Lullaby Town (1992)

This series is always good. ( )

Once again, Elvis Cole and Joe Pike score a win! The combination of intellect, humor, toughness and compassion make for great detective characters. This time around, the search for a mother and child, initiated by a fatuous Hollywood movie mogul, turns into much more. Excellent read! ( )

Very good plot. Family crisis created by movie director divorce. Elvis has been hired to find the family so director can see son at age 12. Mother is at bank and helping Mafia launder money to protect son. ( )

Lullaby Town, a dark drive down some
rockspotted track. We are silent. Killers.
With gloves from the farmer’s wife we trudge
to a cold outbuilding, strip-lit and grey.
Machines and men turn in the shed next door.
Protests and filthy jokes from the doomed birds.

A lesson from the farmer. The upturned turkey
two days from celebration, yawning red
from the pause of his last interrupted sentence.
The floor darkening and the farmer’s instructions
lost in our comprehension of Christmas lunch.
With one smooth rip the bird is stripped to cook.

The room spins with sudden birds, headless and
warm against our rubber hands. We stamp our
feet in hope of circulation, kicking crimson
feathers in some pillow fight between our knees.
The sun not yet risen over the morning hill.
Our tea drunk quietly. Our lunch quieter still. ( )

typical Joe Pike / Elvis Cole
LA scene — not bloody / Risque
good story — funny guys