>>Bonnie, seriously, no problem. I have regretted books before.
>>
>>Since I like recommending writers so much, the guy I am on now is Johathan Tropper. He reminds me of me, only a better writer.
>
>For the record I finally managed to gather up and, as of today, finish all the Elvis Cole and or Joe Pike books. I don't remember whether it was you or Tracy who recommended them, but thanks.
>

It could have been me. I hope you didn't speed read them too much to miss that they are same books <g>. Elvis Cole is a good character but when Pike shows up the books kick into overdrive. The forward pointing red arrows tattooed on his shoulders are such a perfect detail.

Clete Purcel in the Dave Robicheux books (James Lee Burke) is a similar character. Burke gets a little preachy but Clete is a keeper.

Last night both my daughters were gone and I went back to the classics. Raymond Chandler. He invented a genre, the hard boiled L.A. private eye story. He has often been imitated but never matched.

From the first page of "The Lady in the Lake" ---

"A neat little blonde sat off in a far corner at a small PBX, behind a railing and well out of harm's way. At a flat desk in line with the doors was a tall, lean, dark-haired lovely whose name, according to the tilted embossed plaque on her desk, was Miss Adrienne Fromsett.

"She wore a steel gray business suit and under the jacket a dark blue shirt and a man's tie of lighter shade. The edges of the folded handkerchief in the breast pocket looked sharp enough to slice bread. She wore a linked bracelet and no other jewelry. Her dark hair was parted and fell in loose but not unstudied waves. She had a smooth ivory skin and rather severe eyebrows and large dark eyes that looked as if they might warm up at the right time and in the right place."

Has a femme fatale ever been introduced better?