P.I.

Crais is one of the better plotters in the genre - a prequel to the story that finds an entire family brutally slain in their home, but for one little girl, seems to have no relation to the rest of the story - but of course it does. As Elvis unravels layer after layer of the dead man's identity - I think in the end the man had three aliases - he flashes back to memories of his childhood. His mother, who was slightly mentally deranged, had told Elvis that his father was a human cannonball in a circus. Elvis, even at the age or 12 or 13, is doggedly persistent, and makes it his life's journey to get undercover in different cicruses and make friends with various human cannonballs - I don't think it's giving anything away to say that none of them turn out to be his father. The closest bond Elvis forms is with the private detective his family hires to find him every time he disappears.

The dead man, covered with tattoos of crosses, obviously had something on his mind, and by the time Elvis finds out what it was, the breathless conclusion takes over. Crais has few peers at writing action - he often skips from the head of one character to another with great effect, giving the reader an almost cinematic view of the events as they unfold on the page. The other thing I really liked about this book - and it's a little "soapy", I admit - is the re-introduction of former bomb squad member Carol Starkey. Starkey's social skills are so terrible that her ability to get Elvis to realize she's attracted to him are about nil, and Elvis, still getting over ex-girlfriend Lucy, is totally oblivious. It's classic soap opera stuff, completely delicious, and very funny. While the kind of emotional tour de force Crais might have been aiming for with the Elvis/father stuff doesn't really happen, it doesn't take away from the enjoyability of the book. That Crais is so effortlessly able to combine humor, characterization and wonderful plotting skills puts him at the top of the mystery pile, and every time Elvis Cole turns up, I'm happy to read about him.