Rating: 
Summary: Definitely Not His Best
Review: Being a huge fan of Robert Crais, I craved for his next book and placed the order for Last Detective in August 2002. Of course, after much anticipation, I was a little disappointed. This is a completely different format then the previous Elvis Cole novels. Crais constantly shifts points of view from Elvis to Pike, Elvis' assistant, and to Ben, the young kidnapped boy. I did not favor this change in narration. Elvis Cole is an excellent character and his antics and dialogue are essential to Crais' private detective theme. I also found it unrealistic that Ben, who witnesses such atrocities, does not need psychiatric assistance. Can a young man see a murder and be unscathed? Although this was not his best, I still long for the next Elvis Cole novel. I strongly recommend reading the previous novels for a flavor of Crais' true writing.
Rating: 
Summary: Gripping Detective Novel
Review: The Last Detective is the first Robert Crais novel I've ever read, but I have a feeling it won't be my last. The novel is a gripping, compelling read--the story of a young boy's kidnapping and the desperate search by those who love him to get him back. Elvis Cole is watching his girl friend's son Ben while she is away travelling when Ben mysteriously disappears. Has he been kidnapped, or has he merely run away? Do the kidnappers have anything to do with Elvis' past, or is it something else? These are some of the questions Elvis and co. struggle with while trying to find Ben. The novel is well-written, full of smart dialogue, very enjoyable. Have fun.
Rating: 
Summary: "...LAST is a FIRST CLASS read"
Review: Bravo Bob. Loved it. Pulse pounding. Couldn't put it down. A little more bloody and graphic than usual. That Sierra Leone backgrounder -- whew!
Rating:
Summary: Scathing storyline; easy mystery
Review: This was my first read of a Robert Crais novel; a recommendation from a friend. It won't be my last Crais novel and I owe that friend dinner. Crais' lexicon is the requisite tough "private dick-speak" but his storyline is elegant and intellectual. No offense to Mr. Spillane or Mr. Simmons but THE LAST DETECTIVE has overtones of a Mike Hammer or Joe Kurtz but is stratafied cerebrally higher. And, who can't love a hero named Elvis?In strange fashion, particularly to a new reader of Crais, the prologue begins with a test of man against beast. The reader is introduced (RE-introduced for Crais vets) to Pike, who is in Alaska laser-focused on killing what is believed to be a rabid bear. The short prologue is intense but disjointed until later in the book. As the book begins... Our hero, Elvis Cole, is in a romantic relationship with Lucy (Luce) Chenier, an attorney cum TV personality. When Lucy takes an out-of-town assignment, she asks Elvis to sit for her 10-year old son, Ben. Before the reader is through the first few pages (subsequent to the prologue), Ben is kidnapped from the backyard of Elvis' house. Soon, Elvis receives a phone call from the kidnapper who tells him he's taken Ben as "payback" for "what you did" when Elvis was part of an Army Ranger outfit in Vietnam. When the police arrive, Detective Carole Starkey and Elvis explore the slope behind his house and discover Ben's footprints stop abruptly. Upon closer inspection, Elvis finds a single heel print left in the soil by the kidnapper. As Cole continues his search, he realizes the kidnapper is extremely dangerous and will be difficult to corner. Why? Because, based on the lack of tracks or signs of struggle, Cole believes the kidnapper has a military background similar to his own, something scaring Cole to extreme levels. It's at this point Elvis summons his dark friend, Joe Pike. Elvis and Lucy's relationship begins to disintegrate quickly when Lucy's super-rich ex-husband shows up and another telephone call from the kidnapper is placed, this time to Lucy. The kidnapper contends that Ben's kidnapping is Cole's fault and retribution for his atrocities in Vietnam. This immediately puts a dark spotlight on Cole generating doubt from Lucy, anger from Lucy's ex, and scrutiny from the police. Cole painfully disregards the kidnapper's allegations and sinks his teeth into the investigation with his lethal sidekick, Pike. The climax of this book takes the reader into an abyss of adrenaline. Although a relatively short book, Crais has mastered the art of grabbing the reader by the heart and squeezing until the very end. Crais definitely has set the ending toward another installment in the Cole series albeit different as the relationship between Elvis and Lucy is dubious at best. This is a five-star book however, there were any number of passages alludign to Cole's childhood that somewhat 'cluttered' the book. Now, this background expose may have been important to seasoned readers of Crais but to a new reader, it was filler. However, I am open to the fact that had I read the Cole novels chronologically, this may have been poignant. Regardless, this is an incredibly fast-paced, intoxicating novel, which I highly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: " . . . .it's going to get a little bumpy."
Review: Bette Davis' caveat to an Academy Award crowd years ago is still good medicine for this brilliant effort by the "on-again" and "really on-again" but never "off-again" Robert Crais. One of the reviewers entitled the review with 'strap yourself in,' and I literally did that, on a flight from the midwest to London with time to spare. Elvis Cole, not as committed to solitude as the enigmatic, self exiled Joe Pike, struggles in his relationship with the attractive lawyer Lucy Chenier. Read Bob Segar's line, " . . . working on mysteries without any clues." Lucy struggles with her motherhood to the ten year old (thank God he's got a small part; tough mystery-noir authors have a tough time mimicking "kid-speak.") Ben, and Joe, clearly an all time best friend in the tradition of Damion and Pythias, struggles with the loss of the one thing he could always count on, the resiliancy of his body, disobediant after taking a bullet in the shoulder in his last fracas. (The opening chapter with Joe alone hunting the giant bear would falter on the runway and never get off the ground in the hands of anyone but Crais but Crais scared the hell out of me!) The boy is kidnapped while Elvis is the resident adult in charge. So it happens on his watch. He is to blame. Lucy doesn't say so but what would any mother think? Elements of DeMille's brilliant "Word of Honor" begin to surface. Misconduct in the line of fire while Elvis was a battle hardened NCO with the US Army Rangers. Unexplained deaths. What I found to be extremely well done was the story. It did not require Elvis' stand-up monologue of quips . . . so Crais had him mute. We learn more about Pike's true feelings about friendship and loyalty than we ever did before. Likewise, we learn about Elvis' dark past. And everybody pays a price. The consequences of your acts is a haunting theme and Robert Crais plays it well. Even the reader pays a price. Just a real good, hard, 5 star book.
Rating:
Summary: Why has no one commented on the huge oversight?
Review: Did anyone else find it weird that Cole says in the beginning of Chapter 6 that he had never met Richard before, when Richard and one of his henchmen tossed Elvis' office in Indigo Slam and threatened Cole to stay away from Lucy and Ben? The entire time I read the book I couldn't get past that. Seems to me a big detail to overlook. Not much new to add to the series. Maybe Crais should take a page out of George Pelecanos' book and start a new series with another set of characters...
Rating:
Summary: Its been a long time since I pulled an all-nighter!
Review: I am an avid reader and in my young days, pre-family, staying up all night to finish a book was more the norm than the exception. However, I could not put this book down. I finished it in one day and gave it to my 78 year old mother, who also read it in one day.
It not only was it an edge-of-the-seat suspense story, but incredibly well written. Some of the sentences were so beautiful that I rolled them around in my mind as I would a fine wine that deserved savoring. This book deserves an award for one of the best written pieces of fiction this year.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth the wait
Review: Compared to the other books in the Elvis Cole series, this was not as suspenseful. Maybe Crais was wanting to show a different side of Cole and Joe Pike, but I had got used to their personalities and complementary natures. This was not a book to put down, however, and with the ending, I expect Crais has given us a cliff hanger to the next in the series. Recommend to buy, but wait till paperback.
Rating:
Summary: Fast and furious
Review: As a long-time Crais fan, this return to the Elvis Cole series is a welcome addition. The added bonus is the return of Carol Starkey (heroine of Demolition Angel--a stand-alone, non Cole title I enjoyed enormously) in a supporting role. The plotting is tight as a tick, the narrative races along with a few nice twists. Cole is more lugubrious this time out (as is long-time sidekick Joe Pike). However, given the seriousness of the plot, Cole's somberness is more than acceptable. This is a book that reads at the speed of light and is highly entertaining, and exceedingly violent. It works, though, because of Crais' great gift of characterization. What doesn't work, and is even mildly embarrassing, is the use of italicized front- and end-pieces that are, essentially, about finding one's "inner child." It's a bit too new-agey, a bit too sentimental (even maudlin) for everything Crais has structured in this book. That aside, though, it doesn't seriously detract from a well-wrought book. It's not Crais at his best but it's a long, long way from his worst (that would be Hostage).
Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Backsliding
Review: "Hostage" was a peak for Crais; all the previous Elvis Cole stories seemed to have built up to it. "The Last Detective" is laden with intrusive and implausible pseudo-psychology. If I buy his next, it'll be when it's out in paper.
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