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mj123 's review for:
The Wanted
by Robert Crais
Robert Crais was suggested as a good Los Angeles mystery writer in the same genre as Raymond Chandler so I read The Wanted. Robert Crais is a good writer; the dialog and description is much better than a lot of the self-published books I read.
The plot was very formulaic and towards the end I could predict pretty well what would happen next, how many stories have a climax where hero has a gun at his head about to die when a bullet from afar neutralizes the bad guy. I was bothered by what I thought were repeatedly stupid decisions that Cole made. He kept far too much information from the police and seemed to like to foster animosity for no reason. He also took risks in exposing himself for no reason.
Then there was the scenes with the uber smart kids which didn’t make a lot of sense to me and seemed to be an appeal the YA audience?
Finally, for an LA mystery it’s fine to mention driving down Laurel Canyon but other than some street names I didn’t get much of an LA feel. Lots of it took place in the suburbs and could have been anywhere.
Maybe this isn’t his best work, I’ll ask for another recommendation. But maybe the best recommendation is to read Raymond Chandler.
The plot was very formulaic and towards the end I could predict pretty well what would happen next, how many stories have a climax where hero has a gun at his head about to die when a bullet from afar neutralizes the bad guy. I was bothered by what I thought were repeatedly stupid decisions that Cole made. He kept far too much information from the police and seemed to like to foster animosity for no reason. He also took risks in exposing himself for no reason.
Then there was the scenes with the uber smart kids which didn’t make a lot of sense to me and seemed to be an appeal the YA audience?
Finally, for an LA mystery it’s fine to mention driving down Laurel Canyon but other than some street names I didn’t get much of an LA feel. Lots of it took place in the suburbs and could have been anywhere.
Maybe this isn’t his best work, I’ll ask for another recommendation. But maybe the best recommendation is to read Raymond Chandler.