From AudioFile
Here is a new twist on the classic hard-boiled detective story. James Daniels delightfully captures private eye Elvis Cole, the rugged but kindhearted sleuth who goes beyond the call of duty for his newest client. The story heats up when Cole locates a zany movie director's ex-wife who is tied up with the Mob. He tries to help her escape their clutches, but finds he has more to deal with when the director decides to take matters into his own hands. From small-town goons to big-city thugs, Daniels identifies with each and easily delivers the goods. D.L.M. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Kirkus Reviews
Lullaby Town is Chelam, Connecticut, where L.A. shamus Elvis Cole (The Monkey's Raincoat, 1987--not reviewed) goes in search of Karen Shipley, divorced ten years earlier by boyish filmmaker Peter Alan Nelsen, who's since developed deep pockets (courtesy of a string of action hits beginning with Chainsaw) and a conscience of sorts. Just when it looks like Elvis has found Karen and her son, Toby, all too easily, Karen turns out to be laundering money for the Mafia, and the story takes off like a two-stage rocket. It'll take all of Elvis's wise-guy savvy to pry Karen loose from those other wise-guys without condemning her to the witness-protection program or the East River. Elvis is as sharp as a West Coast Spenser, but without Spenser's nasty/noble attitudinizing--and this story is pure pleasure from the very first page. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


The publisher, Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
Hollywood's newest wunderkind is Peter Alan Nelson, the brilliant, erratic director known as the King of Adventure. His films make billions, but his manners make enemies. What the boy king wants, he gets, and what Nelson wants is for Elvis to comb the country for the airhead wife and infant child the film-school flunkout dumped en route to becoming the third biggest filmmaker in America. It's the kind of case Cole can handle in his sleep -- until it turns out to be a nightmare. For when Cole finds Nelson's wife in a small Conneticut town, she's nothing like what he expects. The lady has some unwanted -- and very nasty -- mob connections, which means Elvis could be opening the East Coast branch of his P.I. office . . .at the bottom of the Hudson River.


From the Inside Flap
Hollywood's newest wunderkind is Peter Alan Nelson, the brilliant, erratic director known as the King of Adventure.  His films make billions, but his manners make enemies.  What the boy king wants, he gets, and what Nelson wants is for Elvis to comb the country for the airhead wife and infant child the film-school flunkout dumped en route to becoming the third biggest filmmaker in America.  It's the kind of case Cole can handle in his sleep -- until it turns out to be a nightmare.  For when Cole finds Nelson's wife in a small Conneticut town, she's nothing like what he expects.  The lady has some unwanted -- and very nasty -- mob connections, which means Elvis could be opening the East Coast branch of his P.I. office . . .at the bottom of the Hudson River.

ANNOTATION

Elvis Cole is back. The laid-back L.A. private eye, who debuted to electrifying reviews and recognition in The Monkey's Raincoat, returns with his slightly psychotic partner, Joe Pike. Cole and Pike go bi-coastal, taking on the East Coast mafia and the West Coast's hottest director: a boy wonder with a big man's ego and hired muscle to match.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Hollywood's newest wunderkind is Peter Alan Nelson, the brilliant, erratic director known as the King of Adventure. His films make billions, but his manners make enemies. What the boy king wants, he gets, and what Nelson wants is for Elvis to comb the country for the airhead wife and infant child the film-school flunkout dumped en route to becoming the third biggest filmmaker in America. It's the kind of case Cole can handle in his sleep — until it turns out to be a nightmare. For when Cole finds Nelson's wife in a small Conneticut town, she's nothing like what he expects. The lady has some unwanted — and very nasty — mob connections, which means Elvis could be opening the East Coast branch of his P.I. office . . .at the bottom of the Hudson River.

FROM THE CRITICS

AudioFile

Here is a new twist on the classic hard-boiled detective story. James Daniels delightfully captures private eye Elvis Cole, the rugged but kindhearted sleuth who goes beyond the call of duty for his newest client. The story heats up when Cole locates a zany movie director's ex-wife who is tied up with the Mob. He tries to help her escape their clutches, but finds he has more to deal with when the director decides to take matters into his own hands. From small-town goons to big-city thugs, Daniels identifies with each and easily delivers the goods. D.L.M. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

"Elvis Cole provides more fun for the reader than any L. A. private eye to come along in years." — Joseph Wambaugh