The Wanted, by Robert Crais.
I have finally caught up with the rest of the world and recognise
a classic example of formulaic crime writing, especially when series
protagonist ace Private Investigator Elvis Cole has top karate and kung-fu
moves, cool looks, a smart mouth, and a murderous side-kick called Joe. Who could resist such a God? He makes other classic PI’s of modern fiction
look like Grade A twits, and his villains – OMG, his bad guys are literally to
DIE for!
Elvis is called by a frantic mother to investigate the
mega-expensive Rolex watch she found hidden in her teenage son’s bedroom. Son Tyson has been expelled from several
schools for ‘behavioural’ problems’ and has recently taken up with a girl that
his mum deems wholly unsuitable. Elvis
thinks so too when he searches Tyson’s desk (yep, Elvis is even better at
ferreting out hiding places than a mum), and finds great wads of
greenbacks: Tyson is a thief, and he and
the wholly unsuitable girl have been burgling rich properties in Bel Air and
other L.A. high-end neighbourhoods – just for the thrill of it, because life is
boring, and life has been mean to them.
They deserve to have some fun!
And lots of money. The problem
is, they took a laptop belonging to someone who has major incriminating secrets
on it; the owner wants it back, and to
that end has hired a couple of Enforcers, Harvey and Stemms, to recover
it. All well and good, except that
Harvey and Stemms are killers, and think nothing of leaving a trail of bodies
in their wake as they track down the teenage burglars.
Well,
thank the Lord for Elvis, his coolness, his Corvette, and sidekick murderous
Joe: in short chapters and even shorter
sentences, Mr Crais introduces and dispatches minor characters with experienced
ease; we learn a little of Elvis’s
backstory in the process – he fell in love a book or two ago; the lady had a son with whom Elvis bonded,
and he would have loved to have been a dad – now he feels the sorrow of a solo
life, but by the next book he may have paired up again; he attracts women like flies. Of course!
Anyway. Harvey and Stemms meet a very predictable
fate – which is a shame, for they were more finely drawn than I expected, and a
heap more interesting than some of the main characters, several of whom appeared
to be forgotten about when this story ambled towards its end. And despite the pleasurable fact that Elvis
has a cat so savage that all visitors give it a wide berth, I’m not inclined to
read past or future books. This is
Fast-Food writing: tasty, fills a gap,
but has zero nutritional value. THREE STARS
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