The character of Elvis Cole was developed by fiction writer Robert Crais. He is usually portrayed as a detective type character or private investigator. In early novels, the writing in these novels was similar to regular 1940’s detective stories, where there is a lot of violence and minimal dialogue. Some of his background history includes him serving in Vietnam as an Army Ranger. Further on, he is a security guard who is excellent when it comes to martial arts. Elvis likes to wear Hawaiian shirts, which seem to be his trademark. His preference in weapons is his Wesson .38 revolver.

When Crais developed Elvis Cole, he realized he could use his character over and over in many books. As he developed each book, he realized his readership continued to grow based on the Elvis Cole character. He developed Cole into a powerful yet interesting character that readers loved, and they couldn’t wait until the next book came out. When writing about Cole, Crais often uses flashbacks and has multiple story lines and points of views going on all at the same time.

Some of what keeps people coming back to read the books based on Elvis Cole is that the character himself changes little in each book. His character is one that doesn’t like living with others. He practices his martial arts and enjoys his A-frame hillside house. He likes the visits he gets from a stray black cat that has a tendency to bite Cole’s visitors and enjoys drinking beer with him. He has an on-again, off-again love life. His character is always getting himself into some sort of trouble, and manages to get both the police and criminals mad at him. Unfortunately, he has a need to be rescued just in time by his partner and best friend Joe Pike, who is an ex-cop.

In Crais’ books about Elvis Cole, you’ll find Cole and his partner often come out as heroes. Both of the characters have tragic pasts, which help in keeping the public reading the books. One of the most recent books written about Cole is called “Chasing Darkness;” it is Robert Crais’ twelfth book that has Cole as a lead character. Crais has won many awards for his books, especially the ones regarding Cole.