In Robert Crais? The Watchman, we have the author firing on all cylinders ? and Crais aficionados will know that?s an experience to savour. It?s one of the tough long-term Crais protagonists, Joe Pike, who sets the edgy narrative in motion here, and the narrative barely pauses for breath once one of Crais most high adrenaline novels is in motion. Joe has been asked to look after a young female witness in a case involving a very dangerous gangster. The witness, Larkin Conner Barkely, couldn?t be more different from the close-mouthed Joe: she's rich, wilful and very much used to getting her own way. The uneasy alliance between the two is not much helped when some very violent men start breathing down their necks. Joe realises that he has to drag a reluctant Larkin from her privileged background and hide her from view in the more downmarket areas of L.A., while at the same time bloodily taking the battle to the enemy.

All of this is handled with the aplomb that we expect from the ever-reliable Crais, and admirers of the author will be pleased to hear that Joe Pike calls upon his partner Elvis Cole to help them stay alive and track down those wanting to eliminate Joe?s wealthy charge. Crais calls upon some classic elements of the L.A. detective story here (corrupt cops are a feature of such novels all the way back to Philip Marlowe), but there's no sense of clichés being warmed over. Rather, this is a satisfying juggling of comfortable elements, with the mix shaken up by some new and surprising ones -- such as the fact that the girl Pike and Cole are trying to protect seems to have a pronounced death wish -- a death wish that looks set to take down her protectors along with her. Crais fans can safely start reaching for their credit cards. --Barry Forshaw

2008-04-30 A warning for Joe Pike fans.

I've read all the Elvis Cole books and I loved them all (as well as the authors another novels) but I really didn't like this one. The wit & humour are missing which have made the other books in the series stand out from all the other detective fiction out there (plus the plots very ropey as covered by other reviewers). There's been a pattern to the last few books in that one will be Elvis focused and the next Joe focused and it's worked well so far, but while there's always been a good balance of Joe & Elvis no matter who the focus was on, that's missing here and we're left with a very Joe heavy book. I wouldn't have thought this would be a bad thing, but it just doesn't work. Joe works best as an enigma, silent, strong, sexy, unreadable & loyal, there when you need him and gone the next. We leant more about him in L.A. Requiem (the best in the series in my opinion) and while that gave us more detail of Joe it didn't give too much to take away his mystic. But in The Watchman there's so much of him that he just loses everything that makes him such brilliant character, Joe goes to the toilet, Joe buys some groceries, Joe cooks dinner, don't need to see all that! The appeal of Joe is that he a classic hero, you can read him anyway you want so he appeals to everyone, but here he seems to fall in love with a dim, vain, spoilt Paris Hilton heiress type. He was a great mystery man full of possibility, but sadly he's lost that for me now, turns out he's a bit shallow and likes his women to come with the I.Q and temperament of a angry Chihuahua. Goodbye Joe, it was nice while it lasted but I've gone right off you now!