Re: RARA-AVIS: Robert Crais

From: David White ( dpwhite@eden.rutgers.edu)
Date: 28 Feb 2000


My favorite Crais novels are FREE FALL, THE MONKEY'S RAINCOAT, and my fav LA REQUIEM. I do have a comment about Free Fall, there's a scene where Cole tries to chase would be car thieves from the car they are trying to rob. This ornate goodness, this godliness toward doing the right thing is annoying. At least Crais has attempted to get away from it recently, but come on... can a detective falter these days?

-Dave

On Mon, 28 Feb 2000, Doug Bassett wrote:

> All this talk about Crais got me curious, so I tried
> one -- LULLABY TOWN. I read about half of it and
> skimmed the rest. If this installment is typical of
> the Cole series, I'm going to have to vote with the
> naysayers.
>
> The debt to Parker/Spenser is obvious, and while
> that's kind of annoying it's not a big deal -- Crais
> is a better writer than Max Byrd, say. And Cole isn't
> nearly as irritating as Spenser can be. But LULLABY
> TOWN is far too long, with a false ending, and the
> basic plot is both confusing and boring. Also, the Mob
> figures big in this book, and Crais doesn't handle
> them well. (I've started to think that the Mob is to
> hardboiled fiction what vampires are to horror
> fiction. If you're going to tackle the subject be damn
> sure you do a good job with it, because it's been done
> to death, and if you goof it up you're going to have
> readers rolling their eyes.)
>
> The more I read the "descendants of Parker", the
> better Parker looks to me. Whatever else one wants to
> say about Parker, his books (at least, the ones I've
> read) are tight, clearly plotted, and usually pretty
> funny.
>
> If LULLABY TOWN isn't typical of the Cole series, I'd
> like to hear recommendations. Barring that, though,
> I'll give this guy a pass. (One final note: just once
> I'd like to read a series that features a psychopathic
> killer whose sidekick is a big old sensitive PI who's
> a gourmet cook in his spare time. Or am I the only one
> who prefers Hawk and Pike to Spenser and Cole?)
>
> doug
>
> =====
> Doug Bassett
> dj_bassett@yahoo.com
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