Robert Crais: Chasing Darkness (UK 2009)

From the Publisher:
Three years ago Elvis Cole's actions may have freed a killer. Now three more young women are dead
It is fire season, and the hills of Los Angeles are burning. As the Police and Fire Departments evacuate the inhabitants, they find something no one expected: the days-old corpse of a middle-aged recluse who apparently committed suicide. Then comes an even more horrible discovery. Clutched in his lap is a photo album containing photographs of seven young women who have been murdered. Each photograph was taken only moments after the women were killed, and could only have been taken by the killer.

One murder per year for seven years, their bodies found in different parts of the city. LAPD homicide detectives had never connected the seven murders. But now with the discovery of the 'death album' there is a link.

Only one suspect had been charged in any of those cases but, with evidence supplied by Elvis Cole, in the end he walked free. That was the suicide now discovered in the fire... and now the police are out for Cole...

Robert Crais: Chasing Darkness. Orion Books, ISBN: 9780752882833 (February, 2009), 387 p., £6.99.

Robert Crais: Chasing Darkness (USA 2009)

From the Publisher:
It's fire season in the Los Angeles hills, and as an inferno closes in on the homes of Laurel Canyon, the LAPD makes a gruesome discovery--the days-old corpse of an apparent suicide, the reclusive Lionel Byrd, along with a grisly photo album of young female murder victims. Three years earlier, Elvis Cole uncovered evidence that freed Byrd from murder charges; now, all signs indicate Cole helped a killer walk. Shut out by a police task force, Cole, along with his taciturn partner, Joe Pike, must blast through the lies, politics, and corruption obscuring the truth about Lionel Byrd--or get himself burned...

Robert Crais: Chasing Darkness. An Elvis Cole Novel. Pocket Books, ISBN: 9781416514985 (February, 2009), 408 p., $9.99.

Robert Crais: Chasing Darkness (UK 2008)

From the Publisher:
It is fire season, and the hills of Los Angeles are burning. Fire Department personnel rush to evacuate the inhabitants, and find the days-old corpse of a middle-aged recluse who apparently committed suicide. Clutched in his lap is a photo album containing photographs of seven young women who have been murdered, each photograph was taken only moments after the women were killed.

One murder per year for seven years, their bodies found in different parts of the city. LAPD homicide detectives had never connected the seven murders. But now with the discovery of the "death album" these seven murders have been linked, and the news for Elvis Cole is bad...

Only one suspect had been charged in any of those cases, that being for the murder of victim #4. LAPD and the LA County District Attorney had a recorded confession by the suspect and believed him to be the murderer. But, with evidence supplied by Elvis Cole, in the end he walked free. That suspect was the suicide now discovered in the fire, Elliot Martin.

Did Cole's action three years ago free a killer to commit more murders? Did Elvis cost three young women their lives?

Robert Crais: Chasing Darkness. Orion Books, ISBN: 0752891596 (July, 2008), 273 p., £9.99.

Robert Crais: Chasing Darkness (USA 2008)

From the Publisher:
It's fire season, and the hills of Los Angeles are burning. When police and fire department personnel rush door to door in a frenzied evacuation effort, they discover the week-old corpse of an apparent suicide. But the gunshot victim is less gruesome than what they find in his lap: a photo album of seven brutally murdered young women - one per year, for seven years. And when the suicide victim is identified as a former suspect in one of the murders, the news turns Elvis Cole's world upside down.

Three years earlier Lionel Byrd was brought to trial for the murder of a female prostitute named Yvonne Bennett. A taped confession coerced by the police inspired a prominent defense attorney to take Byrd's case, and Elvis Cole was hired to investigate. It was Cole's eleventh-hour discovery of an exculpatory videotape that allowed Lionel Byrd to walk free. Elvis was hailed as a hero.

But the discovery of the death album in Byrd's lap now brands Elvis as an unwitting accomplice to murder. Captured in photographs that could only have been taken by the murderer, Yvonne Bennett was the fifth of the seven victims - two more young women were murdered after Lionel Byrd walked free. So Elvis can't help but wonder - did he, Elvis Cole, cost two more young women their lives?

Shut out of the investigation by a special LAPD task force determined to close the case, Elvis Cole and Joe Pike desperately fight to uncover the truth about Lionel Byrd and his nightmare album of death - a truth hidden by lies, politics, and corruption in a world where nothing is what it seems to be.

Chasing Darkness is a blistering thriller from the bestselling author who sets the standard for intense, powerful crime writing.

Robert Crais: Chasing Darkness. An Elvis Cole Novel. Simon & Schuster, ISBN: 0743281640 (July, 2008), 273 p., $25.95.