 1992's Double Deuce, Spenser and Hawk clean up a gang- and drug- infested housing project with no other assistance.) The earlier Spensers featured suspense along with a sense of danger; now we get little more than crackling dialogue combined with superhuman feats of strength performed by characters who must be a few years away from collecting Social Security.

With Elvis Cole, Louisiana-born Robert Crais has created a detective who better fits Marlowe's mold than the '90s Spenser. Cole is a Vietnam veteran who lives in the Hollywood Hills, adores Jiminy Cricket, keeps fit by practicing martial arts, and occasionally strikes up conversations with his cat. (The cat doesn't have much to say.)

Most of the action in Free Fall, the fourth Cole novel, takes place in South-Central L.A. Cole finds out that, during a weapons sting, members of REACT, an elite LAPD unit, had beaten and killed a black pawn-shop employee. The police claim the death was accidental; the family contends it was a malicious act by out-of-control cops.

The REACT cops frame Cole and his partner, Joe Pike, for three execution-style murders. They escape from jail to protect a girlfriend of one of the cops from retribution by other REACT members.

"I called Charlie Bauman, a lawyer I know who has an office in Santa Monica. I called him at home. Charlie answered on the fourth ring and said, 'Hey, Elvis, how's it going, buddy?' There was music somewhere behind him and he sounded glad to hear from me.

"I said, 'I'm sitting on the floor in my living room, in the dark, and I'm wanted on three murder counts and a dope charge.'

"Charlie said, 'Shit, are you out of your nut?' He didn't sound so happy to hear from me anymore.

"I told him about it. When I got to the arrest and the questioning, he stopped me.

"'You should've called me. Never give up your right to an attorney. That was bush.'

"'I'm calling you now, Charlie,'

"'Yeah, yeah. After you fuck up.'

"I gave him the rest of it. When I finished, he didn't say anything for a while.

"'Charlie?'

"'You assaulted a police officer, and you escaped?'

"'Pike and I. Yeah.'