ROBERT CRAIS

He's been recognized by the The New York Times Book Review, People magazine, Publishers Weekly, the Anthony Awards and others with awards, distinctions and nominations, but Robert Crais takes an equal measure of pride in his Merry Marvel Marching Society No Prize. As a young comic book fan in the 1960s, the future bestselling author won the gag award--an empty envelope-- after his letter was printed in The Amazing Spider-man. "That's one of my prized possessions," he told January magazine; at a business meeting, he even pursued Marvel creator Stan Lee to autograph the "No Prize."

Such un-ironic enthusiasm sets Crais apart from other writers in the crime thriller/mystery genre. His well-known protagonist, Elvis Cole, may be an L.A. private eye who prefers Hawaiian shirts and yearns to be Peter Pan, but Crais takes him seriously. As Elvis stars in his ninth book, The Last Detective Crais discovers more depth than ever in his hero. This time around, Elvis must investigate his most personal case yet: Ben, the young son of his girlfriend Lucy, is kidnapped while in his care, and the culprits may be linked to Elvis' own past in Vietnam. The Washington Post raves "the story is shrewdly plotted and sharply written, with not an ounce of fat in it, nor a trace of easy sentiment or comic relief."

While Crais lists such "hardboiled" icons as Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett as influences, Elvis Cole transcends gumshoe caricature, particularly as the series continues. "Something deeper seemed to be driving him, something so profound that he risks his career and his life to bring these families together and make them whole," Crais said at his website. "I wanted to find out why families are so important to Elvis, and why he takes these situations so personally," he said of The Last Detective.

The author's own extended blue collar family--including several police officers --prepared him well for a life of crime fiction. Born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Crais originally trained to become a mechanical engineer, becoming the first in his family to attend college. Along the way, he supported himself by digging ditches, painting oil derricks, working on barges and cleaning out dog runs at the state's largest kennel. To the chagrin of his relatives, he never completed his degree; after years of writing short fiction and making amateur films, he headed to Hollywood in 1976.

Having honed his craft back home, transplanted Crais quickly found work, writing scripts for such TV series at Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, Miami Vice and L.A. Law, in addition to numerous teleplays for TV pilots, movies-of-the-week and mini-series. Although he garnered an Emmy nomination for a Hill Street Blues script, the in-demand TV screenwriter, by the mid-1980s, sought something else. "With anything of a collaborative nature--especially television, but feature films too--the writer is never truly responsible for what you see . . . there're a lot of fingers in that pie."