Lesa's Book Critiques: Kevin’s Corner Annex – The Big Empty by Robert Crais

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Kevin’s Corner Annex – The Big Empty by Robert Crais

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

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.

Lesa's Book Critiques: KEVIN’S CORNER ANNEX – RACING THE LIGHT BY ROBERT CRAIS

 Lesa's Book Critiques: KEVIN’S CORNER ANNEX – RACING THE LIGHT BY ROBERT CRAIS

Review: Racing the Light by Robert Crais

Racing the Light by Robert Crais opens with private investigator Elvis Cole in his office on the western edge of Hollywood. It is hot and clear when Ms. Adele Schumacher and her entourage arrive. The entourage arrives first, and after checking out the office, back out so that Ms. Schumacher can talk with Mr. Cole.  Things started off a bit weird so it was a sign for Cole that things would get weirder.

 

Ms. Schumacher has good reason to be believe her son, Joshua Alberta Schumacher, has been kidnapped. She has not received a ransom demand. She firmly believes that he has kidnapped to silence him. Her 26-year-old son is an investigative journalist with his own podcast. She believes that he is being held at a secret government facility. Not surprisingly, her case has gone nowhere with the police as he is an adult and she does not have any real proof of anything.

 

While she may believe in government conspiracies, her fear is very real, and she clearly needs help. Cole agrees to poke around for her so that she knows somebody is listening and looking. He does not expect there is an issue and Joshua probably is fine. He also questions the motives of the people involved in Ms. Schumacher life.

 

It does not take Elvis Cole long to realize that something seriously really is going on. Joshua is very much missing, has odd neighbors, and the folks in Ms. Schumacher life are not at all what they seem. If that was not enough, government spooks from our side and others seem to be involved. Things get murkier and more violent as Cole and Pike work the case.

 

A complicated and fast paced read, Racing the Light, is the latest installment in this long running series. It is also a mighty good read. 

 

 

Make sure you check out Don Crouch’s perspective at https://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/2022/11/don-crouch-reviews-racing-light-by.html

 

My reading copy came from the Dallas Public Library System.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2023

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

Review: A Dangerous Man: An Joe Pike and Elvis Cole Novel by Robert Crais

Isabel “Izzy” Roland knows nothing and is oblivious to the fact she is being stalked. She is a bank teller, still grieving over the loss of her mother, and living in the house she inherited. Just another person going about her unremarkable life each and every day, until two men abduct her while she is on her lunch break. Fortunately for her, Joe Pike is around and comes to her rescue.

Having foiled the kidnapping, rescuing Izzy, and making sure that the two kidnappers are alive and in no condition to leave the scene, it should have been all over with the arrival of the police. It isn’t and not just because Joe Pike has a well-deserved reputation. Soon after the two abductors post bail, they are murdered in looks to be a flat out execution. Izzy vanishes and Joe Pike goes on the hunt to find her while at the same time Elvis Cole starts working the case. Why people are going after Izzy is the starting point of a very large and complicated situation that generates an increasing body count and no easy answers.

As has happened with the last several novels, A Dangerous Man: A Joe Pike and Elvis Cole Novel is the currently fashionable and typical thriller style read of short chapters, little to no character development or depth, and constant action as everyone races to and fro in a fresh panic over some event or situation. This read has no relation to the books of depth found early on in the series. Instead, with its constantly shifting point of view, numerous action scenes, and shallowness in descriptions and details regarding characters and most settings, is designed to be a movie first and a book second. While A Dangerous Man: An Joe Pike and Elvis Cole Novel is a fun and fairly entertaining read for a brief time, one does miss the meaty books of earlier in the series. No doubt in this day and age, it will be NYT Bestseller and sell like crazy for months to come.

A Dangerous Man: An Joe Pike and Elvis Cole Novel

Robert Crais

http://www.robertcrais.com

G. P. Putnam’s Sons

http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com

2019

ISBN# 978-0-525-53568-3

Hardback (also available in audio and digital formats)

352 Pages (more like 339 pages)

My copy came from the Central Branch (Downtown) of the Dallas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2019

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

Devon Connor knows her son, Tyson, is up to something. She thinks that her son is involved with drug dealers in some way as she has found money and more in his room including a Rolex. She wants private detective Elvis Cole to find out what her son is doing.

It does not take the world’s greatest detective long to figure out that Tyson, as well as his girlfriend,  Amber, and another teen, Alec, are actually involved in burglaries. They have been taking expensive stuff from various houses. For the teens it is a rush and a game. For somebody they stole from it was very personal and that party has the resources to have them found, the property recovered, and the thieves dealt with in a very permanent way.

Until that happens, the two man hit team hired to find the stolen item will stack bodies in their hunt. It isn’t long before Elvis and the killers cross paths and the chaos begins to build.  Good thing Cole has Pike to balance the odds a little bit.

The Wanted by Robert Crais is a fast paced thrill ride from start to finish. The read shifts nearly every chapter to a different character or characters as the chase winds across the Los Angeles area. What was taken and what it means is at the heart of a story where almost all the bad guys are identified from the start. Instead, the point of the read is building suspense as Elvis and Pike try to keep the clients alive and figure out what they want back and more.

While The Wanted is the latest in the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series, it can easily be read as a standalone. There are hardly any backstory references in the book so reading this one first for readers new to the series would not be a hindrance. Readers of the series to this point should understand that while the tale is a good one, there is less meat on the bones here in terms of other characters being developed. For the most part, the secondary characters tend to be stock characters and at times a bit clichéd. The Wanted is one of those books that you read that is written in such a way that would be easy for Hollywood to make a movie.

Despite all of that, for what it is, The Wanted by Robert Crais is a pretty good read. It keeps the action moving forward at a strong pace and author Robert Crais does a good job of escalating things as needed. While not nearly as good as earlier books in the series, it is a good read and worth your time.

The Wanted: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel

Robert Crais

http://www.robertcrais.com

G. P. Putnam’s Sons (Penguin Random House LLC)

http://www.penguin.com/publishers/gpputnamssons/

December 2017

ISBN# 978-0-399-16150-6

Hardback (also available in audio and eBook formats)

332 Pages

$28.00

Material supplied by the good people of the Dallas Library System. Support your local libraries. When the zombies attack and the grid goes down, all those internet connected devices are not going to be worth crap. We will need printed books to rebuild the world.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2018

Review: "The Promise: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel" by Robert Crais

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

http://www.robertcrais.com

Wheeler Publishing (Gale, Cengage Learning)

http://www.gale.cengage.com/wheeler

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

Author Robert Crais At Work

If you ever wanted to see where author Robert Crais writes his novels go here over at Crimespree Magazine. He shares pictures and details.

More on SUSPECT by Robert Crais

Having recently read my review of the book, author Dennis Palumbo sent me the link to his review in the Los Angeles Review of Books. His review titled "Heal, Dog, Heal!: Robert Crais's "Suspect"" can be found here.

Review: "Suspect" by Robert Crais

If Police Officer Scott James had done something different that evening his partner Stephanie Anders would still be alive. But, she isn't because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time as Scott James was looking for a very specific noodle place a Rampart Robbery detective had raved about.  Nine months later, she is still dead, the suspects involved in a brutal murder are still running free, and Police Officer Scott James is haunted by terrible physical pain and horrific nightmares.

Having refused a medical discharge, James is trying to come back with a new role in the K-9 division. James knows nothing about dogs, no matter what he told the LAPD, and is learning on the fly as fast as he can. He is eventually paired up with Maggie, a beautiful German Shepard, who is suffering her own physical pain and mental anguish after her most recent tour with the Marines in Afghanistan.

Shifting in point of view primarily between James and Maggie Suspect by Robert Crais charts their recovery as well as their involvement in working the case of his shooting. A complicated mystery that is about not only redemption, but persistence despite the odds. This book clearly reads as a potential first novel in a new series from this talented author.

Those who are strict about such things will take issue with the point of view sections from the dog's perspective. They will say it isn’t possible to get inside the mind of a traumatized dog looking for a new pack leader. But, those sections do work and make Maggie come alive for the reader in ways she otherwise would not have. PTSD in dogs as well as humans is a documented fact and author Robert Crais, while fictionalizing some things, illustrates the issue well without preaching to the reader. That aspect is just one part of the mystery and serves as character development while Scott James and Maggie work the shooting case.

Certainly this is not a Joe Pike/Elvis Cole type novel and is not intended to be one. Readers and reviewers expecting that kind of novel will be disappointed. Taken for what it is, something new and very different than his previous books, Suspect is a good book from a very talented author and well worth your time.

Suspect

Robert Crais

http://www.robertcrais.com

G. P. Putnam’s Sons (Penguin Group USA)

http://www.penguin.com

2013

ISBN# 978-0-399-16148-3

Hardback (also available in e-book and audio book forms)

315 Pages

$27.95

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2013