Robert Crais Books In Order – Complete List

Robert Crais is the popular author of the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike novels. Reading the Robert Crais books in proper reading order takes us to the wonderful world of the private eye Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, as well as the new Scott James & Maggie, three interconnected crime mystery series featuring two private eyes and a police officer (and his dog Maggie) working in Los Angeles, California.

Here are all the Robert Crais books in order for his series as well as his standalone novels. The book list is updated regularly.

Latest Robert Crais Books

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases

Elvis Cole Books in Publication Order

1. The Monkey’s Raincoat, 1987
2. Stalking The Angel, 1989
3. Lullaby Town, 1992
4. Free Fall, 1993
5. Voodoo River, 1995
6. Sunset Express, 1996
7. Indigo Slam, 1997
8. L. A. Requiem, 1999
9. The Last Detective, 2003
10. The Forgotten Man, 2006
11. Chasing Darkness, 2008
12. Taken, 2012
13. Racing the Light, 2022
14. The Big Empty, 2025

Joe Pike Books in Publication Order

1. The Watchman, 2007
2. The First Rule, 2010
3. The Sentry, 2011
4. The Promise, 2015
5. The Wanted, 2017
6. A Dangerous Man, 2019

Elvis Cole, Joe Pike & Associates Books in Publication Order

1. The Monkey’s Raincoat, 1987
2. Stalking The Angel, 1989
3. Lullaby Town, 1992
4. Free Fall, 1993
5. Voodoo River, 1995
6. Sunset Express, 1996
7. Indigo Slam, 1997
8. L. A. Requiem, 1999
9. The Last Detective, 2003
10. The Forgotten Man, 2006
11. The Watchman, 2007
12. Chasing Darkness, 2008
13. The First Rule, 2010
14. The Sentry, 2011
15. Taken, 2012
16. The Promise, 2015
17. The Wanted, 2017
18. A Dangerous Man, 2019
19. Racing the Light, 2022
20. The Big Empty, 2025

Other Elvis Cole & Joe Pike Books

• Elvis Cole and Joe Pike: A Mysterious Profile, 2022 (part of the Mysterious Profiles series)

Scott James & Maggie Books in Publication Order

1. Suspect, 2013
2. The Promise, 2015

Standalone Novels in Publication Order

• Demolition Angel, 2001
• Hostage, 2002
• The Two Minute Rule, 2007

Novellas and Short Stories

• Weigh Station, 1982

Anthologies and Story Collections

• Clarion SF, 1977
• The Lineup: The World’s Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives, 2009
• Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, 2011
• The Best American Mystery Stories 2012, 2012
• Crimespree Magazine #50, 2013
• Suspense Magazine February 2013, 2013
• Crimespree Magazine #61, 2015
• The Best American Mystery Stories 2017, 2017

Robert Crais Biography

Robert Crais was born in 1953 in Independence, Louisiana. He was adopted and raised as an only child in Baton Rouge. He wanted to write short stories, novels, comic books, TV and movie scripts from a very young age.

Robert attended the Louisiana State University where he studied mechanical engineering. In 1975 he attended the Clarion Writers’ Workshop in Michigan, which was a boot camp for young and inexperienced writers where he was locked in a basement with 25 other people just like him and were subjected to extensive writing and criticism from

The next year, in 1976, Robert Crais moved to Hollywood and began a career as a scriptwriter for series such as  Cagney and Lacey, Miami Vice, Hill Street Blues, and LA Law. He is currently living with his wife in California.

The first series he worked as a scriptwriter on were  Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey and Miami Vice.

Robert Crais’s debut novel is The Monkey’s Raincoat (published in the late 1980s), which he wrote after his father’s death. In an interview, he mentioned that he always wanted to be a writer but he never really had a story to go on with his dream. After his father died, the story suddenly was there, and some moments in the book became very personal to Crais.

The book is still one of my favorite novels. I did pick it up several years after its publication and I had no idea at the time that it was also the first book in an already established series.

I soon tracked down the rest of the books published so far, and have been buying the next and the next book ever since.

Some of the books in the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series intersect, while others are clearly separate from each other. While the two main characters feature in all books, there are novels where Joe Pike takes a front seat in solving the cases presented to them. And then we have Scott and his dog, Maggie, featuring in yet a new series, again where so far at least one book is also part of the author’s two other series.

The latest Elvis Cole & Joe Pike book (focusing more on Joe Pike) was released in 2022 under the name Racing the Light. The next book in the series is The Big Empty, to be released in early 2025.

In addition to the two series, Robert Crais has also written so far 3 standalone novels, with the latest, The Two Minute Rule, which I still have at home on a hardback cover. It’s a great book, but if I had to choose, Elvis Cole is still my favorite.

Several of Robert Crais’s books ended on the bestseller lists of both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. The Monkey’s Raincoat was chosen by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association to be part of the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century. Robert Crais received the Ross Macdonald Literary Award in 2006.  In 2010 he also received the Private Eye Writers of America’s (PWA) Lifetime Achievement Award The Eye, and in 2014 he was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.

The author has received so far several inquiries and offers to turn his favorite character, Elvis Cole, into movies, however, he turned all offers down. He prefers to keep the readers’ minds engaged in imagining how Elvis Cole looks and acts rather than spoonfeeding them with an image created by Hollywood.

For the Elvis Cole / Joe Pike series and for the Scott & Maggie series, reading the Robert Crais books in order should be recommended. I definitely gained a lot by not reading them out of order.

Robert Crais Awards and Nominations

Here is the awards list sorted in chronological order:

The Monkey’s Raincoat

• Won the Macavity Award for Best First Novel in 1988
• Won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original in 1988
• Nominated for the 1988 Shamus Award for Best Original PI Paperback
• Nominated for the 1988 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original

The Man Who Knew Dick Bong

• Nominated for the 1989 Shamus Award for Best PI Short Story

Lullaby Town

• Nominated for the 1993 Shamus Award for Best PI Novel
• Nominated for the 1993 Anthony Award for Best Novel

Free Fall

• Nominated for the 1994 Edgar Award for Best Novel

Voodoo River

• Nominated for the 1996 Dilys Award for Best Book in the Mystery Novel genre

Sunset Express

• Won the Shamus Award for Best PI Novel in 1997

Indigo Slam

• Nominated for the 1998 Shamus Award for Best PI Novel in 1998

L.A. Requiem

• Won the Dilys Award for Best Book in 2000
• Nominated for the 2000 Shamus Award for Best PI Novel
• Nominated for the 2000 Macavity Award for Best Novel
• Nominated for the 2000 Edgar Award for Best Novel
• Nominated for the 2000 Barry Award for Best Novel
• Nominated for the 2000 Anthony Award for Best Novel

Demolition Angel

• Nominated for the 2001 Mary Higgins Clark Award
• Nominated for the 2001 Dilys Award for Best Book

Hostage

• Shortlisted for the 2002 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

The Forgotten Man

• Nominated for the 2006 Shamus Award for Best PI Novel

The Watchman

• Won the Barry Award for Best Thriller in 2008
• Nominated for the 2008 ITW Award for Best Novel
• Nominated for the 2008 Anthony Award for Best Novel

The First Rule

• Nominated for the 2011 Shamus Award for Best PI Novel

Taken

• Won the Shamus Award for Best PI Novel in 2013
• Nominated for the 2013 Lefty Awards: Watson Award

Suspect

• Nominated for the 2014 Barry Award for Best Novel
• Nominated for the 2014 Anthony Award for Best Novel
• Won the Barry Award for Best Mystery/Crime Novel of the Decade in 2020

The Promise

• Nominated for the 2016 Shamus Award for Best PI Novel
• Nominated for the 2016 Lefty Award for Best LCC Regional Mystery
• Won the Falcon Award in 2018