Pun Salad

Another book down on my reread-Crais project. This one puts our hero, the World's Greatest Detective Elvis Cole through a lot of mental and (eventually) physical anguish. A man has been murdered, left to die in a slimy downtown LA alley. But not before claiming that he's Elvis's long-lost father. Elvis is semi-officially recruited to work the case by the LA cops.

As it turns out, Elvis as a young lad was obsessed with tracking down his dad. Mom was no help with this. Being frivolous and delusional, she once claimed that dad was a "human cannonball", causing Elvis to embed himself into many travelling carnivals, trying to find out if their human cannonball was the one.

Ex-bomb squad detective Carol Starkey plays a major role here, and she's got her own problems. She's helplessly in love with Elvis, who is totally oblivious to her feelings. Which are complicated when Lucy Chenier, Elvis's own true love, reappears. Carol is devastated, but not devastated enough to preclude providing the insight that lets Elvis solve the case.

Eventually the truth of the devilishly complex (and, let's face it, somewhat absurd) plot is revealed, and a page-turning, stomach-churning climax ensues.