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A review by henrik_w
The Last Detective by Robert Crais
4.0
Elvis Cole has been taking care of his girlfriend Lucy's 10-year old son Ben for a couple of days while she has been out of town. The same afternoon that Lucy is coming back, Ben disappears. We soon find out that he was kidnapped while playing in the small canyon behind the house.
The Los Angeles police are called in, but in parallel Elvis Cole and his partner Joe Pike conduct an investigation of their own. There are almost no leads at all, but Elvis and Joe go to work on what little they have. To complicate things further, Lucy's wealthy ex-husband Richard flies in with investigators of his own.
This is a real page-turner novel, with good detective work by Elvis and Joe. A kidnapping case makes for a good thriller, and the sense of urgency here is heightened by the chapter titles, each stating the hours and minutes that Ben has been missing for.
This was the first novel by Robert Crais that I've read, and it left me wanting to read more by him.
As it happens, this book has a lot of similarities with The Hard Way by Lee Child, which I read not long ago. Both books are kidnapping dramas, featuring ex-military men as the investigators (and both of them feature atrocities committed in Africa). In both of them, the protagonists track the kidnappers by working the few clues available - something that in my mind is done very well in both books. And they both feature action-packed final show-downs (they wouldn't be thrillers if they didn't).
I liked both of them, but with a slight edge for THE HARD WAY. So if you liked this one, check out THE HARD WAY by Lee Child as well.
The Los Angeles police are called in, but in parallel Elvis Cole and his partner Joe Pike conduct an investigation of their own. There are almost no leads at all, but Elvis and Joe go to work on what little they have. To complicate things further, Lucy's wealthy ex-husband Richard flies in with investigators of his own.
This is a real page-turner novel, with good detective work by Elvis and Joe. A kidnapping case makes for a good thriller, and the sense of urgency here is heightened by the chapter titles, each stating the hours and minutes that Ben has been missing for.
This was the first novel by Robert Crais that I've read, and it left me wanting to read more by him.
As it happens, this book has a lot of similarities with The Hard Way by Lee Child, which I read not long ago. Both books are kidnapping dramas, featuring ex-military men as the investigators (and both of them feature atrocities committed in Africa). In both of them, the protagonists track the kidnappers by working the few clues available - something that in my mind is done very well in both books. And they both feature action-packed final show-downs (they wouldn't be thrillers if they didn't).
I liked both of them, but with a slight edge for THE HARD WAY. So if you liked this one, check out THE HARD WAY by Lee Child as well.