Elvis Cole has taken quite a few
strange cases over the years and the latest is going to be another one. Amy
Breslyn is missing. A senior executive at Woodson Energy Solutions, Meryl Lawrence,
wants Amy found fast and very quietly. The company manufactures fuels for the
Department of Defense and Amy
worked there. Beyond the obvious national security
problem with a high level employee disappearing there are other issues.
Amy disappeared, $450,000 is now missing
from Amy’s department, and Meryl believes that Amy is being coerced. Meryl wants
nobody to know that she hired the “world’s greatest detective” so she paid cash
and gave Elvis the bare minimum to get started. He can’t see Amy’s office or have access to her e-mail or know
anything about her work. He knows very little. One of the things he does know includes
the fact that Amy’s son, Jacob, died sixteen months ago in a terrorist attack overseas.
She also gave him one possible lead which has led Elvis Cole to a house in Echo
Park one rainy night.
A lead that is going to result in
the involvement of multiple members of the Los Angeles Police Department including
K-9 Officer Scott James and his German shepherd, Maggie, a dead bod, and enough explosives to destroy quite an
area. Things are just getting started in The Promise: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel
by Robert Crais.
This latest in the Elvis
Cole/Joe Pike series is a good one though Pike is regulated to a very
small supporting role for most of the book and is not around that much. Told
from the point of view of the bad guys, Elvis Cole, Scott James, Maggie, and many
others, the read moves through character’s heads as they all pursue their
various agendas. That results in some overlap of situations as action sequences
and case details are depicted first one way than the other.
This is an action oriented book--
almost thriller like in its lack of character depth-- as the primary few characters have been fleshed out long before. The
only characters that go into any real depth at all are Maggie and her canine
handler Scott James. Therefore, it will be helpful to read the preceding book, Suspect,
which introduced these two characters as parts of that backstory are referenced
here.
The Promise is a read that
powers steadily forward with a focus on action and little else. It is not a
normal Elvis Cole/ Joe Pike book as one expects quite a bit more character
depth, humor, and meat to the storylines without all the various cardboard cutout
characters. Those issues have led some to question whether or not this book was
written by the author. It seems clear that it was as it follows the same style and
tone as Suspect did. While The Promise is not a book of any
depth, it is entertaining and a very fast read.
The Promise: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel
Robert Crais
Wheeler Publishing (Gale, Cengage
Learning)
November 2015
ISBN# 978-4104-6672-3
Large Print Hardback (standard
hardback, audio, and e-book formats are available)
525 Pages
$37.99
Material supplied by the good folks
of the Plano Texas Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2016
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