Home #Hwoodtimes Robert Crais Signs his Latest, The Big Empty, at Diesel Bookstore Brentwood

Robert Crais Signs his Latest, The Big Empty, at Diesel Bookstore Brentwood

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Robert Crais Signs his Latest, The Big Empty, at Diesel Bookstore Brentwood
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by Ethlie Ann Vare
BRENTWOOD, CA (The Hollywood Times, 1-30-25)

“It was always a dream of mine to have a bookstore,” says Richard Turner, former marketing executive and now owner of the venerable Diesel Bookstore in the famed Brentwood Country Mart. “I’m a part of this community, so it means a lot.

Robert Crais' The Big Empty – The Poisoned Pen Bookstore

“I made the mistake of thinking, ‘How hard can it be selling books?’” Never mind that it is 2025 and “content wants to be free.” On top of that,  he discovered that “there are a thousand moving parts, and a lot more hours than I imagined it would be. But I’ve been greeted by people who are just grateful that the store is still standing.”

They’re grateful that an independent bookstore can survive the digital competition, and grateful that this particular store was able to survive at all. Because Brentwood was right in the path of the cataclysmic Palisades Fire. This evening’s event, in fact, had been postponed from January 12, and much of the next few weeks will be devoted to book drives for schools and families who lost their libraries.

Luckily, Robert Crais, like Turner, is a local boy, so he could reschedule. In fact, Crais has kicked off most of his book tours with signings at Diesel, and his novels’ heroes Elvis Cole and Joe Pike live in recognizable LA neighborhoods. This is their 20th mystery to solve (you can binge them sequentially during a pandemic, like I did, or just enjoy them whenever) and 24 Crais novels in all. He also has a significant body of TV work, including classics like Cagney & Lacey, Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice.

“I didn’t even realize how much of his work I knew,” smiles Turner before introducing the guest of honor to a patio filled with fans clutching copies of The Big Empty… and a few earlier titles for a personalized signature. The Monkey’s Raincoat, Elvis Cole’s debut, came out in 1987; since then, the detective with the Mickey Mouse phone and the Pinocchio clock and his stoic partner with the red arrows tattooed on his delts are intimate friends to millions of readers.

Although obviously a prolific writer, Crais insists he is not one of those whose ideas appear to him full-blown. “I hear writers say, ‘The characters just took over and I sat back and watched.’ That has never happened to me. And I don’t believe it when I hear writers say that, not one damn second. I just think either they’re lying, or they take too many meds. It’s work. It’s hard work.”

Trained in television, Crais says he outlines everything, works out all the beats in advance, and then sits down to write. But even then, sometimes the characters can surprise you.

“Joe Pike was supposed to die in the first book. I had all the scenes and chapters figured out. There was a big shootout at the end, the penultimate scene, and when I got there… I couldn’t do it. I intended to do it, but I had just fallen in love with him so much I just could not do it.”

So Joe Pike has stuck around for 19 more books. I asked Crais how he manages to keep introducing the same characters book after book without repeating himself. “That’s actually one of the big problems with writing a series. Each book is going to have two distinct readers that I have to write for, the reader who’s coming to my book for whatever reason right now and the person who’s read all 19 books before this. You don’t know who is reading when Elvis calls the cat. It can’t be exactly the same way that it’s been introduced 19 times before.”

In The Big Empty, Elvis Cole is hired by “The Baker Next Door,” a sweet-natured social media influencer (they must exist…) to find her years-missing father. From there, it gets dark and twisty. Crais says he wanted to put Elvis Cole in an “untenable position,” where his sense of loyalty and his sense of mission come into stark conflict.

“I wanted to create a situation where there is no good choice for Elvis,” says Crais. He’s gratified by the good reviews it has gotten; the series has always been well-received.

Which brings up another problem with writing a popular book series: Someone is going to want to turn it into a television series. Crais, despite having been a TV screenwriter, has famously turned down every offer to dramatize Elvis and Joe.  “I’m very protective of the guys. I’ve gotten scores of offers and my agents all know it’s an automatic ‘no.’” He came close, once, when he got deep interest from director Jonathan (Silence of the Lambs) Demme. They talked, they talked some more, but before The Watchman could become A Film By, Demme passed away.

Robert Crais

“It’s not really a regret, but I thought, you know, if I was going to do this, I really would have liked to see what Jonathan has done with Joe Pike. I’ve been watching some really good stuff on TV lately — and some really not so good stuff on TV, let’s let’s be clear — but there were some things that were impressive. So maybe we’re getting close.”

No, he wouldn’t write the script, he says. He has more novels he wants to write. He’s working on a new Elvis Cole/Joe Pike volume, and assures me he plans to do another one featuring Maggie, my favorite K-9. (Check out Suspect and The Promise. Thank me later.) With luck, Diesel Bookstore will be alive and kicking for him to sign copies.

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In the meantime, veteran film critic Kenneth Turan will be at Diesel at 3pm on February 9 to discuss and sign copies of Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg: The Whole Equation. On Saturday, February 8th, Diesel is collecting donations in the courtyard; they’re giving books to local schools and libraries that have been decimated by fire. Check their website for more info.

Diesel Bookstore
Brentwood Country Mart

225 26th Street, Suite #33
Santa Monica CA 90402

www.dieselbookstore.com

(310) 576-9960
[email protected]