Wednesday, September 16, 2009

L. A. Requiem - Book Review

The latest in my quest to read all things Robert Crais, L. A. Requiem serves as a stepping stone from Crais' earlier works about his P.I. Elvis Cole to his current, more mature work about the character. Crais expands his use of first-person narrative and moves to other viewpoints, exploring and deepening other recurring characters in the series. Once again, though, the bad guys include members of the L.A. police department, a plot device that's proving a little predictable. Still, the L.A. setting is vivid and well drawn and the detective work relies on good old-fashioned detecting and the action moves at a brisk clip. This one involves a the tired plot of a serial killer but a serial killer with a personal motive against one of the characters.

I'm continuing in this series, trying to move along in chronological order, but there are a couple of early titles I may have to back fill. But Crais has done a good job in extending his style and characters so other than the sake of completeness, I don't think there's any real reason to go backwards. Hey, maybe there's a lesson to be learned there.

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