The Watchman by Robert Crais

I had reported to the group on another Crais novel, The Two Minute Rule, where Crais painted a picture of a career criminal just off a 10y prison stint trying to learn why his cop son was murdered the day before his release. The trick was in making the ex-con a character you’d pull for.

If you remember, at the end of the movie Dirty Harry, the disillusioned cop Harry Callahan threw his shield into the pond after killing the serial killer (“do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?”). It looked like Harry was quitting. The next movie picked up with Harry back on the force with no mention of the end of the prior story.

This story by Crais is sort of what I thought might have happened to Callahan had he actually quit. In this story, the Callahan character is named Joe Pike, an ex-marine who was part of a clandestine unit that operated outside the rules of war. After Vietnam, he joined the LAPD and forged a father-son relationship with his training officer. After 4 years, he up and quits, and takes a job as a mercenary (the story behind why he quit the LAPD would’ve made a great book by itself). Now, he gets hired to do things others can’t or won’t do.

A Paris Hilton-type girl has a car accident late at night. 2 people hurt and a third runs off. Her description of the runner sets of a series of attempts on the girl’s life. That’s where Pike comes in; protect the girl where witness protection failed. In the first chapter, Pike kills 5 bad guys at 2 supposedly safe houses and decides he can do better without the help of the police of Justice Dept. With the help of his former T.O. father figure, a buddy PI recovering from a shotgun injury, and a geeky, ‘poon tang’ hound from the LAPD CSI unit, the piece together clues that tie information from LA to Colorado to Ecuador, to the Czech Republic. Is she slated for death or some other purpose? Who is behind the attempts? Does the trail lead to the Department of Justice? Higher up in the LAPD? Drug lords? Or who?

As you can imagine, I pictured the Pike character as what Harry Callahan would’ve done after the first movie. Crais portrays Pike as a lean, hard man almost devoid of personality, regret, or humor. Pike makes Jack Reacher seem like the life of the party, if you can imagine that. He just sees right or wrong. His PI friend and the CSI guy were more likable characters, especially the CSI guy. But our femme fatale is actually the one who changes most over the week of the storyline. She starts out like Paris Hilton but by the end of the week and what she sees and experiences, you could see her potentially potentially becoming La Femme Nikita….or not…

Not bad by my reckoning. After 2 novels, I’ve come to like Crais. On to something else now. Still have a week left on this trip to rainy and overcast Zurich.