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Jan 12, 2018maucarden rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
It's been too long since the last Elvis Cole and Joe Pike book came out. For red blooded ‘murican(sic) women it's been way too long since the last Joe Pike was published. Just sayin'. This book went far too quickly considering how much I enjoy the smart-ass Elvis Cole and the ummm, strong, silent, stoic, and intriguing Joe Pike. Oh, I'm sorry; I got carried away there for a moment. Elvis Cole is a L.A private detective, hailing from LA. Joe Pike is his silent partner who is called in when the going gets tough. The publishers need to change the book blurb; Jon Stone is not in this book. Should be a rule that either someone who wrote the book, edited the book or at least read the book should write the damn blurb. Cole is hired by single mom, Devon Connor, to discover why her son is sporting high dollar watches and threads. She is afraid her socially awkward, anxiety-ridden son, Tyler has gotten involved in drug dealing. If only. Instead, Cole quickly discovers Tyler has joined a small, smart, and almost lucky burglary crew who hit high end L.A. homes. Their luck disappeared when they hit the wrong home and now the owners will do anything, even sanction murder, to get their property back. Cole is determined to save Tyler from himself after one of the crew is murdered and he goes on the run with a messed up young woman. The semi-hero of the hour is a geeky gamer. Wow, what a surprise on that description. Talk about a character stereotype. Just once, I would like to see the gamer/computer maven be portrayed as a normal kid. Not overweight, not with a spotty face, not living in some parent’s gamer ‘cave’ located in the basement or garage, and most of all one with normal social skills. On the other hand, the pair of killers hunting for the young burglary crew constantly surprised me. Except for the killing part, they are cool and interesting. Way to go, Crais. Another surprise, the young woman who seems to lead the crew turns out to have some moxie of her own unrelated to her burglary skills. The story was fresh and fast-paced, the flow perfect. Cole with his trade mark humor was as usual a delight, Pike was Pike, which is very very good. The other characters all added to the story, and even the computer gamer/hacker/maven had his moments of charm. As an extra bonus, the mom, Devon Connor really nailed it with Lucy Chenier, Coles’ past, long-gone love. Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. Although maybe I should have warned NG that I’ve been huge Crais fan and would probably love his shopping list; as long as Pike was part of the shopping list.