Lesa's Book Critiques: I’ll Be Home for Christmas by Jenny Bayliss

 Lesa's Book Critiques: I’ll Be Home for Christmas by Jenny Bayliss

Review: The Big Empty: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel by Robert Crais

 

The Big Empty: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel by Robert Crais is one of those books that slaps you upside your head. A very good read, but it is a tale full of pain, heartbreak, and rage, that changed so many lives then and now.

 

For Private Investigator Elvis Cole, the case starts when Tracie Beller hires him. Her mom, her uncle Phil, and her various other advisors wish her not to do it. But, her dad, Tommy Beller, disappeared ten years ago. Everybody believes he just walked away from his family. Tracie never believed that.

 

All these years later, she is a social media phenomenon as she bakes her way to stardom and riches. She has millions of followers and there are investors considering becoming part of her rapidly growing brand. While all of that does matter to her, what is far more important is finding out what happed to her father. She has the money to hire a private detective and she wants Elvis Cole.

 

He agrees to look into things. That means heading out of Los Angeles to the nearby community of Rancha where Mr. Beller was last seen working as he serviced various clients. He and Uncle Phil owned and ran a heating and air company. He was out there, in a company van, doing service calls when he vanished. So too did the repair van. The clients of that day are important, especially the last clients he saw which were Sadie Given and her daughter, Anya.

 

His presence and activities bring him to the attention of others who are determined to stop him, one way or another. As if anything short of being murdered would stop “The World’s Greatest Detective” and his running buddy, Joe Pike.

 

I am reminded yet again that we all need a Joe Pike in our lives.

 

I am also reminded that Robert Crais can seriously write. The Big Empty: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel is a complex multi layered read that hits you hard in the guts and then smacks you right between the eyes. The details of what happened and why are horrific and can’t be shared without blowing up the read. There is a reason why the jacket copy is so sparse and worded the way it is on the book.

 

Strongly Recommended.

 

 

Make sure you read Aubrey’s review from early January.

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3XHlTb6 

 

 

My reading copy came from the White Rock Hills Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2025

Lesa's Book Critiques: Lethal Prey by John Sandford

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Lethal Prey by John Sandford

Lesa's Book Critiques: The Blanket Cats by Kiyoshi Shigematsu

 Lesa's Book Critiques: The Blanket Cats by Kiyoshi Shigematsu

Lesa's Book Critiques: The Wolf Tree by Laura McCluskey

 Lesa's Book Critiques: The Wolf Tree by Laura McCluskey

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Big Empty by Robert Crais

I was inordinately pleased to learn I had been approved to receive an advance copy of the new Elvis Cole and Joe Pike thriller via NetGalley. Publicists for popular authors like Robert Crais can pick and choose who will be allowed an early look and I did not expect to be one of the selected. However, I lost no time in downloading a copy in case someone decided to reverse the decision, and I tucked the PDF file away for my Christmas reading treat.

I am happy to report that The Big Empty (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2025) is every bit as good as its 19 predecessors. Elvis Cole is at loose ends when Traci Beller’s assistant calls. Traci is a trendy influencer on social media, known for her cooking videos and her bubbly persona. She is on the brink of going mainstream but she can’t forget her father, who disappeared 10 years previously when she was 13, and it is disrupting her focus. The police decided at the time that Beller abandoned his family. Traci simply cannot believe it. She hired a private investigator to look for him five years ago without success and now she wants Cole to look again.

Cole is reluctant to take on what seems to be a futile task, though he agrees to review the file from the last search. The reports are thorough if not downright exhaustive. A quick check shows no sign of Beller or the van he was driving in the intervening five years. Cole talks to a few of the witnesses in case an additional detail or two surfaces and surface they do. Following the threads of fragmented new information results in a group of thugs threatening Cole and he calls in Joe Pike for back-up. The data leads to startling revelations which force Cole to decide how much to tell and to whom and what to hold back, if anything.

A surprising story in many ways with a nuanced examination of the impact criminals have on those who love them. And how sometimes we simply have no good options among the choices facing us; the best we can do is pick what seems to be the least bad and hope. A running secondary theme is just how hard poor people work to stay alive with no clear way of improving their situations. The single mothers here struggle desperately to provide for their children and feel themselves going under anyway.

I wish I could say that Traci’s greedy and opportunistic business manager is not credible but unfortunately I’ve worked with people a lot like him. He’s all too real. Cole and Pike remain two of the most likable, reliable, and conscientious investigators around. And I was happy to see that Cat is still delivering purrs and head bonks. Recommended.

To be released on 14 January 2025. Starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus.

·         Publisher: ‎G.P. Putnam's Sons (January 14, 2025)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Hardcover: ‎384 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎0525535764

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-0525535768

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4gADk4p 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.