COMFORT CRIME FICTION: ROBERT CRAIS' THE BIG EMPTY

Robert Crais' Elvis Cole and Joe Pike have proven to be one of the most successful private eye dous currently operating in crime fiction. Crais took Chandler's Marlowe, filtered him through Parker's Spenser, upped his humor and humanism for an updated tarnished knight and gave him a darker and more capable squire to his adventures on the streets of a modern L.A. In his latest, In their twentieth book, The Big Empty, the two haven't lost a step.

Instead of the classic Hollywood starlet in Marlowe's time, Elvis is hired by an influencer. Traci Beller, "The Muffin Girl", who's online baking show has made her a Millennial Martha Stewart retains Elvis to find her father who went missing over a decade ago without a trace. Elvis goes to the town of Rancha, where went for a business appointment. When he begins to connect he man's disappearance to a compromised mother and daughter, he is jumped and beaten to a pulp. In the hospital, the local deputy tells him to get out of town. This puts Joe Pike on the case as well, looking for answers and retribution. The answers they find are connected to an old crime, a stolen file, and a mysterious "killer car' who occupants targeting Elvis and Joe.

Crais knows that a reader follows a P.I. series mainly to hang out with the detective or in this case, the detective and his partner. The first third works at an easy going pace as we spend time with Elvis. it begins with him trying to make vacation plans with long distance girlfriend Lucy Cherier. These chapters where he questions those connected, allow us to experience his observations and trademark humor. After he gets jumped and Pike comes in, the book both splits into two points of view and accelerates the pace as Joe takes over most of the footwork, many times with his fists. We experience the authors craftsmanship as he weaves characterization through plot, To accomplish its goals, the book has an atypical structure for a P.I. novel, yet Crais properly applies the genre tropes along the way to keep us locked in.

Robert Crais delivers a case worthy of Elvis Cole and Joe Pike with The Big Empty/ The mystery keeps us guessing as shows how our heroes care while we care about them. Thank you Elvis, thank you very much.