The Monkey's Raincoat: An Elvis Cole Novel

I got online to see if anyone else found the narrator distracting. I was glad to see it wasn't just me. The narrator has a fine voice, just not for this first person story. As another reviewer mentioned, the main character, Elvis Cole, comes across whiny. I thought he was more of a quirky tough guy. He sounds like a quirky IT professional with a gun (I'm an IT professional, I know what we sound like).

I'm trying to power through this audiobook. I haven't finished it yet, but I also haven't listened in a week since it's not all that enjoyable.

The other problem, and maybe it's less of a problem when reading the book or with a different narrator, is that the character seems a little too full of himself. But it's possible that I'm hearing a whiny, yet conceited, character and if it were just a conceited character it wouldn't be so bad.

I got into this book because I love Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch novels and I read that the two authors did a bit of a cross-over by having each others characters make cameo appearances in one of their respective novels. But so far I'm just not enjoying Elvis Cole. Maybe I'll try another novel in the series to see if that is better.

I gave it two stars. Not wretched, but certainly sub-par.

I really like this style of detective novels. The PI has a smart mouth and guts and know how to back it up.

The plot had some unexpected turns which gave me the impression that the author was trying to stretch the books length more than actually following an outline.

In the end everything was tied up in a nice neat bow.

I will definately be getting the other books in this series.

I really, really tried to get into this book but it was useless. I hate to criticize narrators but it was so hard to imagine a 30 something character with that voice.

Book 5 Stars Narration 1 star. I suggest you read this one

I purchased this because I'd liked the previous Elvis Cole so much, but what a difference the reader can make! I can't even comment on the writing or the plot because the reader ground both of them down into the sewer. You've got a protagonist who's quietly confident, reserved, competent, so sure of himself and his boundaries that he doesn't ever have to be pushy. So, producers, OF COURSE you hire a reader who portrays him as whiny, know-it-all, desperate for attention and approval, and pompous. Good choice. This reader was such a horrible, incongruent, pushy dweeb that I couldn't bear it. What a disgusting and avoidable mess the publishers made of this!

The enhanced recording frankly sounds like a poor attempt to resurrect an old, stretched cassette tape pulled out of the mud and run through the dishwasher a couple of times. The narrator is of commensurate (lack of) quality. Disappointing enough to prompt this "review."

I was surprised how weak his early work was; this is a really a cliche riddled novel that is completely unbelievable. From what I heard, skip his early work.

I wasn’t pulled in.

Told in 1st person by private investigator Elvis Cole. 1st person can work, but in this book I felt like I was missing things. A boy is kidnaped, a man is killed, a woman is kidnaped. The story would be better if I’d seen those things happening. Instead, Elvis is hired to find a guy. He talks to people. He learns this happened and that happened. A few times Elvis fights or shoots someone. I didn’t care about things. I wanted to know more about the boy, but it seemed that everything about him was off stage - happening elsewhere. I didn’t feel the boy’s fears due to first person Elvis. 1st person would work better if Elvis had fears, but he didn’t. The only suspense was when a guy bigger than Elvis was threatening or fighting Elvis.

There were two sex scenes that felt thrown in - no romance or sexual feeling. Elvis is talking to a woman, all of a sudden they have sex, and then Elvis leaves. The sex is referred to with no details.

NARRATOR:
I have mixed feelings about the narrator. It sounded like he was talking through a piece of cloth over the microphone. I had to keep the volume higher than normal to hear him. I think it might be his voice - a soft low sound. His accent and acting were fine.

Genre: PI Mystery Suspense

Unfortunately because I listened to L.A. Requiem, before purchasing this book my expectations were that the narrator would portray the kind of "tough guy" persona that we expect from a "private eye". This narrator is too gentle with a sing,sing voice that has become so irritating that after only a few chapters into the book, I cannot contimue on with listening to it. I don't understand why they change narrators with series books. Don't they understand that the narrator becomes the character. Audible should have a refund policy for these types of circumstances.

Crais is awesome...but the person who hired the narrator and thought that it was recordable should find another job. The narration and quality of the recording is so horrible that I'm afraid I've had enough...I don't even want to listen to it - and I really hate not finishing a book, but life is too short to listen to bad books. Pass on this one...trust me. Read it perhaps - but do yourself a favor and do not listen to this Lawlor guy.