“Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone has become a fixture in the genre [and] Robert Crais’s Elvis Cole ought to become one, too. Cole is fast replacing Spenser as the best of the intelligent but sensitive tough guys.”

—Detroit Free Press

“Elvis Cole is lean, mean and completely lovable.”

—People

“Crais … flips a quick, cutting wit at Hollywood hucksters, and shows a keen ear for their inane industry prattle.”

—The New York Times Book Review

“The ghostly influence is Robert B. Parker, including the wisecracks and the incessant attention to food.… But once Crais gets past the mandatory wise-mouthing and sets his story in motion, forget influences; he is his own man.”

—Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Cole noshes like Spenser … and he views the world through the same darkly moral shades as Marlowe and Archer.”

—Chicago Tribune

“Elvis is the greatest.… [He’s] perhaps the best detective to come along since Travis McGee.”

—San Diego Tribune

“Crais is in a class by himself—he is quite simply the best.”

—Eric Van Lustbader

ACCLAIM FOR ROBERT CRAIS’S

AWARD-WINNING FIRST ELVIS COLE NOVEL

THE MONKEY’S RAINCOAT
WINNER OF THE ANTHONY AND
MACAVITY AWARDS FOR BEST NOVEL;
NOMINATED FOR THE EDGAR AND
SHAMUS AWARDS FOR BEST NOVEL

“Far and away the most satisfying private eye novel in years. Grab this one—it’s a winner!”

—Lawrence Block

“Cole is simply the most mesmerizing new P.I. in years.”

—Booklist

“In Crais, a new star has appeared on the private eye scene—a dazzling first novel.”

—Tony Hillerman

Other Books by This Author

By Robert Crais

*THE MONKEY’S RAINCOAT

*STALKING THE ANGEL

*FREE FALL

*LULLABY TOWN

VOODOO RIVER

SUNSET EXPRESS

L.A. REQUIEM

HOSTAGE

DEMOLITION ANGEL

THE LAST DETECTIVE

* Available from Bantam Books

Title Page

LULLABY TOWN
A Bantam Book/

PUBLISHING HISTORY
Bantam hardcover edition published April 1992
Bantam paperback edition / June 1993

Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint lyrics from “Karn Evil 9, First Impression Part 2” by Emerson Lake & Palmer. Reprinted by permission of Leadchoice Limited.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 91-36185.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information address: Bantam Books.

eISBN: 978-0-307-78993-8

Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, New York, New York.

v3.1

Dedication

Dedicated with love
and respect to
my mother,
Evelyn Carrie Crais,
who saved me from the monsters.

Epigraph

There’s a quaint little place they call Lullaby Town—It’s just back of those hills where the sunsets go down. Its streets are of silver, its buildings of gold, And its palaces dazzling things to behold.