{"id":250,"date":"2011-03-21T13:47:58","date_gmt":"2011-03-21T20:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=250"},"modified":"2011-03-21T13:47:58","modified_gmt":"2011-03-21T20:47:58","slug":"no-2-in-the-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=250","title":{"rendered":"No. 2 in the spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bob Moyer is prowling the mean streets again.<\/p>\n

By Robert Moyer<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>THE SENTRY. By Robert Crais. Putnam. 320 pages. $26.95.<\/p>\n

For most of his life between the pages, Robert Crais\u2019 Joe Pike has played a terse Tonto to Elvis Coles\u2019 loose-lipped Lone Ranger. \u00a0Joe has a symbiotic albeit secondary relationship \u2014 Elvis detects, Joe protects. \u00a0Until now. \u00a0For the second book in a row, Joe has stepped into the spotlight, a spotlight that turns him into a hero much like Lee Childs\u2019 Jack Reacher \u2013 stoic, self-possessed and relentless. \u00a0He can stand still for hours, slow his pulse and his breathing. Then, when he moves into action, he can \u201cstack bodies like cordwood.\u201d He hasn\u2019t shown any weakness.<\/p>\n

Until now. \u00a0Stopping for gas in Venice, Calif., he notices a couple of gang bangers headed into a caf\u00e9. \u00a0Since his momma never taught him not to trouble trouble if trouble wasn\u2019t troubling him, Pike breaks up what looks like a shakedown. \u00a0Then the owner\u2019s niece Dru walks in, and it\u2019s eye lock at first sight. Pike promises to protect her without knowing a thing about her.<\/p>\n

And, as they say, that\u2019s that.<\/p>\n

What Pike doesn\u2019t know but his buddy Cole uncovers is that Dru has a lot to hide, including herself. \u00a0She and her supposed uncle are the targets of the creepiest killer Crais has ever come up with, a psycho we first see at book\u2019s opening torturing a man in New Orleans while Katrina bears down.<\/p>\n

The deceptive duo also has two FBI agents and two L.A. cops on its case, all of whom find Pike just plain annoying. \u00a0Suddenly, after one phone call, the couple drops out of sight. \u00a0As Pike\u2019s hopes for a happy relationship plummet, the body count rises.<\/p>\n

Crais knows L.A. backwards and forwards, up Ross MacDonald\u2019s beach communities and down Raymond Chandler\u2019s mean streets. Venice Beach comes alive here, teeming with violence and vile characters, one of them almost as alert and lethal as Pike. The operative word is \u201calmost\u201d; Pike is\u00a0not among the body count, but The Sentry<\/em> is among the best of Crais\u2019 books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob Moyer is prowling the mean streets again. By Robert Moyer THE SENTRY. By Robert Crais. Putnam. 320 pages. $26.95. For most of his life between the pages, Robert Crais\u2019 Joe Pike has played a terse Tonto to Elvis Coles\u2019 loose-lipped Lone Ranger. \u00a0Joe has a symbiotic albeit secondary relationship \u2014 Elvis detects, Joe protects. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14],"tags":[40],"class_list":["post-250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mysteries","category-thriller-suspense","tag-robert-crais"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions\/252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}