Sunday, January 30, 2011

CHASING DARKNESS

TITLE: CHASING DARKNESS
AUTHOR: ROBERT CRAIS
Pages: 273
Date: 30/01/2011
Grade: 5-
Details: no. 11 Elvis Cole
Library

Before I start this review I should probably admit that I just love the characters of Elvis Cole and Pike, and seem to be loving them more with every subsequent book in the series. They really can't do any wrong by me. And neither can the author. He never fails to pull me into his stories and hold me in his grip until I've read the very last word of what is always a thrilling and fascinating mystery.
In this, the 11th book in the Elvis Cole series, Elvis finds himself revisiting a case he thought he had closed years ago.
Seven years previously he was asked to investigate a man who was accused of having killed a young woman. Through a witness statement he proved that the man, Lionel Byrd couldn't possibly have committed the murder, and Byrd was released without the case every going to trail.
Now Byrd has been found, apparently after committing suicide, with a photo album in his lap containing photos of seven girls, taken just moments after they were murdered. The police waste no time closing both the investigation of Byrd's death and the seven as yet unresolved murders; Byrd killed them all. They also waste no time rubbing Elvis' mistake in his face.
Elvis Cole is not so easily convinced though. He knows that his investigation years ago was solid and if Byrd couldn't have committed that murder, there's a good chance he didn't commit the other six either.
And with the police investigation, such as it was, having been highly unusual and secretive, Elvis has every reason to be suspicious.
This was a solid mystery, with less violence then I've come to expect from Robert Crais' books, but just as much tension. There was a nice twist near the end of the story and no loose ends that I could detect.
I find myself in a bit of a quandary now though. Do I rush on and read the next book ("The Sentry", a Joe Pike story) leaving me only the soon to be released "The Sentry" to look forward to. Or do I leave it for a bit, and drag the pleasure out with a bit of anticipation? Decisions, decisions..

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