The Watchman – Robert Crais
In this book, the author continues the exploration of his mysterious character Joe Pike which began in earnest in the book LA Requiem (though it could be said that the exploration has been there in all the books). For the uninitiated, this is the first Joe Pike novel – Pike normally playing second string to the author’s main character Elvis Cole.
Joe Pike is an enigmatic character, while being a classic tarnished knight. He had an abusive childhood, is an ex-Marine, is a martial arts expert, is an ex-policeman and is a sometime mercenary. He is also very intelligent and capable of extreme gentleness and compassion. He is, on the surface, a similar character to Win in the Myron Bolitar Stories (Harlan Coben) or Bubba in the Gennaro/Kenzie stories (Dennis Lehane). He is there to move the story along, to take the actions our detective cannot/will not take – he’s the big guns brought out for extreme circumstances.
The Elvis Cole novels are known for their characterisations and the humour the author can bring to the story. he continues this in this novel. Pike is asked to bodyguard a spoiled rich girl and, as one would expect, things take a rapid turn for the worst. In this novel the plot almost takes second place to the characterisations and to the gradual drawing out of Joe’s backstory and that of Larkin Barkley.
Reading any Robert Crais novel is a pleasure and reading this one especially so. Joe Pike, already solid in the minds of the fans, is further fleshed out in this novel. The Daily Mirror said “Read this, then read all his others” and I have to agree. Unless you already have all the others in which case I say read them in order and stop jumping to the end.
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