Robert Crais is a bestseller author worldwide for his suspense crime fiction thrillers of the Elvis Cole-Joe Pike series as well as three novels.

Crais was born 1954 in Louisiana. He began at age 15 reading crime fighting thrillers such as The Little Sister. At this point Crais knew what the future had in store for him. He trained as a mechanical engineer but writing was his passion.

At age 22 he headed to Hollywood. He found work in TV script writing for Hills Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, L.A. Law, Quincy and others. He wrote scripts for pilots and television movies. Among his credits included an Emmy nomination for Hill Street Blues. His proudest accomplishment was a TV mini series called Cross of Fire.

Feeling forced to certain writing guidelines to meet Hollywood requirements, he forfeited a position to pursue his own technique of writing to become a novelist. The beginnings were unsuccessful. With the death of his father, he developed the character of Elvis Cole with his own life’s aspects intertwined. His novel The Monkeys Raincoat was a huge success and was nominated for the Edgar Award and won the Anthony & Macavity Awards. The publication of L.A. Requiem became a NY Times and LA Times bestseller in 1999 and made an impression on the style of future writing Crais had in stored.

In 2000 Crais wrote his first novel Demolition Angel followed by Hostage a year later which also became a movie. The third novel entitled The Two Minute Rule was published in 2006. His current thriller is another Elvis Cole-Joe Pike series called Chasing Darkness.

Crais is the recipient of the 2006 Ross MacDonald Literary Award. He was a nominee for the Shamus Awards Best Novel 5 times, including for L.A.Requiem.