| Product: |
Demolition Angel - Robert Crais |
| Date: |
05/04/08 (81 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Fully-rounded characters with the flaws that make them interesting
Disadvantages: None really just main character lacks humour
Just lately a lot of my reading material has come my way from my brother who is forever clearing out space in his house in order to store more and more DVDs. 'Demolition Angel' is no exception and the first book by Robert Crais I had ever had the pleasure to have read.
Robert Crais has worked on many US TV shows such as 'Miami Vice' and 'Hill Street Blues' and has written fifteen novels, the most well known probably being 'Hostage' which was made into a film starring Bruce Willis and being so prolific I was surprised I had never delved into the mans catalogue before. Oh well.....
'Demolotion Angel' is the tale of Carol Starkey who works for the CCS (the 'Criminal Conspiracy Section') arm of the Los Angeles Police Department who, during a meeting with her therapist, is called out to a situation where Charlie Riggio, member of the Bomb Squad, has quite literally blown it! This is harrowing ground for Starkey because three years ago she and a fellow Bomb Squad officer had died when caught in the blast of an undiffused bomb. Luckily she had been revived but her fellow officer had never made it.
It would appear that the infamous Mr. Red has moved his operations to the east coast of America and begun to continue to blast his was into infamy. Enter FBI Special Agent Jack Pell, an authority on Mr. Red, with an agenda all of his own.
This is just one of a few books by Robert Crais that doesn't involve Elvis Cole and Joe Pike and stands alone rather in the midst of a series of novels and is therefore fairly easy to get to grips with. Sometimes when you jump into the middle of a series of books the characters can appear very thin and the reader doesn't become attached to the characters as they would like.
Carol Starkey is a strong-willed woman haunted by dreams of the moment the bomb destroyed her life and has turned to drink as an escape from the pain. She is a well-developed character with the usual shadows bringing a touch of colour and uncertainty to her actions and re-actions.
What she is lacking though is humour. I know having undergone all she has done that laughs would not be well up the top of her list but it is a main characters synical outlook that I like to witness. Rankin's 'Rebus' or Connelly's 'Harry Bosch' are both prime examples of this and for me help pull me further into the related stories. This is not really a complaint more an opinion and does not distract from the main character it just means the smile-factor doesn't raise above level 1.
The writing is really well done. Many authors can over-burden the reader with a huge amount of descriptive text and thereby detach the reader by slowing down much of the action. I like to read dialogue to help me understand a character better as their personality comes across easier that way and Crais likes dialogue. Not to say that the book is dominated by speech just that there is an equal balance between narrative and dialogue which for me is perfect.
As this is the first Robert Crais novel I have read I cannot say whether this is a fine example of his work or if it pales in comparison with his other books. What I can say though is that if you like the stories of Micheal Connelly or Jeffery Deaver then this should be right up your street with enough to keep you hooked well into the wee hours.
The book is available from Amazon for £4.19 NEW for the paperback version but for just 1p USED - and that's the hardback copy. One pence for 386 pages is good going by anyones wallet!
Summary: A great read that hooks you in til the end
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