Review: SUSPECT, Robert Crais

• 
  This edition available on Amazon for Kindle
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00AZ0HGJI
  
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Orion (January 17, 2013)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 418 pages
• Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0425278271

Synopsis (Amazon)

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.

My Take

I have read this book for discussion with my U3A Crime Fiction Reading Group.

If Maggie had been a human Marine, not a dog, she would be decorated, as it is she is under notice. Shape up or ship out! The same is true of her new human alpha, LAPD cop Scott James. In reality he should be retired. Both he and Maggie have been injured on duty, and both are struggling to resume a working life. They both suffer from PTSD and are temporarily part of the LAPD K-9 unit but the odds are stacked against them.

• both react badly to loud sudden noises
• both have long lingering injuries.

Among the questions I am going to ask my group are those relating to the meaning of the book's title, because I think there is more than one. So, what is it that helps Scott and Maggie work together? What attributes does Maggie have that are of most use to Scott in his search for the killers of his former partner?

Crais attempts to make Maggie a real character, even to the point of getting inside her head, telling us how she sees her new partner. For Scott there is a real learning journey. He has never had a dog before, and has a lot to learn about how to treat Maggie.

In a sequel to this novel THE PROMISE, Crais decided to bring this pair into his Elvis Cole series but there don't appear to be any mention of them after that.

I will be interested to see how my group react to this novel - for some of them it will not be their cup of tea. I should explain that in the case of this group we read sets of books supplied by our local library so I didn't actual choose this book specifically, just a title from a list.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read

4.6, THE FORGOTTEN MAN

Review - THE FORGOTTEN MAN, Robert Crais - audio

AUDIOBOOK

The Forgotten Man: An Elvis Cole Novel

print version published 2005

UNABRIDGED

• By Robert Crais
• Narrated by James Daniels
• Length:8 hrs and 11 mins
• Release Date:05-20-08

Publisher's summary
Los Angeles, 3:58 a.m.: Elvis Cole receives the phone call he's been waiting for since childhood. Responding to a gunshot, the LAPD has found an injured man in an alleyway. He has told the officer on the scene that he is looking for his son, Elvis Cole. Minutes later, the man is dead.
Haunted throughout his life by a lack of knowledge about his father, Elvis turns to the one person who can help him navigate the minefield of his past - his longtime partner and confidant, Joe Pike. Together with hard-edged LAPD detective, Carol Starkey, they launch a feverish search for the dead man's identity - even as Elvis struggles between wanting to believe he's found his father at last, and allowing his suspicions to hold him back. With each long-buried clue they unearth, a frightening picture begins to emerge about who the dead man might have been, and the terrible secret he's been guarding.
At the same time, Elvis has no way of knowing he has awakened a sleeping monster. The further he goes in his investigation, the closer he draws to a merciless killer who is violently connected to the unidentified man's past. This psychopath believes Cole is hunting him, and he goes on the attack to find Elvis before Elvis can find him.

THE FORGOTTEN MAN begins with  a horrifying glimpse into a house where a triple homicide has taken place. It is only later that we work out what relevance this has to the main story.

This is a gripping story, made more poignant by the fact that Elvis Cole has been searching for his father all of his life. But the more Elvis, the "world's greatest detective", investigates the dead man in the alley, the more he is convinced they are not related. Why then did Herbert Faustina say he was, and why did he have a heap of press cuttings about Elvis Cole?

The listener is helped in tracking the multiple points of view from which this story is written by the narrator identifying the character at the beginning of each chapter, if a narrative point of view change has taken place. It doesn't seem that this was used in the original printed version.

You can read most of the first 90 pages of THE FORGOTTEN MAN online on Amazon

This is #10 in the 13 title Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series. It was nominated for a Shamus Award.

My rating: 4.6