From the New York Times-bestselling author who sets the standard for intense, powerful crime-writing comes a blistering thriller featuring Joe Pike and Elvis Cole.
The Watchman put Joe Pike, Elvis Cole's strong, taciturn partner, front and center, and not only won Robert Crais new audiences but remarkable reviews. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel said "Robert Crais elevates crime fiction" and now with The First Rule he does it again.
The organized criminal gangs of the former Soviet Union are bound by what they call the thieves' code. The first rule is this: A thief must forsake his mother, father, brothers, and sisters. He must have no family-no wife, no children. We are his family. If any of the rules are broken, it is punishable by death.
Frank Meyer had the American dream-until the day a professional crew invaded his home and murdered everyone inside. The only thing out of the ordinary about Meyer was that- before the family and the business and the normal life-a younger Frank Meyer had worked as a professional mercenary, with a man named Joe Pike. The police think Meyer was hiding something very bad, but Pike does not. With the help of Cole, he sets out on a hunt of his own-an investigation that quickly entangles them both in a web of ancient grudges, blood ties, blackmail, vengeance, double crosses, and cutthroat criminalÂity, and at the heart of it, an act so terrible even Pike and Cole have no way to measure it. Sometimes, the past is never dead. It's not even past.
The First Rule is the most astonishing novel yet from the master of the crime thriller.
In a follow up to his previous novel The Watchman, Elvis Cole's partner, Joe Pike, starts a search for the professional hit crew that killed his friend, and one time associate, Frank Meyer and his entire family.
As with all Robert Crais novels, this one both satisfies and thrills. Joe Pike takes the lead this time around. Pike is one of those characters that just seems to be able to get out of any situation and best anything or anyone that comes his way. Basically someone you love to cheer for. Great escapist fiction.
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THE FIRST RULE is the latest novel by great thriller writer Robert Crais. Many Crais novels feature ex-mercenary/cop and mysterious Joe Pike along with "the world's greatest detective" Elvis Cole. The First Rule is a Joe Pike novel, and the first rule is simple: Don't mess with Joe Pike.
The novel opens with Frank Meyer and his loving wife and two cute kids being ruthlessly murdered. Frank was a family man who had left a mercenary past behind. He was one of Pike's men. When Pike finds out, he vows vengence. Pike has many things to find out. Meyer had gone straight, or so he thought. Or was Meyer killed because he had gotten involved in something illegal. Or could the murder have something to do with Meyer's Serbian nanny, who was also murdered?
I can pinpoint why, but I didn't enjoy this book as much as I did some past Crais novels like THE WATCHMAN or THE LAST DETECTIVE. Crais fans should enjoy the return of Pike, but the lack of other interesting characters like John Chen (who is only around a bit) or Carole Starkey (not around at all) left me wanting a little more. The twists and turns are there, but with the Russian mob and feds involved, I felt far removed from the conflict.
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Joe Pike has acted as a force of nature and retribution in the Elvis Cole series, but has always been limited to brief appearances, kind of like what would happen if you used an AK-47 to open up a pinata. In brief spurts he's always been welcome and has always been an excellent counterpoint to Cole.
The First Rule is filler free, and Pike survives the outing intact, but I have long term questions about Pike as the main character. This guy has no personality. Being a vegetarian is not a personality trait, nor is being capable of artistic violence. The author attempts to give Pike some personality, but the effect is akin to throwing a thimble of water onto a raging forest fire.
I liked this book a lot. It has a good mystery at its core, lots of action, and absolutely no paragraphs that demanded to be skimmed over. But if it weren't written by Robert Crais and starred a character I wasn't familiar with, I'm not sure I'd have given it 4-stars.
