Product Review
Robert Crais wrote for the hit television shows Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, and L.A. Law, among others, so it comes as no surprise that his novels (including 11 featuring Elvis Cole and Joe Pike) have a hard-boiled feel and seamlessly incorporate cutting dialogue. In The Watchman, Crais maintains his reputation as an edge-of-your-seat plotter with a psychological bent.
While speeding through Los Angeles one night, Larkin accidentally hits another car and sees someone that she shouldn't. Larkin reported the accident to the LAPD, along with the descriptions of the people in the second car. Before she knows what's happening, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals have her in protective custody in a futile attempt to keep her alive.
What makes it worse is that someone on the inside is tipping off the killers as to where she's being held by the government. An attempt is made on her life, but fails. Two government agents are shot. That's when Joe Pike is reminded of a promise that he made to someone and now that person wants him to keep Larkin alive.
Within the first twenty-four hours of the assignment, Pike has to kill five men and move to three different safe houses in an effort to stay ahead of the assignation team. Pike soon realizes that if he's to keep Larkin from being killed, he is going to have to stop running and take this war to the person the young girl saw on the night of the accident. Knowing that there's only one person that he can trust, Pike turns to Elvis Cole (the World's Greatest Detective) for help.
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