Amy Breslyn tried to do the best she could. Single mom raising a son, Jacob, who goes on to become a journalist. But he was killed by a suicide bomber while on assignment in Nigeria, about a year and a half ago. Amy has disappeared. Just walked away. And has been gone for going on two weeks.Elvis Cole has been hired by Meryl Washington, her boss, to find Amy. Meryl says Jacob's boyhood friend Tom, who lives in Echo Park, might be a place to start. Or the mysterious 'Charles' who Meryl thinks Amy met at an online dating service. So Elvis sits outside the Echo Park house waiting. Right up until a whole bunch of cops descend on the house. An occupant runs out and Elvis, being a good citizen, takes off after him.
When the cops enter the house they find a druggie with his head crashed in. They also find RPGs and grenades. But more importantly, they find a tupperware container with a couple pounds of plastic explosives. And it doesn't contain the required ingredient that IDs the manufacturer.
Just what does Amy do for Meryl's company? Amy has a PhD in chemical engineering. She is VP of Production. She produces "double and triple-based composite fuels, slurries, gels, castable propellents, plasticized accelerants." They don't make weapons, but they do make the parts that make the weapon be a weapon. And Meryl wants to keep this quiet to ensure continued funding from the military.
The cops think Elvis is keeping critical info to himself and pursues him as a person of interest. A K9 cop (see Suspect) who was at the Echo Park bust was going to get a commendation, but gets put on leave for reasons he can't comprehend. And every clue that Elvis uncovers ends up a deadend. Not until Elvis calls his partner, Joe Pike, and a former Ranger and now a self-employed merc, Jon Stone, do they scratch out a couple clues that cast an entirely different light on what should have been a routine missing persons job.
I hated reading this book. 400 pages. But it wasn't the book. It was life getting in the way of an absolutely terrific read. I could've read it non-stop. Would've had to be reminded to use the bathroom or eat or sleep or actually do something that might earn a buck or two. Crais isn't our most reviewed author for nothing. Firmly entrenched at or near the top of all of our power rotations, Crais is an expert at relating a single scene from the viewpoints of Elvis, the K9 cop, Jon Stone, the bad guy, the cops, even the Maggie the K9 dog. Marginally different stories of the same situation according to the biases of each. A riveting story told by one of our favorites. We've read and reviewed everything by Crais, so if you are new to Crais, pick up any of his books; you won't be disappointed.
Is this his best? Personally, I think Taken was #1 . . . but this would be #1a.
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Robert Crais visited our local library (as he often does) to promote his latest work, The Promise and I was able to attend. It has been two years since his last release, Suspect in which he introduced his new character, Maggie the K-9 cop. Apparently Maggie was such a success that Crais took the time to incorporate all his favorite protagonists into one book. So in The Promise we see Elvis Cole, Joe Pike, Jon Stone, Maggie, and K-9 officer Scott James all together for the first time. What's next? Crais says to look for a bigger role from Jon Stone... can't wait.
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