In the blink of an eye, Cole's life is turned upside down...... (The Last Detective - Robert Crais)

Member Name: sparkymarky1973

Product:	The Last Detective - Robert Crais
Date:	03/05/09 (33 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gripping and very very well written....

Disadvantages: Maybe should be avoided by anyone who HAS lost a child for real....

The Last Detective is the ninth Elvis Cole novel written by Robert Crais and takes a much darker and more sinister tone than the other books I have read in the series whilst still managing to give us some insight into what makes Private Eye Cole and his silent partner, Joe Pike, tick. It has a real change of pace and style from the other Cole books I have picked up and makes a refreshing change to the series so far- also featuring Detective Carol Starkey of Demolition Angel fame in a cameo which looks to make her a more permanent character in the Cole novels.

Crais is not the first writer to combine characters across titles; Stephen King does it a lot, slipping in sly (and not so) references to his other novels in all his writing; Karin Slaughter is supposedly merging her Grant County novels with her other books in her forthcoming new release, the late Ed McBain combined his Matthew Hope and 87th Precint titles for a couple of books and even Patricia Cornwell did something similar- casting Kay Scarpetta in a small cameo in one of her independant titles that I know about but have never read.

This latest book starts when the ten year old son, Ben, of Cole's girlfriend, Lucy, is snatched from Cole's home whilst staying on a visit. After a fruitless search around his property and surrrounding area, Elvis returns to his home in time to receive a call from the kidnappers suggesting the snatch has much to do with Cole's time in Vietnam. Cole alerts the authorities, which is when Starkey becomes involved, and before long Lucy's ex-husband, Richard, is also on the scene with his own special consultants. Richard is keen (perhaps a little too keen) to put the blame on Elvis and his dangerous life-style, never keen on Cole's presence in Lucy and Ben's life, and tries to shut the Private Eye out of the investigation. But then Cole catches a lead and discovers exactly who and what he is dealing with and suddenly begins realising that this trime he may be a little out of his depth. Thankfully he has Pike, his partner with a highly nefarious past, to call on but Pike is still recovering from near-mortal injuries sustained in the previous novel and those wounds haven't just left physical damage but mental scars as well...can Pike regain the confidence and skill he once possessed in time to keep Cole from wading out of his depth- potentially for the last ever time.....?

The book has more twists and turns than a helter-skelter and is every bit as enjoyable as any of the other novels. It is darker, it is much more serious and sinister and much of the trade-mark hunour of this series is temporairly put aside but that doesn't make it any less a powerful read. It ios good to see something of Cole's past in flashback and this helps you to understand better Elvis Cole as a character and as a person. Also interesting is the use in this book of multiple view-points- we see the action through not just Cole's but also Ben's and Pike's eyes too and this gives the novel new perspective and eliminates the whole unreliable narrator factor present in first-person novels. Here, at times, we see events from three angles and only through combining them do we get the bigger picture.

I did guess the biggest twist in this novel before I read it but it IS an obvious twist and doesn't spoil any enjoyment. Unlike the other books, a previous knowledge of some of the Cole novels is an advantage but I had missed out a couple of the titles mentioned in passing here and it didn't lessen my enjoyment- in fact, I believe this to be the best Elvis Cole novel yet that I have read and look forward to picking up more titles by this author!!! Anyone who is a parent will immediately be able to empathise with Cole's predicament and though the situation is exceptional, it illustrates all too easily how suddenly a child can disappear when you take your eyes off them for a second and all parents will recognise what Cole feels even if they have only lost sight of their child for a minutes worth of panic. Here, Crais does a perfect job of summing up the wave of emotions that triggers and, for me, that gives this book an extra edge. If you only read one Elvis Cole novel, it should be this one...

Summary: A 10 year old is snatched but there is more to the kidnapping than meets the eye