Rating: 
Summary: Things that go KaBOOM
Review: Perhaps physically and emotionally traumatized female police officers are the new rage in crime fiction. Recently, I read FLINT starring Scotland Yard Inspector Grace Flint, rehabilitating on the job after a horrific beating. Now, in DEMOLITION ANGEL, we have Carol Starkey, an LAPD detective assigned to head the investigation into the killing of a department bomb disposal technician. Carol used to be one of those herself until she was killed along with her partner-lover by a device that went boom. Paramedics brought her back to life, but not her colleague. Now she subsists on gin, cigarettes, Tagamet and psychotherapy, bears terrible mid-body scars, and carries a chip on her shoulder so big it looks like a cross.The book begins with the death of Charlie Riggio as he peers into a bag containing a sophisticated pipe bomb. Reconstruction of the device afterwards points to a serial killer named "Mr. Red", whose profession is assassination by demolition, and whose hobby is bushwhacking bomb disposal experts. Trouble is, Mr. Red, John Michael Fowles, is introduced to the reader almost from the start, and he didn't do it. So who did? And what is Jack Pell's interest? Jack is down from the Fed's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, suffers debilitating headaches, and is carrying some pretty heavy baggage of his own. DEMOLITION ANGEL is a page-turner from the very first detonation. Starkey, like Grace of FLINT, is an intriguing persona, though significantly more hard-edged than the latter. And author Robert Crais provides enough plot twists to keep things interesting. However, I can't bring myself to award 5 stars for a couple reasons. First, blast survivor Carol is so self-pitying and self-destructive that her evolving relationship with Pell is a plot device that seems a bit forced. Perhaps Crais would have been better advised to carry the two over into a second novel and let things simmer a bit. Secondly, though obviously not the sort you'd want marrying your only daughter, Mr. Red never achieves that level of psychopathic evil worthy of an Anthony Hopkins role in the film version. At times, Fowles seems not much more than a mischievous prankster. DEMOLITION ANGEL is the perfect thriller for taking on that otherwise interminable plane flight, or aboard the cruise ship for those slow moments between buffets.
Rating: 
Summary: This Book Won't Have You Seeing "Red"
Review: Taking a break from his successful Elvis Cole mystery series, Robert Crais has come out with this amazing novel. DEMOLITION ANGEL is a fast-paced, non-stop thriller that you will not be able to put down. Carol Starkey, once Los Angeles' best "bomb squad" technician, is now struggling as a detective in the Criminal Conspiracy Section in the LAPD. It has been three years since she was pronounced dead at the scene of bomb detonation, and she is suffering through alcoholism and a Tagamet addiction. Starkey is called to the scene to investigate an explosion that has killed an officer, and she is in for the ride of her life, trying to catch one of the country's biggest terrorists. Crais does an awesome job of piling on plot twist after plot twist. The book flies by and you can't help but get caught up in this amazing, yet totaly believable storyline. Crais brings together a super group of interestingly diverse characters and meshes them together incredibly well. This is a well-written book that thrills the reader with suspense, intrigue, and "fireworks." You will not be able to put this book down.
Rating:
Summary: Good Plot And Procedure, Characters So-So
Review: This was the fifth Crais book I'd read. It's a departure from his Elvis Cole series. Overall, pretty good. The police procedural aspects are reasonably well done - he has a commendable disclaimer at the front indicating that this book won't tell you how to build or defuse a bomb. I'd just read three of Paul Bishop's Fey Croaker series, and the contrast between the female protagonists was not in this books' favor. OTOH, this book has a large number of characters, which makes it harder to develop as deep a sense of a protagonist's personality. So, an interesting change from the Elvis series, and a better than average read - recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A very entertaining book; however...
Review: Having recently read a few run-of-the-mill cookie-cutter thrillers, the first things that struck me about "Demolition Angel" is that Crais is one of the more gifted prose stylists working in the mystery/thriller genre. Sure, he doesn't have the linguistic dexterity of a Nabokov or the insight into character of a Trollope, but I did not find myself constantly tripping over his sentences, and that is surely something. "Demolition Angel" features a heroine who is pretty far removed from his usual protagonist, Elvis Cole (a fact which has infuriated some of the reviewers who post here, quite unfairly I think; what could be more unfair than criticizing a writer for wanting to do something new?). This time we get the hard-boiled, hard-drinking, hard-luck case Carol Starkey, former bomb squad technician who lost her boyfriend, also a bomb squad tech, and suffered physical and emotional scarring when a routine disarming turned into a freak accident. Three years later, Starkey is drowning her sorrows in gin while still working the bomb beat, now as an investigator. Things get interesting when a bomb tech is killed during a blast which appears to be the work of a serial bomber who calls himself Mr. Red. Enter an attractive ATF agent for whom Starkey has conflicted feelings, and you've got yourself a novel. All of which is fine and fun, but we are, of course, firmly in Genre-Convention Land here. Mr. Red loves to leave clues for the investigators and develops a pathological attachment to Starkey, half erotic half murderous. Starkey, meanwhile, is trying to beat down her own demons and solve this case that she might redeem herself. Crais's gift, demonstrated slightly more effectively in "LA Requiem," is to pen stories so compelling that the reader doesn't even notice the problems until the ride is over. In "Demolition Angel" the major problem is the clichéd plot and characters, leaving the reader with the feeling that he or she has been down this road many, many times before. Sure it makes for a fine entertainment, but I believe that Crais has the talent to do better than this, if only he is willing to think outside the box of generic convention. He has tried to push himself with this book and I hope he will go even further with the next.
Rating:
Summary: BOOM
Review: As a first timer to the novels of Robert Crais, I could not have picked a better book to start with. In Demolition Angel, Crais departs from his former characters and takes us into the explosive world of the Los Angeles Bomb Squad. Carol Starkey is an LAPD Bomb Technician who is lucky to be alive, living a second life, after surviving a blast that killed her partner and lover David "Sugar" Boudreaux. Starkey is now a Detective Second Grade with the Criminal Conspiracy Section teetering on the verge of her own mental health - now on her third shrink and a steady diet of gin, cigarettes and Tagamet - each day is a struggle to justify her survival. Starkey now catches her first real case, a case involving the death of a former colleague in the bomb squad - to solve it she must master all her fears, deal with the past and get back to doing what she does best - finding the bomber - but can she get back to the place she needs to be? With help from an ATF agent named Pell, Starkey is introduced to the notion that the bomber has a very sinister agenda - killing bomb technicians. Pell begins to share information, leading Starkey to a serial bomber that goes by the name Mr. Red - and the hunt is on - but was this bomb the work of Mr. Red or of someone else. The game begins - will the real killer be found in time. Crais has taken a very real possibility - that of domestic terrorism - set it against the vast loneliness of Los Angeles. Starkey is in a life and death struggle with her own personal demons and unless she can master them, and summon all of her knowledge - the bomber will win and she will die for a second time. This book is a page turner - explosive!
Rating:
Summary: Carol Starkey is a detective. She's also a drunk.
Review: The books of Robert Crais are a revelation in series mystery/thrillers. Friends recommended his satirical, well-sketched detective, Elvis Cole to me some months ago. It took me a little while to speed through the eight novels that feature Cole and his mystery partner, Joe Pike, and I couldn't wait for more! Crais departed from his success with Cole to write two non-series novels in recent years. Each featured a different main character ("Demolition Angel" and "Hostage"). Many novelists fail in their attempts to develop beyond a one-dimensional character focus, because their fans won't let them. Following the path that Michael Connelly and Harlan Coben have set, Crais proves to be the master at proving that he can create multiple marvelous story lines. The two "nonseries" novels met with critical acclaim and quickly hit best seller status. Of the two, I much prefer "Demolition Angel". Carol Starkey is the disenfranchised heroine of the book. Starkey is one of a rare breed of "bomb squad" cops who treat bombs like sophisticated puzzles. We join Starkey (now off the bomb squad) several years after her lover had died in a freak accident; a minor earthquake set off a bomb that Starkey and Sugar are trying to assess and defuse. Starkey died that day, as well, but they somehow revived her. She's not sure that was a good thing. Since the accident, Starkey's been a walking disaster area; subsisting on Tagamet, coffee and cigarettes, her failures at therapy and her unwillingness to form any meaningful relationships are destroying her energy, in the same way that liquor is destroying her career. Starkey is a drunk. Another squad technician, Charles Riggio, is fatally blown up by an explosive device as the novel opens. The device bears the signature of madman bomber "Mr. Red". The reader is allowed to spend some time exploring the theory before being introduced to Mr. Red, himself. Complicating the search for the bomber, and toying with Starkey's emotions, is an ATF agent, Jack Pell, who's an expert on Mr. Red. It's Starkey's case. Solving it will cause her to relive the most horrible day of her life. Many of the leads she turns up are false, and it seems that even Pell wants her to take the easy way out in solving a series of explosions that are devastating the landscape. The powerful story of how Carol Starkey breaks through the pain to follow her instincts without losing her life, will haunt you for days, once the tale is finished. An excellent introduction to Crais that will make you want to get involved with Elvis Cole, as well! One of his best, and that's saying a lot!
Rating:
Summary: Demolition Angel
Review: Three years ago Carol Starkey, a top-notch bomb squad technician came back from the dead. Her partner and lover
died. Since then she has been burying her survivor's guilt with alcohol and Tagamet. While assigned to LAPD's Criminal
Conspiracy section, Carols lands a case in which a seemingly easy bomb to diffuse kills another technician. She soon finds
herself investigating a series of bombings in which the bombs were deliberately designed to kill the technicians.
Robert Crais has written a fast pace novel with twists and turns that will keep you turning the pages until you are done. He
has successfully created a complex multi-dimensional wounded character in Carol Starkey while at the same time immersing
you in the authentic world of bomb making and the dangerous world of the bomb technicians.
This is the first book I have read by Robert Crais and I now have a new author to add to my To Be Found (TBF) and To
Be Read (TBR) piles. I highly recommend this book. Review by: Lillian Porter
Rating:
Summary: great police drama; a real page-turner
Review: 'Demolition Angel' is a real treat. The author delves into the world of bomb disposal experts and the scary individuals who develop such bombs for kicks ("bombers without a cause"). As with his better known "L.A. Requiem", Robert Crais writes in a tight yet fast-reading style which simply makes the pages fly by. In our story we have a police heroine who leads the charge in finding a serial bomber ('Mr Red'). The story has *plausible* twists and turns, with an unexpected and thrilling ending. And the author has seemingly done a fine job researching this bizarre world of bombers and bomb disposal experts; I found it educational. However 'Demolition Angel' isn't perfect. Robert Crais is a great storyteller, but he isn't a great writer. His characterizations are somewhat shallow, and he expends no effort in giving the reader the *feeling* of the setting. It is as if he wrote the book in haste. But these are mere quibbles. Bottom line: terrific (and frightening) story. Job well done.
Rating:
Summary: Bang Bang. You're hooked!
Review: I like Robert Crais. I'm one of many. People often have, at least I do, ambivalent feelings about our favorite writers exploring uncharted territory. For example here, with Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, on the one hand we enjoy the dialogue, courage, integrity and overall, the prose of Cole & Pike. We even go to the peculiar step of stating 'which Cole' we like more, the early Cole or the later Cole, or in which novel he's 'more Cole.' But the end result of our attentiveness to Elvis and Joe is predictable. Eventually we'll tire of Cole, or like Spenser, Cole will continue to take on the bad guys while taking metamusil and geritol, both pumping iron . . . and taking it. So we want our favorite authors to explore different characters so we don't know so much about them, so that there still are surprises, and so that we don't get too used to them. In Demolition Angel (great title, Bob), Robert Crais does an exceptional job with Carol Starkey and Jack Pell, using their physical trauma to represent their emotional limitations as well. They want so much to be together and although we're hooked on the pursuit of evil and the drama of the chase, we hook into their characters as well. Kudos to him. And besides, a darn good read, too. I don't know if we'll see Carol again. But I'd like to.
Rating:
Summary: When a book is a six stars book?
Review: You can rate a book up to 6 stars when: 1) No matter where you are: a stadium, at work, at the movies, etc. and the only thing that is in your head is the book that you are reading at that moment. 2) Everything that is written in the book is or could be real. 3) In the book you always read the story, it never goes out with a second story that has nothing to do with the main story. 4) Everybody could read the book no matter the age. 5) It has some jokes that distracts you from the story. 6) You will recommend the book to everyone. This book has all of these points.
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