Book Review: L.A. REQUIEM by Robert Crais

L.A. REQUIEM (Elvis Cole series #8) by Robert Crais.  Doubleday hardcover, 1999  ISBN #0-385-49583-8

 

from the Goodreads website summary . . . . .

 

Robert Crais (Free Fall, Monkey's Raincoat) returns with his eighth Elvis Cole mystery, L.A. Requiem, a breakneck caper that leaves the wise-cracking detective second-guessing himself. 

 

Cole's partner, the tight-lipped, charm-free Joe Pike, gets a call from his friend Frank "Tortilla" Garcia. Not only is Garcia a wealthy businessman, he's a political heavyweight and father of Karen, Joe's ex. Frank sends the gumshoe duo out to find his girl, but the boys are beaten to the punch by the men in blue: Karen is found in a park with a bullet in her brain. 

 

The two stay on the case, but when another murder points to Pike as a suspect, things take a turn for the worse. The boys on the force are all too willing to put Pike away -- he has a checkered past. When Cole attempts to save Pike, he finds a lot more than he bargained for.

 

My review on Goodreads . . . . .

 

Crais is an author to admire and study. I learn something about the craft of writing every time I read one of his novels. 

 

Like many of them, L.A. REQUIEM has a prologue that gets the blood boiling as a police bust of a pedophile goes wrong, ending with an officer shot in the face. It's a flashback that tells how Joe Pike, the partner of main detective Elvis Cole, lost his job with the L.A. police force. 

 

There's a series of serial killings with victims that seem chosen at random until a marginal link to the prologue is established. But it won't be the one that readers suspect (and I'm not going to ruin it by sharing too many of the details). 

 

Crais flavors the novel with a diverse menu of interesting and well-developed characters in addition to more reveals about the main players Cole and Pike. Cole seems to be headed for a serious romantic relationship when his girlfriend and young son move from Lousiana to Los Angeles to be closer to him, but Cole's dedication to his job and his partner and friends gets in the way of cementing the relationship and leaves the future uncertain. Readers will learn about the background and past history of Pike in this novel and it's compelling and chilling at the same time.

 

The only character that Crais withholds revealing too much of is the protagonist, a nasty person with a deep-seated grudge and a passion to punish those he holds responsible for a crime against a friend and mentor. Readers will remain as clueless as the investigative team until Cole and Pike uncover the evidence that points the finger at the real suspect. 

 

The violent conclusion storms through the last ninety pages of this book like a whirlwind. I was captive and had to keep reading until the end. Recommended.