Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Don Crouch Reviews: Racing The Light by Robert Crais

 
Please welcome Don Crouch to the blog today with his first of what I hope will be many more reviews.

 

       Racing The Light by Robert Crais

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, Robert Crais is BACK!

Now, you can take this a couple of ways, and they’d both be accurate. Our last encounter with both Crais and his fictional counterparts Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, was 2019’s A Dangerous Man.. And there are folks out there who would claim that the last few Cole/Pike entries were perhaps showing some creakiness.

To both, one empirical, one subjective, I say, THE DUDE IS BACK.

Racing The Light is fast paced with high stakes and the razor-sharp plot and dialogue you expect from someone who is, at this point in the game, just plain better than almost anybody at the art of Crime Fiction storytelling.

Elvis is hired by Adele Schumacher to find her son, semi-notorious podcaster Josh Shoe. Seems Josh is out a bit over his skis on a story, and Mom is worried for his safety.

Motherly instincts matter, folks.

Elvis starts to dig, and soon enough is finding a matrix of Chinese spies, porn people, corrupt political weasels…and maybe aliens!

But wait, there’s more! Racing The Light also features the return of Lucy Chenier! She is visiting with her son Ben, who we know, as he checks out a film program at UCLA. Their conversations are deep in the heart of this story, with BIG stakes for the future, and it’s great to have them both back in the mix. Soon enough, however, fists, and more than a few bullets start flying, and we’re plunged into a consequential adventure that talks about what really is truth in this new communication model we live in.

Crais wants us to get re-acquainted with Elvis here, so Pike is, along with Jon Scott, on board for support and assistance. This REALLY is an Elvis Cole novel, and it’s one of the reasons Racing The Light hits so hard. It’s in the upper tier of Crais’ entire oeuvre, and is one of the best crime books of 2022!



Don Crouch ©2022

No comments: