Meet Elvis Cole, L.A. private eye . . . he quotes Jiminy Cricket and carries a .38. He&;s a literate, wisecreacking Vietnam vet who is determined never to grow up. The blonde who walked into Cole&;s office was the bestlooking woman he&;d seen in weeks. The only thing that kept her from rating a perfect &;10&; was the briefcase on one arm and the uptight hotel magnate on the other. Bradley Warren had lost something very valuable&;something that belonged to someone else: a rare thirteenth-century Japanese manuscript called the Hagakure. Just about all Cole knew about Japanese culture he&;d learned from reading Shogun, but he knew a lot about crooks&;and what he didn&;t know his sociopathic sidekick, Joe Pike, did. Together their search begins in L.A.&;s Little Tokyo and the nest of notorious Japanese mafia, the yakuza, and leads to a white-knuckled adventure filled with madness, murder, sexual obsession, and a stunning double-whammy ending. For Elvis Cole, it&;s just another day&;s work. Praise for Stalking the Angel &;Stalking the Angel is a righteous California book: intelligent, perceptive, hard, clean.&;&;James Ellroy &;Out on the West Coast, where private eyes thrive like avocado trees, Robert Crais has created an interesting and amusing hero in Elvis Cole.&;&;The Wall Street Journal &;Devotees of the rock &;em, sock &;em school should find [Stalking the Angel] tasty.&;&;The San Diego Union