The First Rule
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4.4 • 1.2K Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When garment importer Frank Meyer and his family are executed in their Los Angeles home at the start of bestseller Crais's adrenaline-fueled second thriller to feature PI Joe Pike (after The Watchman), LAPD detectives soon connect Meyer to Pike, who knew each other from their days as military contractors. Pike is convinced that Meyer, who left soldiering to start a family, wasn't dirty, even though his murder is the seventh in a series of violent robberies where the victims were all professional criminals. Determined to clear his friend's name, Pike discovers that Frank's nanny and her family have ties to Eastern European organized crime. With the help of PI partner Elvis Cole (the lead in Chasing Darkness and eight other books), Pike engages in a dangerous and not always legal game of cat and mouse with some of the city's most dangerous crooks. Pike emerges as an enigmatically appealing hero, whose lethal skills never overshadow his unflappable sense of morality.
Customer Reviews
A Great Read.
4.5 Stars. Crais is a Master. The books where Pike is primary are less funny and much more intense than the ones that Cole leads and that’s perfect. This one was paced methodically and the mystery wasn’t a difficult one to unravel but it worked. Interestingly, we were introduced to Pike’s soft side. Something I never really thought existed.
Twisty Plot, Unforgettable Characters
While my review title would work for almost any one of Robert Crais’s books, this book takes both of those descriptions to a new level. It is focused on Joe Pike rather than on Elvis Cole, so it doesn’t have the same amount of humor as most of the other books in the series do, but that’s okay with me. In exchange, we get much more of Pike’s background as well as his philosophy of battle, whether it’s violent battle or psychological battle.
A personal favorite moment: someone takes Pike’s omnipresent sunglasses off of him, and survives the encounter. Any more detail would be a spoiler.
I miss the banter
I miss more of the banter between Joe and Elvis in this book, but the plot was fantastic and that helped. It’s great to see Pike develop as a human being.