Latest twist from L.A.'s Crais: sidekick as star

Robert Crais is 20 years into an acclaimed career built around a fictional private detective named Elvis Cole. Elvis is easy to like, friendly and wisecracking. His only bad qualities are a corny sense of humor and a fondness for loud shirts. The Cole books have become bestsellers, earning their author a reputation as heir to the great California detective writer Ross Macdonald.

But lurking at Elvis' side for 10 books has been a laconic, deadly sidekick named Joe Pike. He spends most of his time heavily armed and wearing sunglasses. Crais' new novel, "The Watchman," which comes out next week, puts Pike at the center of the action for the first time.

"Pike has always been this mysterious, enigmatic background character," Crais, with just a touch of his native Louisiana left in his voice, explained recently at a Silver Lake cafe. "But I knew there was more. His presence has been growing with each of the books, and I couldn't deny him anymore."

Although the fun-loving Cole shows up from time to time, effectively warming up the tale, most of this taut, edgy novel concentrates on Pike's attempt to keep a petulant heiress out of danger while she's hunted down by a variety of international criminals. All the while, someone is giving her locations away.

And in the process, the impassive Pike and this Paris Hilton-like rich girl start to find they understand and possibly even like each other.

"The ongoing theme is that people are more than they seem," said Crais, an easygoing and youthful-looking 53. It would be easy, he said, to dismiss both Pike -- as many do on first meeting him -- and just as easy to dismiss Larkin, the spoiled young woman he's guarding.

But in "The Watchman," Crais wanted to get into his impassive protagonist's soul.

"That is, why is he pulled so tight, why is he so internal? And to reveal that, I knew I needed a character who could reach him, who could touch those deep places. I wanted to bring the character to a place where I knew he was moved."

Character study

Crais' novels might at first come off as simple page-turners, and they certainly offer the uncomplicated pleasures of any genre fiction. But his emphasis on character, the low-key craft in the language, and storytelling that is both intricate and sturdy take them far above the usual run. The detailed settings also create a kind of running social history of Los Angeles.