Search results for ""author robert crais""

Joe Pike and his partner Elvis Cole must solve the murder of an old friend and his entire family in this gripping thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Robert Crais.When Frank Meyer and his family are executed during a home invasion, the police begin investigating the secret life they're sure Meyer had. Joe Pike's on a hunt of his own: to clear his friend's name, and to punish the people who murdered him. What starts out as a simple trail gets twisted fast by old grudges, double crosses, blood vengeance, and a crime so terrible even Pike and his partner Elvis Cole have no way to measure it.

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'Excellent' THE TIMES'Crais's thrilling narrative oozes suspense. There are twists to keep you guessing' OBSERVERTwo minutes can be a lifetime. But break the two minute rule and it's a lifetime in jail. Ask anyone on the wrong side of the law about the two minute rule and they'll tell you that's as long as you can hope for at a robbery before the cops show up.But not everyone plays by the rules. When an aging ex-con finally gets out of jail, freedom doesn't taste too sweet. His son is gunned down in a drive-by shooting. It seems like a random crime, but when the victim is a cop - especially a cop with a con for a father - the motives are never simple.When the hit is exposed as a revenge killing, and the question of police corruption is raised, it becomes a father's last duty to clear his son's name and catch the killer.

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The clock is ticking for Carol Starkey, tenacious detective - and bomb survivor . . .John Michael Fowles has a natural talent: he understands explosives. He has a feel for them. It is a talent which he fully expects will take him onto the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. Along the way he will match himself against the best: the FBI's elite team of bomb technicians and one person in particular - Carol Starkey, Detective in the LAPD Criminal Conspiracy Section. Starkey died for two minutes and forty seconds after being blown up by one of his bombs, and Fowles dearly wants her dead again. As the FBI attempt to find the link behind a series of bomb explosions that have been designed to kill their technicians, Special Agent Ben Williams stumbles on the bomber's secret: his desire to kill Starkey. If Williams can keep this from Starkey he can set a trap and catch the bomber. A trap that uses Carol Starkey as bait.

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'SUSPECT is an intense, fast-paced and thrilling page turner. Crais is winning raves' CNN'A touching relationship between man and dog' THE SUN'Robert Crais is hands-down the World's Greatest Crime Fiction Writer, and that's no joke' HUFFINGTON POSTThey were each other's last chance - investigating a case no one wants... A brilliant thriller from the SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author of the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike novels.LAPD cop Scott James is not doing so well. Eight months ago, a shocking late-night assault by unidentified men killed his partner Stephanie, nearly killed him, and left him enraged, ashamed, and ready to explode. He is unfit for duty - until he meets his new partner.Maggie is not doing so well, either. A German shepherd who survived three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan sniffing out explosives before losing her handler to an IED.They are each other's last chance. Shunned and shunted to the side, they set out to investigate the one case that no one wants them to touch: the identity of the men who murdered Stephanie. What they begin to find takes them both on a journey through the darkest moments of their own personal hells. Whether they will make it out again, no one can say.

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The search for a missing girl leads private investigators Elvis Cole and Joe Pike into the nightmarish world of human trafficking in this #1 New York Times bestseller from Robert Crais.When Nita Morales hires Elvis Cole to find her missing daughter, she's sure it's a ruse orchestrated by the girl and her boyfriend. She's wrong. They've been taken by bajadores—border bandits who prey on the innocent by buying, selling, and disposing of victims like commodities.Cole and Joe Pike start an undercover investigation to find the couple, but their plan derails when Cole disappears, leaving Pike to burn through the murderous world of human traffickers to find his friend as well as the missing young people. But he may already be too late...

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A fantastic Joe Pike and Elvis Cole novel from the bestselling author of L A REQUIEM'I can't wait for the next Robert Crais!' Bill Clinton'Robert Crais - and Joe Pike - will have you by the throat' INDEPENDENT'A modern master of crime fiction' Gregg HurwitzWhen quiet Ellen Lang enters Elvis Cole's Disney-deco office, she's lost something very valuable - her husband and young son. The case seems simple enough, but Elvis isn't thrilled. Neither is his enigmatic partner and firepower Joe Pike.Their search down the seamy side of Hollywood's studio lots and sculptured lawns soon leads them deep into a nasty netherworld of drugs and sex - and murder. Now the case is getting interesting, but it's also turned ugly. Because everybody, from cops to starlets to crooks, has declared war on Ellen and Elvis.

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'Be warned: once started, you'll have to cancel all engagements until you finish it' Independent on Sunday'The action in THE SENTRY is intense and the body count high but what is more memorable is the manner in which Crais cracks open the door into the enigmatic Pike's emotions' L A TimesAfter the nightmare of Hurricane Katrina, Dru Rayne and her uncle relocated to Los Angeles. Five years later, their struggling restaurant faces a different danger. When Joe Pike witnesses Dru's uncle beaten by a neighbourhood gang, he offers his own brand of protection, but neither Dru nor her uncle want his help. And neither do the federal agents mysteriously watching their store . . .But Pike is falling for Dru, and won't back away whether she wants his help or not. As the violence escalates, Joe discovers Dru and her uncle are not who they seem - and now a vengeful, murderous force from their past is catching up with them...

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'Crais is on top form in CHASING DARKNESS. It's a first-rate puzzle, with many twists and nothing quite as it seems' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH'Elvis Cole continues to be up there with the best of them ... the climax and denouement are terrific' THE TIMESThree years ago Elvis Cole's actions may have freed a killer. Now three more young women are dead...It is fire season, and the hills of Los Angeles are burning. As the Police and Fire Departments evacuate the inhabitants, they find something no one expected: the days-old corpse of a middle-aged recluse who apparently committed suicide. Then comes an even more horrible discovery. Clutched in his lap is a photo album containing photographs of seven young women who have been murdered. Each photograph was taken only moments after the women were killed, and could only have been taken by the killer.One murder per year for seven years, their bodies found in different parts of the city. LAPD homicide detectives had never connected the seven murders. But now with the discovery of the 'death album' there is a link.Only one suspect had been charged in any of those cases but, with evidence supplied by Elvis Cole, in the end he walked free. That suspect was the suicide now discovered in the fire... and now the police are out for Cole...

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‘Another grand slam for the master storyteller’ DAVID BALDACCI ‘A modern master of crime fiction’ GREGG HURWITZ 'Robert Crais is a legend who deserves his place alongside Chandler, Hammett & Himes as a true master of the crime and mystery genre' STEVE CAVANAGHTHE CITY OF ANGELS Adele Schumacher isn’t a typical worried mum. When she hires Elvis to find her missing son, a controversial podcaster named Josh Shoe, she brings a bag filled with cash, paranoid tales of government conspiracies, and a squad of mysterious bodyguards. Finding Josh should be simple, but Elvis quickly learns he isn’t alone in the hunt – a team of deadly strangers are determined to find Josh first.THE CITY OF LIES With dangerous secrets lurking behind every lead, Elvis needs his friend Joe Pike more than ever to uncover the truth about Josh, corrupt politicians, and the murderous business cartels rotting the heart of Los Angeles. And when his estranged ex-girlfriend Lucy Chenier and her son return to the city, Elvis realizes just how much he has to lose . . . if he survives.Written with the heart, humour, and relentless suspense for which Crais is famous, Racing the Light delivers Elvis Cole’s most dangerous case yet. Why Crais is the King of Crime . . . ‘Robert Crais – and Joe Pike – will have you by the throat’ INDEPENDENT 'Just keeps getting better and better' EVENING STANDARD ‘Robert Crais is hands-down the World’s Greatest Crime Fiction Writer’ HUFFINGTON POST ‘Expertly delivers his customary modern-day riff on the 1940s hardboiled idiom’ GUARDIAN 'The Elvis Cole and Joe Pike novels are among the very finest series in existence. I love these books. You will too' STEVE CAVANAGH ‘Cleverly plotted, stylishly written’ WASHINGTON POST

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'Just keeps getting better and better' DAVID BALDACCI ‘Slick and enjoyable’ SUN 'Top-notch fun noir' SUNDAY TIMES CRIME CLUB (starred review)DESPERATE MEN ARE DANGEROUS . . .Joe Pike wasn't looking to save someone's life on the day he left the bank. But when he saw Isabel, a young teller, being forced into a car by two men, he had no choice but to chase them down. Not long after being released on bail, the men are found dead and Isabel is missing. After his handling of the men, Pike is a prime suspect, along with Izzy – was this an abduction gone wrong? Or did it go exactly how she planned? Convinced that her life is in danger, Pike involves Elvis Cole in a search for the truth, and for Izzy. But they’re not the only ones desperate to find her – and desperate men are dangerous.As explosive as Michael Connelly and as addictive as Lee Child, A Dangerous Man has 'the smoothest writing and best storytelling you'll ever read' (DAVID BALDACCI) *THE NEW COLE AND PIKE THRILLER*Why Crais is the King of Crime . . . 'Bob is like a Porsche when it comes to writing. Indeed, it's quite fitting that he drives that model of car. Like the Porsche, his writing is elegant, stylish, funny, can fire on turbos when need be and dive deep when the plot demands it, but this is far and away some of the smoothest writing and best storytelling you'll ever read. He's written a lot of books, but just keeps getting better and better' DAVID BALDACCI ‘[Crais] expertly delivers his customary modern-day riff on the 1940s hardboiled idiom’ Guardian'Outstanding . . . Crais begins the story with deceptive simplicity but slowly ratchets up both the tension and the action with surgical precision . . . This one’s sure to hit the bestseller charts' Publishers Weekly (starred review) ‘Another rewarding page-turner by one of the most reliable storytellers in modern crime fiction’ Daily Mail 'Crais is a whip-smart writer. Cole and Pike are carefully drawn, multilayered characters who've grown more complex through the years. This is one of the very best entries in a long-running and still first-rate series' Booklist on A Dangerous Man (starred review) ‘Cleverly plotted, stylishly written’ Washington Post 'If you've always wished Lee Child's Jack Reacher had a little more balance in his life - but the same formidable talents - you'll love Joe Pike and the latest book in this long, superb series . . . Crais never loses control of his clean, clear prose or his ability to sketch fully fleshed characters in a few scenes . . . A taut, exceptional thriller' Kirkus on A Dangerous Man (starred review)

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'Just keeps getting better and better' Evening Standard As addictive as Lee Child and as explosive as Michael Connelly – THE WANTED is the new thriller from Robert Crais, and a NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ‘Another rewarding page-turner by one of the most reliable storytellers in modern crime fiction’ Daily Mail Seventeen-year-old Tyson seems a normal teenager: socially awkward, obsessed with video games and always hungry. But his mother has a feeling that her sweet, nerdy son is hiding something … and she’s just found a $40,000 Rolex watch under his bed. Suddenly very frightened that Tyson is involved in something bad, she gets in touch with private investigator Elvis Cole and asks him to do some digging. The information that Cole uncovers surprises everyone. Tyson spooks and runs. And then people start dying ... ‘Cleverly plotted, stylishly written’ Washington Post ‘[Crais] expertly delivers his customary modern-day riff on the 1940s hardboiled idiom’ Guardian

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Elvis Cole is caught up in a high-profile murder case - and between the cops and the lawyers, it's going to be a rough ride...On his own turf in L.A., PI Elvis Cole is embroiled in a controversial, high-profile murder case.A wealthy restaurateur is accused of murdering his wife, and his hot-shot defence lawyer hires Cole to find proof that the detective on the case, Angela Rossi, fooled around with the evidence. Yet as Elvis investigates Rossi for the defence team, he begins to be more suspicious of the media-loving lawyers than the cops. And as the investigation continues, Cole is drawn deeper and deeper into the intrigue and dangers surrounding the case of the missing woman.

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They killed the only one who ever cared and now they're going to pay.A reckoning has come to the City of Angels...Karen Garcia is missing and her father doesn't trust the cops - he wants someone he knows on the case. So he enlists the help of Elvis Cole and Joe Pike.It seems that Karen is the latest victim of a distinctive serial killer and the police are determined to pin her death, and four others, on the witness who found her body. Cole doesn't believe the man has the guts to murder, and with his partner and the police at each other's throats, it's down to him to find the connection that will reveal the killer. But nailing the murderer means choosing between the two people he cares most about...

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'One of the most entertaining thrillers of the year... THE PROMISE is filled with suspense, surprises and ably-drawn characters. ... putting him in the company of such greats as James Lee Burke, Sue Grafton, Stephen King and Elmore Leonard. THE PROMISE shows once again why he belongs there' WASHINGTON POSTLoyalty, commitment, the fight against injustice - these are the things that have always driven Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. If they make a promise, they keep it. Even if it could get them killed.When Elvis Cole is hired to locate a woman who may have disappeared with a stranger she met online, it seems like an ordinary case - until Elvis learns the missing woman worked for a defence contractor and was being blackmailed to supply explosives components for a person or persons unknown.Meanwhile, in another part of the city, LAPD officer Scott James and his patrol dog, Maggie, enter an abandoned building to locate an armed and dangerous thief, only to discover far more than they expected.Soon, Scott and Maggie find themselves targeted and, as their case intertwines with Elvis and Joe's, join forces to follow the trail of the missing woman as well. From inner-city drug traffickers to a shadowy group of Afghan war veterans with ties to a terrorist cell, the people they encounter on that trail add up to ever-increasing odds, and soon the four of them are fighting to find the woman not only before she is killed ... but before the same fate happens to one of them.

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‘Another grand slam for the master storyteller’ DAVID BALDACCI ‘A modern master of crime fiction’ GREGG HURWITZTHE CITY OF ANGELS Adele Schumacher isn’t a typical worried mum. When she hires Elvis to find her missing son, a controversial podcaster named Josh Shoe, she brings a bag filled with cash, paranoid tales of government conspiracies, and a squad of mysterious bodyguards. Finding Josh should be simple, but Elvis quickly learns he isn’t alone in the hunt – a team of deadly strangers are determined to find Josh first.THE CITY OF LIES With dangerous secrets lurking behind every lead, Elvis needs his friend Joe Pike more than ever to uncover the truth about Josh, corrupt politicians, and the murderous business cartels rotting the heart of Los Angeles. And when his estranged ex-girlfriend Lucy Chenier and her son return to the city, Elvis realizes just how much he has to lose . . . if he survives.Written with the heart, humour, and relentless suspense for which Crais is famous, Racing the Light delivers Elvis Cole’s most dangerous case yet. Why Crais is the King of Crime . . . ‘Robert Crais – and Joe Pike – will have you by the throat’ INDEPENDENT 'Just keeps getting better and better' EVENING STANDARD ‘Robert Crais is hands-down the World’s Greatest Crime Fiction Writer’ HUFFINGTON POST ‘Expertly delivers his customary modern-day riff on the 1940s hardboiled idiom’ GUARDIAN ‘Cleverly plotted, stylishly written’ WASHINGTON POST

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Private investigators Joe Pike and Elvis Cole get double-crossed in this twisty, gripping New York Times bestseller that will have readers on the edge of their seats.When gangbangers shake down the modest owner of a Los Angeles eatery, Joe Pike intervenes. For all intents and purposes, Pike saved Wilson Smith's life. But for reasons of their own, Smith and his lovely niece, Dru, are curiously resentful. It's only when Pike's feelings for the woman deepen that he and his partner, Elvis Cole, discover that Dru and her uncle are not at all who they seem, and everything Pike has learned about them is a lie. But it's much more than a deception. It's a trap. And with every new twist it's proving to be a killer.

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Fifteen-year-old Teri Hewitt has been left holding the babies since her dad disappeared without trace. She wants LA private eye Elvis Cole to find him, and although he knows he should refuse and hand it over to social services, he finds himself taking on the case. The search reveals a chronically unemployed drug addict caught up in counterfeiting scams and mixed up with the Russian mafia and Vietnamese gunmen. As the action heads towards a gunfight in Disneyland and Cole dodges his almost-girlfriend's ex-husband, he realises Teri is one whole lot of trouble he should have left to the professionals.

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The road to fame is paved with danger... as Cole and Pike are about to find out.Peter Alan Nelsen is a super-successful movie director who is used to getting what he wants. And what he wants now is to find the wife and infant child he dumped on the road to fame. It's the kind of case that Cole could handle in his sleep, except that when Cole actually finds Nelsen's ex-wife, everything takes on nightmarish proportions - a nightmare which involves Cole with a nasty New York mob family and a psycho killer who is the son of the godfather. And when the unpredictable Nelsen charges in, an explosive situation blows sky-high.

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'THE LAST DETECTIVE is literally a thrill-a-minute read. Crais is on top form, which, believe me, is about as good as it gets. Don't miss it' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY'The narrative is taut, the menace palpable, the suspense unbearable' DAILY TELEGRAPHElvis Cole has got a problem to solve - and this time it's personal.Elvis Cole's girlfriend, Lucy, is out of town, and she has left her young son Ben in Elvis's care. Elvis and Lucy have had a few problems lately - not least over his job as a private investigator. But at last things seem to be getting better. Then Ben disappears. One minute he's playing his computer game in Elvis's house; the next he has vanished. Elvis looks everywhere, but he just can't find Ben; and neither can Lucy when she arrives. Then Elvis receives a phone call about Ben - and realises that something from his own past has come back to haunt him...

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The second blistering Elvis Cole novel from the bestselling author of RACING THE LIGHT'Brilliant... read this, then read all his others' MirrorBradley Warren had lost something very valuable, something that belonged to someone else: a rare thirteenth-century Japanese manuscript called the Hagakure.Everything PI Elvis Cole knew about Japanese culture he'd learned from reading SHOGUN, but he knew a lot of crooks - and what he didn't know, his sidekick Joe Pike did. Together, Cole and Pike begin their search in L.A.'s Little Tokyo, the nest of the notorious Japanese mafia, the Yakuza - and find themselves caught up in a white-knuckled adventure filled with madness, murder and sexual obsession. Just another day's work for Elvis Cole...

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From the author of RACING THE LIGHT and HOSTAGEIn a search for a young woman's past PI Elvis Cole discovers far more than he expected . . .Hired to uncover the past of Jodi Taylor, an actress in a hit TV show, Elvis leaves his native Los Angeles to head for Louisiana in search of Jodi's biological parents.But before he can tackle the mystery of the actress's background, he is up against a whole host of eccentrics, including a crazed Raid-spraying housewife, a Cajun thug who looks like he's been made out of spare parts, and a menacing hundred-year-old river turtle named Luther. As Elvis learns about the enigmatic actress's origins, he also discovers the real reason he's been sent to Louisiana . . .

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'One of today's best detective series' LA TIMESThe minefield of Elvis Cole's past is coming back to haunt him - with a vengeance...Six months after nearly losing everything to the men who kidnapped his girlfriend's ten-year-old son, Elvis Cole is slowly coming back to life - when he receives an ominous phone call from the LAPD. An unidentified body has been found in a seedy Los Angeles alley. The only clue the cops have is a packet of newspaper articles about the past exploits of Elvis Cole - and the fact that before the man died, he said he was Elvis's father...Joe Pike is the only person who can help Elvis navigate his past. As they investigate, Elvis is haunted by the fact that, at last, he might have found his father. But with each clue they uncover, a troubling picture emerges about the dead man. And as Elvis and Joe approach his true identity, they unwittingly walk straight into a hornet's nest.

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'Crais just gets better and better . . . Crais's novels are as appealing as chocolate eclairs and just as satisfying. Trouble is, like cream cakes, I want to eat them all at once' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY'A nerve-racking, switchbacking tale of guilt and redemption...so good it gives you goosebumps' EVENING STANDARDJoe Pike is out for revenge and no cop, no bad guy, no one alive, is going to stop him.Frank Meyer had got out of 'the life' safely. He had put an end to his mercenary days, turned over a new leaf and settled down with his wife and children. It had been a hard decision but, encouraged by his boss and friend Joe Pike, he had walked away.Ten years later, a group of armed men break into his Los Angeles home and brutally gun down him and his family. It's a vicious, cold and professional job. The crew leave no trace behind except the bodies.But they have made one catastrophic, and almost certainly terminal, mistake - Joe Pike. Because Pike is now determined to hunt down and eliminate everyone involved in the attack, one by one. And it doesn't matter that, as he starts to investigate, he discovers that these criminals are bigger and better organised than he ever could have imagined, because they are about to learn the first rule:Don't make Joe Pike mad...

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'A brilliant writer' EVENING STANDARDJoe Pike must take on his toughest challenge yet. He must hunt down and rescue . . . Elvis Cole.A nail-biting Cole and Pike novel from the No. 1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author.Elvis Cole. All round nice guy. Always the first man to help a stranger in distress. This time, however, he's paid the ultimate price for trying to be the good Samaritan.Joe Pike. A fierce protector and a dangerous enemy. This time his tough guy exterior will be tested to the limit as he risks everything to save his closest friend.The clock is ticking now that Elvis has been TAKEN.

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Would you sacrifice another family to save your own?Jeff Talley left his high-stress job as a frontline negotiator with the LAPD's SWAT unit when he failed to prevent a man from killing his family and then himself. Talley takes the chief-of-police job in a sleepy, affluent suburb, but he is soon plunged back into the high-pressure world he left behind when three young men, fleeing a robbery, burst into a home and take the family hostage. For Talley, the nightmare has barely begun. Because this isn't just any house. It belongs to an accountant who launders money for LA's renegade Mafia family - and they don't want the police involved...

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