Audiobook Review: Suspect by Robert Crais

Suspect by Robert Crais

Read by MacLeod Andrews

Brilliance Audio

Length: 8 Hrs 30 Min

Genre: Thriller

Quick Thoughts: The beginning of Suspect left me in shock, slack jawed and breathless, and the novel relentless pace just continued steal my breath to the point of asphyxia. Its fast paced action and well conceived plot makes this more than just another dog book and its characters are achingly real. Maggie is my favorite dog literary character since Einstein in Watchers. Yet, even without the awesome dog, Suspect is a great crime thriller that stands up to the best in the business.

Grade: A-

There is a very good reason that I avoid dog books, and it’s not because I don’t like dogs. In fact, it’s the exact opposite, I love dogs. There are furry bundles of awesomeness, and the fact that we share our homes and lives with them is one of the things that proves that humanity has good in it. Most of the best memories of my childhood involve a dog in some way. Sadly, some of my worst memories also involve dogs. I am not a person who cries easily. I can read the most gut wrenching tragedies, and manage to keep my sociopathic grin. Yet, have a dog come down with a bad case of fleas and I’m a blubbering imbecile, wiping snot out of my beard. It’s ridiculous. Kill off as main character, and I’m fine. Kill off your dog, or Billybumbler or Cat that works at a Bookstore and I will be stuck weeping on my couch, wrapped in a Snuggie eating Haagen-Dazs like a character from a clichéd riddled Lifetime movie. This blubbering mass of human jelly is not an image that I want to project out into the world, scaring off potential dates, and small children. Now, that’s not to say I don’t enjoy dogs in fiction. I love when Jonathan Maberry added Ghost to his Joe Ledger series but if he ends up killing off Ghost the way he has some of his other characters he‘ll have some blubbering 30 something screaming “WHY!!!” at him outside his favorite Starbucks. So, back to the topic at hand, one thing I love about Januarys is that you know a Robert Crais novel is at hand. I was very excited about Suspect. I was very excited when I learned that Suspect was going to be narrated by MacLeod Andrews. Most importantly, when discovering it was about a dog, I attempted to contract the flu as cover for the read nose and blood shot eyes if anything should happen to our canine hero. 

In Suspect, Robert Crais starts off with a punch to the gut, and then kicks you in the balls when you are down. In a good way. Suspect stars off with two tragic events, the death of a soldier in Afghanistan, and the slaughter of a cop in the streets of Los Angeles both leaving the surviving partners of the dead riddled with guilt. Scott James is an LA policeman on the fast track, when a brutal attack leaves his partner Stephanie dead, and him fighting for his life, sanity and job. Transferred to the K9 Unit, despite never having had a dog, Scott meets Maggie, a German Sheppard recovering from her own loss. Together, they will investigate the crime that lead to Scott’s partner’s death, and develop a bond neither of them expected. It all sounds sort of TV movie of the weekish, but it’s really not. Crais is one of the best Thriller writers out there, and his crisp style gets us right into the minds of these characters. This isn’t some cardboard cutter exploration of PSTD with the plucky dog helping the tragically victimized cop to cope. It’s a fast paced crime thriller that explores issues of guilt, loss and adapting to tragedy is a real way. Crais never let’s us get comfortable in the misery of the characters, but pushes them to confront their greatest fears. I found the look into Maggie’s brain and exploration of her though patters added a unique grounding force to the narrative. Crais uses the dog’s perception as a mirror to Scott’s showing how a bond can form in a realist manner. As a sucker for dogs, I was pleased that Crais didn’t go through the movie montage version of bonding, but tackled the reluctance and ignorance of Jame’s head on. The plot itself was well orchestrated and smart, what you would expect from Crais. While I missed some of the humor that Crais infuses his Elvis Cole novels with, Suspect is full of enough heart to make up for it. The beginning of Suspect left me in shock, slack jawed and breathless, and the novel relentless pace just continued steal my breath to the point of asphyxia. Its fast paced action and well conceived plot makes this more than just another dog book and its characters are achingly real. Maggie is my favorite dog literary character since Einstein in Watchers. Yet, even without the awesome dog, Suspect is a great crime thriller that stands up to the best in the business.

Macleod Andrews was an inspired choice to read Suspect. His soft, yet sometimes gravelly voice allowed him to balance between the despondent Scott James reflections on life, and his high pitch doggy speak. Andrews captured just the right tone of adorable doggy talk that occasionally I found my tail a bit waggly, yet it never came off corny. He didn’t try to make scenes from Maggie’s perspective Cartoon doggy, but just delivered them in a soft measured way that fit the personality, more than the sound, of the dog. I think Andrews is one of the best narrators at truly inhabiting a character. This usually pays off best in first person tales, but proves to be just as affective in multiple character POVs. I will challenge anyone out there to listen to the first hour of this audiobook, and not be totally drawn in. Crais’ writing is wonderful, and the dual openings scenes are devastating, and Andrew’s delivery and pacing perfectly translates that to the reader. Fans of realistic as opposed to melodramatic Animal Tales, as well as fans of great thrillers and crime fiction should be equally pleased with Suspect.

Note: Thanks to Brilliance Audio for providing me with this title for review.

Audiobook Review:Taken by Robert Crais

Taken by Robert Crais (Elvis Cole/Joe Pike, Bk. 15)

Read by Luke Daniels

Brilliance Audio

Length: 8 Hrs.

Genre: Thriller

Quick Thoughts: Taken again confirms to me that Crais is one of the masters of the detective thriller and that the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike continues to maintain its excellent track record. Full of fast paced action, nasty bad guys that just need killing, and life threatening situations, Taken truly earns the title, "Thriller."

Grade: B+

Robert Crais is one of the earliest members of my "Wait a Year" authors. By that, I mean authors who I have read everything they have written, and know upon finishing their latest offering that I’m going to have to wait a year for my next chance to experience one of their books. In my only other Crais review written for this blog, I talked about how I was more of an Elvis Cole guy then a Joe Pike guy. Don’t take this wrong, I love both characters, but I always preferred Elvis Coles’ sarcastic everyman, to the strong silent Joe Pike. The past two entries on the Cole/Pike series has been told using a literary device that I have always enjoyed, the multiple perspective, overlapping story line. We get to experience the story through the eyes of Cole in a first person POW, as well as third person accounts from Joe Pike, as well as a few other characters along the way. I have always enjoyed this story telling device, although I can’t help but associate it with the comedic, unreliable perspective usage of multiple perspective comedies. I particularly remember an episode of The Simpsons, telling an overlapping story from Bart, Lisa and Marge’s perspective, as each story ended the characters were left in freeze frame, until the ending when all the stories came together. So, for some odd reason, while reading The Taken, as each section ended, I couldn’t help but picture Elvis, or Joe stuck in freeze frame waiting for the story to catch up with them. While this image itself could have become distracting, the well executed plot, and compelling story totally sucked me into Crais’ world where the whole freeze frame thing became nothing more than an interesting anecdote.

If there was ever a doubt that Elvis Cole is the World’s Greatest Detective, a recent magazine article testifying to that fact leaves the doubters humbled. Now, Cole, brandished "magazine boy" is called to the business of Nita Morales, whose daughter is missing. Morales is not to scared though, she believes that her daughter is just under the bad influence of her lay-about boyfriend, and she totally trusts Elvis to use his world class clue finding skills to determine just where her typically trustworthy daughter has run off to. Yet, what Cole finds is a much more dangerous situation, which may require more than his skills as an investigator to resolve. Crais continues to amaze me with his tightly plotted action thrillers, and Taken is definitely up there with his best. One of the best things that Crais has going is the closer than brothers, yet totally different protagonists, Cole and Pike, and uses their opposing styles to great affect in Taken. This novel, above all of his others, should totally satisfy all Crais fans, whether you are a Cole guy like me, or one of the legions of Pike fans. I also liked Crais’ ability to take on topics such as human trafficking, and kidnapping for ransom, topics that have appeared in a lot of thrillers recently, but give it a fresh spin that was quite compelling. And while cameo appearances from characters from other novels are not a new thing for Crais, it was nice to get a more detailed look at Jon Stone, one of the more intriguing minor characters in the series. Taken again confirms to me that Crais is one of the masters of the detective thriller and that the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike continues to maintain its excellent track record. Full of fast paced action, nasty bad guys that just need killing, and life threatening situations, Taken truly earns the title, "Thriller."

While this is only Luke Daniels second outing voicing Crais’ signature series, he has definitely become the definitive voice of Pike and Cole. Daniels seems to be getting cast more often in novels that call out to me, spanning many genres. He has a strong, solid narrative voice, that’s not too deep, but crisp and clear and he always finds the proper rhythm and pace for the novel he is reading. I remember when listening to his first entry into the series The Sentry, that he came off as if he had been reading Pike and Cole since the very beginnings. His characterizations of theses iconic characters were just so dead on that they reeked of authenticity.  There is just something validating about audiobooks when you listen to a narrator’s take on characters you had first discovered in print, and it just totally gels with how you envisioned them. Now, having completed yet another excellent edition of a Robert Crais novel, I must return to my year long wait for his next.

Note: A special thanks to the good people of Brilliance Audio for providing a copy of this title for review.

For an excellent review of the print version, check out Jen’s Book Thoughts, my favorite Crime Fiction review blog, recent review of Taken.

For a great look at the series overall, with emphasis on the Audiobooks, check out this post from the blog, It Rains… You Get Wet.

Audiobook Review: The Sentry by Robert Crais

The Sentry (Joe Pike Book3) by Robert Crais

Read by Luke Daniels

Brilliance Audio

People seem to really like Joe Pike. I personally am more of an Elvis Cole fan, myself. I enjoy the wise cracking world’s greatest detective. I always liked Joe Pike as a background character, but had my concerns when he became the dominant point of view. To me, Pike has always been sort of like a superhero, unstoppable, unkillable, and unable to hold a decent conversation beyond a few grunts, and some ass kicking.

So, I began to listen to The Sentry by Robert Crais with a bit of trepidation. The first two Pike novels were solid, but didn’t blow me away. Yet, I found the sentry to be a much more engaging tale. I think the big difference here is that Pike comes off as less of a “can do no wrong” superhero. Here Pike is quite human, even if it be a monosyllabic gruff human. Crais doesn’t use the normal tricks to humanize Pike, like examining his rough upbringing, or trying to see what makes him tick. All Crais does here is allow Pike to make mistakes, to be manipulated, to be flawed. Yet, I like this Joe Pike much better. Of course, it helps that Elvis Cole does play a significant and poignant role here. The closing moments of The Sentry were some of the most satisfying that I have encountered in the series. We truly see the essence of the friendship between the two men, who at a surface glance seem so different, yet make such a strong team.

Luke Daniels is the narrator for this latest entry in the series, which has seen a lot of different narrators. Daniels seamless enters the fray, giving you the feeling he is familiar with the characters. Usually a change in narrator can be jarring for a long time fan of a series, but here Daniel proves up to the task. Hopefully we can see more of him telling us the tales of Cole, Pike and their assorted cohorts.

 

Grade B