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L.A. Requiem |
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 L.A. Requiem byRobert Crais Doubleday 336 pages, 1999 ISBN 0385495838 Reviewed by John A. Broussard, PhD Winner of a 2000 Dilys Award [Independent Mystery Bookstores]. Nominated for a 2000 Anthony Award for Best Novel. Read our review of Demolition Angel by Robert Crais Though strong on police procedure, LA Requiem resists classification. There's a love interest - two in fact - there's a glimpse into the justice system, there's a mystery, but most of all there's suspense. The characters are boldly depicted. Frank Garcia, the wheel-chair ridden, highly successful entrepreneur, wants nothing more in life than to find and punish the person who murdered his daughter. The insufferable police detective sees the search as a way to enhance his career and to wreak revenge on Joe Pike, an ex-officer. Even the lesser characters are deftly drawn. Detective Samantha Dolan reveals something of what it is to be a woman in what is still a man's world: the Los Angeles Police Department. The murder suspect, Eugene Dersh, is strongly reminiscent of the real-life figure who was initially accused of the Atlanta Olympic bombing. Elvis Cole, the narrator, runs a private detective agency and has a long-established friendship with former police officer Pike. Hired by Frank Garcia to find his daughter's murderer, Cole finds himself dealing with a reluctant, if not downright hostile, LAPD. Pursuit of the murderer, who soon reveals himself to be a serial killer, leads both Cole and Pike into dangerous territory that threatens not only their own lives but the lives of people they love as well. Cole's live-in, a successful woman attorney, finds it more and more difficult to cope with what that living entails, especially as another woman looms on the scene - a woman who has fallen in love with Cole. And Pike has to deal with the fact that he left the LAPD because he was suspected of murdering his police partner, whose wife he had fallen in love with. Robert Crais knows Los Angeles, he knows police methods, he knows the nature of the justice system, and he has a broad understanding of what produces a criminal and what produces a dedicated police officer. Best of all, he has remarkable skill in translating that knowledge into a smooth-flowing novel. LA Requiem is not the kind of book you can't put down. Instead, you may very well want to delay finishing it for the pure pleasure of taking time to savor and anticipate the final pages. |
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