The Elvis Cole and Joe Pike novel series by Robert Crais totals 13 books as of April 2010. Each of my posts in this series arc are linked below:
The Monkey's Raincoat
Stalking the Angel
Lullaby Town
Free Fall
Voodoo River
Sunset Express
Indigo Slam
L.A. Requiem
The Last Detective
The Forgotten Man
The Watchman
Chasing Darkness
The First Rule
Robert Crais (3):
The Forgotten Man (abridged), The First Rule (abridged & unabridged)
James Daniels (9):
Lullaby Town (abridged), Free Fall (abridged), The Last Detective (abridged & unabridged), The Forgotten Man (unabridged), The Watchman (abridged & unabridged), Chasing Darkness (abridged & unabridged)
Mel Foster (3):
Lullaby Town (unabridged), Free Fall (unabridged), Voodoo River (unabridged)
William Hootkins (1):
L.A. Requiem (abridged)
Patrick G. Lawlor (3):
The Monkey's Raincoat (unabridged), Stalking the Angel (unabridged), Voodoo River (abridged)
John Bedford Lloyd (1):
L.A. Requiem (abridged)
Ron McLarty (1):
L.A. Requiem (unabridged)
Michael Prichard (2)
Sunset Express (unabridged), Indigo Slam (unabridged)
James Remar (1)
Voodoo River (abridged)
William Roberts (11):
The Monkey's Raincoat (unabridged), Stalking the Angel (unabridged), Lullaby Town (unabridged), Free Fall (unabridged), Voodoo River (unabridged), Sunset Express (unabridged), Indigo Slam (unabridged), The Last Detective (unabridged), The Forgotten Man (unabridged), The Watchman (unabridged), Chasing Darkness (unabridged)
David Stuart (6):
The Monkey's Raincoat (abridged), Stalking the Angel (abridged), Sunset Express (abridged & unabridged), Indigo Slam (abridged & unabridged)
Stalking the Angel: "... could be hotter."
Lullaby Town: "Being a stranger in a small town is like..."
Free Fall: "I'm known as the king of rockin' detectives..."
Voodoo River: "... conversation is not his forte."
Sunset Express: "Hell, yes. What an ending!"
Indigo Slam: "... snubbed by my cat."
L.A. Requiem: 1) "How come you ain’t sayin’ nothin..." 2) "Who?"
The Last Detective: "The Los Angeles River is small, but mean..."
The Forgotten Man: "It was good to be home."
The Watchman: "... and sailed by men who lived by their belief in monsters."
Chasing Darkness: "It is a small house on the lip of a canyon..."
The First Rule: 1) "You good?" 2) "I'm his people."
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The Monkey's Raincoat
Stalking the Angel
Lullaby Town
Free Fall
Voodoo River
Sunset Express
Indigo Slam
L.A. Requiem
The Last Detective
The Forgotten Man
The Watchman
Chasing Darkness
The First Rule
The Narrator Round-Up
For the series of books, there have been 11 narrators who've read the 41 associated English-spoken audiobooks that I could identify. These audio readers include the series author, a former ad agency executive turned voice artist, and the remainder were actors by training and experience (TV, film, stage) who specialized in performing spoken word versions of books (among other things). The audiobook breakdown for each narrator is below (their total number of audiobook versions done in the series are in parentheses). Only 4 narrators total did one audiobook presentation each, 1 did only two, 3 did three, and the remaining 3 covered the lion share for the series with six, nine, eleven audiobook performances between them (26/41).Robert Crais (3):
The Forgotten Man (abridged), The First Rule (abridged & unabridged)
James Daniels (9):
Lullaby Town (abridged), Free Fall (abridged), The Last Detective (abridged & unabridged), The Forgotten Man (unabridged), The Watchman (abridged & unabridged), Chasing Darkness (abridged & unabridged)
Mel Foster (3):
Lullaby Town (unabridged), Free Fall (unabridged), Voodoo River (unabridged)
William Hootkins (1):
L.A. Requiem (abridged)
Patrick G. Lawlor (3):
The Monkey's Raincoat (unabridged), Stalking the Angel (unabridged), Voodoo River (abridged)
John Bedford Lloyd (1):
L.A. Requiem (abridged)
Ron McLarty (1):
L.A. Requiem (unabridged)
Michael Prichard (2)
Sunset Express (unabridged), Indigo Slam (unabridged)
James Remar (1)
Voodoo River (abridged)
William Roberts (11):
The Monkey's Raincoat (unabridged), Stalking the Angel (unabridged), Lullaby Town (unabridged), Free Fall (unabridged), Voodoo River (unabridged), Sunset Express (unabridged), Indigo Slam (unabridged), The Last Detective (unabridged), The Forgotten Man (unabridged), The Watchman (unabridged), Chasing Darkness (unabridged)
David Stuart (6):
The Monkey's Raincoat (abridged), Stalking the Angel (abridged), Sunset Express (abridged & unabridged), Indigo Slam (abridged & unabridged)
Odds 'n Ends Audio Clips
The Monkey's Raincoat: "Ellen was still in the door..."Stalking the Angel: "... could be hotter."
Lullaby Town: "Being a stranger in a small town is like..."
Free Fall: "I'm known as the king of rockin' detectives..."
Voodoo River: "... conversation is not his forte."
Sunset Express: "Hell, yes. What an ending!"
Indigo Slam: "... snubbed by my cat."
L.A. Requiem: 1) "How come you ain’t sayin’ nothin..." 2) "Who?"
The Last Detective: "The Los Angeles River is small, but mean..."
The Forgotten Man: "It was good to be home."
The Watchman: "... and sailed by men who lived by their belief in monsters."
Chasing Darkness: "It is a small house on the lip of a canyon..."
The First Rule: 1) "You good?" 2) "I'm his people."
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I hate to see this series end. What a lot of work/listening you put into it so that we could all compare and contrast. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI found my abridged cassettes of INDIGO SLAM. Not sure what to do with them. Does anyone listen to cassettes anymore?
Take a bow, lp13! You did a fabulous job. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThat's very kind of you to say, Naomi. It was interesting work to go back through the series, and seek out the some of the missing abridged versions, in audiobook. I discovered some things I hadn't imagined and a few pre-conceived notions that did not hold up at a closer look.
ReplyDeleteAudiobook cassettes seem to exist mainly for the library realm. The First Rule appears be the first audiobook in the series by Brilliance Audio to not have a cassette version (Chasing Darkness seems to be the last one that did have a Library Edition produced). Clearly, the trend is the cassette is going by way of the 8-track ;) .
Thank you very much for sticking through this and adding your comments to the series, Naomi.
Oh, thank you, Christine. Perhaps now my wife won't look at me funny since I won't be in bed with my laptop and with headphones on :-P .
ReplyDeleteI'm sad it's over! But all great things must come to an end, don't they?
ReplyDeleteThis was a hell of a ride. Thanks a lot, cousin.
(And yes, Christine is right, you may now take a bow!)
Very kind of you to say, Poncho. I'm happy/sad about it. It's probably the only homework I actually enjoyed. When the next Elvis & Joe novel comes out, I know I'll just add a post to the existing series. Thanks very much for following this and your comments, cousin.
ReplyDeletehehe. Having a wee bit of trouble coming up with anything PG-rated in response to that statement. O:-) Where's PCN when I need her? Ha!
ReplyDeleteI've been reading all the Crais books lately (it's always nice to discover an author with an extensive backlist - lucky me) and it's cool to come over here and see some notes about the audio versions. I'm not good with audiobooks; I tend to get distracted and I feel that the reader takes a bit of the story away from me. Do you have a preference between your own reading of the books and the audiobooks? Do you think the readers bring something to the Crais books through their style that was new for you?
ReplyDeleteWelcome, Rachel. As a long-time reader, I was surprised how quickly I took to the audiobook format. For me, it augmented the book experience. Granted, a good narrator makes a big difference, here. His/her performance can really amplify or isolate for the reader the book (or its key passages). And when that combination of reader and material clicks, well... it can make quite an impression, IMO. So, I'd say that audiobooks are my preference at this point in my life. Thank you kindly for your comment, Rachel. I look forward to following your blog.
ReplyDelete