Product Description

The city was hers for a single hour, just the one magic hour, only hers.

Larkin Conner Barkley lives like the City of Angels is hers for the taking. Young and staggeringly rich, she speeds through the city during its loneliest hours, blowing through red after red in her Aston Martin as if running for her life. Until out of nowhere a car appears, and with it the metal-on-metal explosion of a terrible accident. Dazed, Larkin attempts to help the other victims. And finds herself the sole witness in a secret federal investigation.

For maybe the first time in her life, Larkin wants to do the right thing. But by agreeing to cooperate with the authorities, she becomes the target for a relentless team of killers. And when the U.S. Marshals and the finest security money can buy can't protect her, Larkin's wealthy family turns to the one man money can't buy -- Joe Pike.

Pike lives a world away from the palaces of Beverly Hills. He's an ex-cop, ex-Marine, ex-mercenary who owes a bad man a favor, and that favor is to keep Larkin alive. The one upside of the job is reuniting with Bud Flynn, Pike's LAPD training officer, and a man Pike reveres as a father. The downside is Larkin Barkley, who is the uncontrollable cover girl for self-destruction -- and as deeply alone as Pike.

Pike commits himself to protecting the girl, but when they immediately come under fire, he realizes someone is selling them out. In defiance of Bud and the authorities, Pike drops off the grid with the girl and follows his own rules of survival: strike fast, hit hard, hunt down the hunters. With the help of private investigator Elvis Cole, Pike uncovers a web of lies and betrayals, and the stunning revelation that even the cops are not who they seem. As the body count rises, Pike's biggest threat might come from the girl herself, a lost soul in the City of Angels, determined to destroy herself unless Joe Pike can teach her the value of life...and love.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #80946 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
As the subtitle suggests, Joe Pike, the intriguing, enigmatic partner of L.A. PI Elvis Cole, takes center stage in this intense thriller from bestseller Crais (The Two Minute Rule). To pay back an old debt, Pike is coerced into protecting Larkin Barkley, a hard-partying young heiress whose life is in danger after a "wrong place wrong time" encounter that quickly escalates and spins out of control. The enemy is shadowy, violent and relentless—but the fierce, focused Pike, one of the strongest characters in modern crime fiction, is equal to the challenge. The breathless pace and rich styling are sure to appeal to readers of hard-boiled fiction in general, but since up to now Pike has mostly remained in the background, some fans of the Elvis Cole series (The Forgotten Man, etc.) may find the explicit picture that emerges of Pike at odds with the image they've constructed for themselves. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
Robert Crais wrote for the hit television shows Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, and L.A. Law, among others, so it comes as no surprise that his novels (including 11 featuring Elvis Cole and Joe Pike) have a hard-boiled feel and seamlessly incorporate cutting dialogue (see the recently reviewed The Two-Minute Rule, HHHJ May/June 2006). In The Watchman, Crais maintains his reputation as an edge-of-your-seat plotter with a psychological bent, not unlike Lee Child in his Jack Reacher series or James Lee Burke with Dave Robicheaux. Although one critic wishes that Pike had remained an enigma and another cites a predictable plot, most agree Crais's fans will take to this highly charged first effort featuring Pike. "Elvis will still be the series star," Oline H. Cogdill points out, "but putting a spotlight on Joe will make for richer novels."
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From AudioFile
Elvis Cole's mostly silent partner, Joe Pike, now has a book of his own. His character, manner, and ethic resemble that of Harry Callahan (Dirty Harry), and thanks to James Daniels, so does his voice. When Daniels isn't portraying Pike, his glib delivery moves the action along. And there's plenty of that when Pike is hired to protect a rich 22-year-old from L.A. Seems that she's seen something--or someone--she shouldn't have. Fifteen minutes into this thriller, Pike has blown away five villains, with more to come. In between, Crais's stories of Pike's past lives--as Marine, cop, and mercenary--make Dirty Harry pale in comparison. It appears that Crais has another winning character. A.L.H. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

What Pike does
Robert Crais is the noted author of the Elvis Cole PI novels which are fairly solid books in their own right. This time out, Crais takes Cole's back-up man, Joe Pike, and shows us what Pike does during the times he's not helping Cole. Several months have passed since the events of The Last Detective and Joe must respond to the favor called in by Jon Stone. Pike is to protect a wealthy, young, attractive, attention-hog of Larkin Barkley. Larkin was in a traffic accident which turns out involved some bad people. She wants to do the right thing and from then on her life is being threatened. Pike is brought in to protect her but there's a leak in the works so Pike takes Larkin and drops off the radar, taking matters into his own hands. As expected, Pike calls in Cole to help him on a few investigative matters but this time Cole is the sidekick, not Pike.

While the story is not the strongest it is what we have always figured Pike does when not helping Cole. We do get a slightly larger look into what makes Pike tick. Unfortunately, it's pretty straight forward in that we know Pike is going to get the bad guys but there's never a real feeling of threat from THE bad guy as he doesn't even appear until 3/4 through the book. Basically we get an opening shoot out, then lots of hiding and investigation, and then a closing shoot out. More involvement with the antagonists would have been better but this is what I figured a Joe Pike novel was going to be like and it certainly was enjoyable.

If you read the Elvis Cole novels, you're going to read this one too. However, it can be read as a stand alone but it does fit into the Elvis Cole timeline which gives away some of those novels' endings.

Great as an audio book!
Wonderful as an audio book. Great plot with back and forth time jumps that are intriguing rather than confusing. Wonderful plot twists.

Great characters
I loved this book. Especially Joe Pike is phenomenal. I even liked the dialogues and descreption of Pike more than the story which is also good. The only remark I have is when Joe becomes sort of melodramatic towards the girl, all this touching of hands does not go well with his image.
Absolutely recommend this book