Authors and Food and Recipes, Oh My!

We are deep into the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series by Robert Crais.  Set in current-day Los Angeles, the plots deal with all manner of current-day cultural problems, the protagonists are tough yet quirky, and there is a huge dollop of humor in each book.  Plus, there is a sizeable food component throughout.  I almost have it in mind to write to Mr. Crais and ask if he has considered doing an Elvis Cole (or Joe Pike, for the vegetarian readers) cookbook.

Probably a cheeky thought.  But I do feel that I have one of those six-degrees-of-separation relationships with Robert Crais.  In 2009, Nyel and I surprised Charlie with a visit to the final production of “Fuggetaboudit” — a play by his writing partner, the late Gordon Bressack,in which Charlie had a leading role.

As it turned out, Charlie had been invited to a graduation party that night for the daughter of his building contractor, Gene.  He gave Gene a call, asked if could bring along two old folks from Oysterville, and we spent a fabulous evening at a huge outdoor barbecue with a hundred or so of Gene’s family and friends.  We felt like we’d known everyone for years and during a long discussion with Gene, himself, (when it came out that I was a writer) he told us that he had done a lot of work for a local writer of detective novels — “a guy named Robert Crais.”

So, you see?  Armed with that much background material, maybe I could write Mr. Crais and suggest that he do a cookbook along the lines of “The Nero Wolfe Cookbook” by Rex Stout.  And perhaps I could urge him to do it soon — before everyone else is trying to reconstruct the dishes referred to throughout his stories.  That’s what happened to the non-existent Spenser Cookbook that Robert Parker spoke of but never managed to write.  Just sayin’.

So… how to begin?  “Dear Mr. Crais, We almost know each other…”

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