THE ELVIS INTERVIEWS by Glen Bonham

** Barrie, Ontario, Canada: Battlefield Publishing Inc. 2006 US $16.95

Every year thousands of tributes pour into Graceland for Elvis. Now there's another one from Toronto film and television writer/producer, Glen Bonham. His homage to the King is a kick-ass debut novel, The Elvis Interviews, which was a finalist for the Crime Writers of Canada 2007 Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel in 2006. It opens on a high note that it holds right through to the very surprising ending that proves once again that "Elvis Lives" whether in the flesh or in the stuff of legends.

With his screenwriting skills and his extensive research on everything Elvis, Bonham has combined a rollicking mix of fact and fantasy with an unlikely but credible cast of characters manipulating a wild-eyed bait-and-switch scheme of a plot set mostly in and around fabled Graceland. The story revolves around an apparently Mission Impossible heist of the famous pink Cadillac Elvis purchased for his mom, Gladys, and is now publicly displayed in the Elvis Presley Automotive Museum. But the bare bones of the plot are well fleshed out with the diversity of characters involved, the intricacy their interactions, and the complexity of their motives for being involved in the plan.
Jimmy Miyake, a former up and comer with a Philadelphia mob, who has made it big in Japan with his Yakuza boss, Mr. Hoshi Yasamura, the top dog in the Yamaguchi-gumi, wants the Caddie to please Yasamura who wants it because of his greed for Elvis memorabilia. Nightclub owner and mobster Frank Shapiro, and his goons, Nick and “Heavy” want it for the money from Mr. Yasamura. But when don Giamatti and the Philly mafia get wind of something happening at Graceland they want a transport for a deal of their own and security for a delinquent loan. Then, there's the ambitious but bumbling “J.J” hoping to impress everyone by shifting into high gear with his car theft career even if it means posing in the garb of an Elvis Tribute Artist.

But what these guys want isn't necessarily what they're going to get, especially when they cross lanes with charismatic sixty-something Sheriff Jesse Smith who appears at times to walk in Elvis's shoes, radiate his smile, hum every tune the King ever wrote and to spout more stories about Elvis than even Elvis knew. And, finally, there's long-past-his-prime investigative journalist Ed Stafford who wants the story behind an underground rumour about the pink Caddie's theft, even more than he wants his next drink.

Layered into the action and subplots of the main story are all sorts of facts about Elvis, his entourage and his legacy. There's the story about an incident that marred the interior finish of the Caddie and another about the unique mix of Elvis Rose paint for its exterior, both stories crucial to the resolution of the car's theft. There's the background information about the Presley clan and the offloading of the jets, Lisa Marie and Hound Dog II. There's the account of Elvis Presley Enterprises, the opening of Graceland to the public and the establishment of the Candlelight Vigil. There's the striking cover design of the book by Geof Isherwood with its "images used by permission of Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc." And there are the questions Bonham's protagonist raises about "the whole lot of mystery surrounding Elvis's death."

Bonham has taken those questions, packaged them with a number of facts and a considerable amount of suspense and humour to create an entertaining, warp-speed read with memorable characters - some funny, some deadly serious - and a very clever, twists and turns plot. In the end, Elvis may or may not “have left the building” for the last time in his mom's pink Caddie, but he's destined to remain forever in the hearts and minds of Bonham's readers.

Reviewed by M. Wayne Cunningham