I had not heard of Robert Crais until an NPR program which compared him to Raymond Chandler with his Joe Pike/Elvis Cole novels set in LA. So, I picked one up, a break I thought between volumes of Amitra Ghosh's novels. And to my delight, it was moose shit but delicious, as my buddy Mac would say. An easy read, a great character in Joe Pike, reminiscent of Jack Reacher, a retired mercenary turned PI. The story begins with a break in, a house killing of husband, wife and children. No clear motive but the victim just happens to have been one of Joe Cole's buddies from his mercenary days. Thus, he sets out, often in conflict with the police and FBI, to solve the case, which, of course, he does, leaving a trail of dead bodies, mostly Russian mafia, on the way. Mid way, Elvis comes in to help back up Joe. Like Reacher, he can be defenseless, as he meets three armed killers, yet with a swift kick, he can break an arm, recover a gun, and shoot all three. Wow. We do get a sense of the Russia Mafia's hold on parts of LA, their first rule: "a thief must forsake his mother, father, brothers and sisters. He must not have a family---no wife, no children. We are his family." Needless to say, Joe unravels the complicated brotherhood, finds the killer of his friend Frank Meyer, without the help of police of course, and eliminates quite a few Russians on the way. A quick read, fun, I am ready for another, The Second Rule.
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