Pike is the dangerous man of the title. He catches the car at a stoplight, smashes the driver’s side window, drags the driver and his accomplice out, and roughs them up enough to give one of them a concussion. He saves a young woman Isabel, but she is promptly kidnapped a second time, it’s apparent something more than a simple abduction is at work. Pike, determined to solve the mystery and save the girl, calls his pal Elvis Cole for help.
Pike is featured more than Elvis Cole is this adventure,

Robert Crais’s A DANGEROUS MAN was a thoughtful and tightly-constructed novel with wholly likable characters; unputdownable read.

Always enjoy his books.This did not disappoint!! I love the characters and the fact the story moves smoothly along!!!

I love the Elvis Cole, Joe Pike series! On the surface, the two men are so different; Elvis a wise ass and Pike silent and dangerous. Yet, they work together, so smoothly, so committed to helping their clients. The book is action packed and fast paced. The plot is intriguing with a surprise at the end. Loved A Dangerous Man.

A DANGEROUS MAN: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel
Robert Crais
Putnam Books
ISBN 978-0-525-53568-3
Hardcover
Thriller

I have never read a bad or even mediocre novel by Robert Crais. He has been top-notch out of the gate, that horse being a novel titled THE MONKEY’S RAINCOAT which won a mantle full of genre award and still stands up very well, thank you, over three decades since its publication. Crais has written over twenty novels since that time, most of them featuring private investigator Elvis Cole (that might be the best p.i. name in contemporary detective fiction) and the taciturn and deadly Joe Pike. While Crais’ output has slowed a bit over the past few years the quality of his production has not. That brings us to A DANGEROUS MAN, the newly published Pike and Cole novel which is to my mind the best of them to date.

A DANGEROUS MAN is a bit more Pike than Cole, as befits the title. Crais doesn’t waste much time setting things up --- not that he ever does --- and as a result, things start rolling just a couple of pages into the story. A bank teller named Isabel Roland is the targeted victim of an attempted abduction just as she begins her lunch hour. Iz, as she is known to her co-workers, had just waited on Pike, a customer of the bank, a few minutes before and, as we quickly learn, has been nursing a fairly obvious crush on him for a while. So it is that the attempted kidnapping occurs while Pike is still in the vicinity of the bank. He interjects himself in Pike-like fashion and soon the situation there, as Bob Dylan would say, is all but straightened out. Iz, of course, is terrified, and Pike, being Pike, decides to check things out. He (as well as law enforcement) is curious as to why two thugs were attempting to abduct a bank teller in her early twenties who parents are deceased and who is scraping by on her bank employee salary. Thing become even more curious within a few hours. The two would-be kidnappers are found executed shortly after being released on bond, and Iz goes off of the radar. Pike immediately gets Cole involved, and the narrative thereafter ping-pongs quickly along between Pike and Cole, with Pike doing the majoring of the pinging, if you will, but with a major assist from Cole, who exhibits his masterful ability to collate and interpret data in order to take the investigation in a productive direction. There are plenty of twist and turns, and layer upon layer of dangerous bad guys who in some instances are as smart as Cole and Pike. Iz, meanwhile, keeps jumping into both the frying pan and the fire, when she would have been better off listening to Pike. Whether she survives to the end of A DANGEROUS MAN is a near thing, a situation which is dependent on the quietly bad-ass Pike, who is outnumbered, though not outclassed. If Pike and Cole could only find out why these guys are after Iz it would solve a lot of problems. Maybe they will before A DANGEROUS MAN runs out of pages.

Crais, whose writing chops have been honed to a razor-sharp edge by his work as a television screenwriter --- I guarantee that you’ve seen his work on some of your favorite television dramas --- paces everything perfectly so that the only flaw in the story is that it ends all too soon but satisfactorily. You might see the endings --- both of them, actually --- coming, but you will be ever-so-happy that Crais does it that way, and so well. A DANGEROUS MAN, from beginning to end, is the latest in a series that continues to seemingly reach its peak with each installment and surpasses it with the next. Very strongly recommended.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2019, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

I love Robert Crais. Elvis and Joe are truly fantastic characters. They both always want to help and most of the time that help can be deadly...to the other guys.

Another strong entry in the Elvis and Joe series, with Pike taking center stage after he sees a girl being kidnapped. A total page turner. Highly recommend.

Robert Crais never disappoints. His latest Elvis Cole/Joe Pike mystery has all the best elements of this series - non-stop thrills, humor, mystery and exceptional characters. For fans of Lee Child or Mark Greaney. Highly recommended.

Loved this 18th Elvis Cole/Je Pike thriller. The action is nonstop and the chills abound. Crais continues to write at the top of his game. I love recommending this series to my customers.

I just finished reading A Dangerous Man by Robert Crais. Once I started the book it was very hard for me to put it down. A young inn innocent woman is kidnapped by some very viscous men. Pike had met her immediately before they grabbed her the first time. He saved her then and the story continues with his various adventures as he works to save her again. Everything works out well in the end. Since this is the first bookI have read by Robert Crais I have no idea if he has written more books featuring Pike. I will check the library to see what else he has written. This shows how much I liked reading A Dangerous Man

Joe Pike and Elvis Cole step in and solve another crime in a very adventurous way. They show humanity and a serious belief in right and wrong.

No good deed goes unpunished.

As Joe Pike leaves his bank and is about to drive away, he sees the teller who helped him get pulled into a car and snatched. He pursues the kidnappers and saves Izzy. The bad guys make bail but are later murdered, and Izzy has disappeared once again.

Joe enlists the help of private eye Elvis Cole, and together they race to find Izzy before it’s too late. As they untangle long buried secrets, they discover that Izzy isn’t who they — or she — thought she is.

This is the crime novel of the year, and Robert Crais at his best.

Joe Pike teams up once again with Elvis Cole. Young Isabel Roland works as a bank teller. Pike walks in to do a transaction right before lunchtime, and on his way back to his car, he witnesses two men kidnapping her as she leaves the bank for lunch. Pike chases them down, saves Isabel, and the two are arrested. But it’s not over yet. The suspects make bail, are murdered shortly after, and Isabel has disappeared. Elvis Cole assists in investigating, and they uncover a possible breach in a witness protection program, a dead US Marshall, possibly missing money from a pharmaceutical company on trial for fraud, and a series of lies. The main question Pike and Cole are asking themselves - is Isabel guilty of theft and fraud, or is she a victim here?

This is another intriguing and well written novel by Robert Crais. The prose flows nicely, his characters are interesting, realistic, and believable, the plot is well thoughtful, nicely developed, and I most highly recommend this book

I haven't missed a Robert Crais book ever. Add this one to the list of blockbusters! I even read it in less than 24 hours, something I almost never do. This time round Elvis and Joe find themselves involved in a kidnapping. Will they protect the innocent victim? Uh, duh! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

AsI have stated before, I have been a diehard fan of Robert Crais/Elvis Cole/Joe Pike for THIRTY YEARS. Seriously, when The Monkey’s Raincoat was published in 1987, I was working in a public library, grabbed it as soon as it came in, and was HOOKED. Since then, this has been one of the most reliable series in the mystery genre – consistent as in “OMG, <blank> has a new book coming out! YAY!” So I was happy to receive a copy of The Wanted from Penguin Group/G.P.Putnam’s Sons and NetGalley in return for my honest review.

In this latest installment, Joe Pike is minding his own business on a beautiful Southern California day when he goes to the bank. As he is leaving, he sees a young woman named Isabel “Izzy” Roland, who works in the bank, being abducted by two men. Being Joe Pike, he leaps into action, rescues her, and the men are arrested. Should be settled, right? No chance, as Izzy disappears and Joe calls on Elvis Cole to help him unravel a complex mystery that includes whistleblowing, the Witness Protection Program, millions of dollars that may or may not have been stolen by Izzy’s mother, and a boatload of lying.

It isn’t clear what Izzy really knows about the whole thing, and whether she is a victim or a criminal. Joe and Elvis take the reader on a classic Pike/Cole ride to justice, with lots of action and good writing along the way.
In addition to just absolutely loving Elvis, I love Robert Crais’s writing, including structure, setting, character and plotting. The chapters in this book rotate among the main characters, including Joe Pike, Elvis Cole, law enforcement types, and the bad guys. The various areas of Los Angeles are familiar, and well described as Joe and Elvis search for Izzy, although I did have a “huh?” moment, when Joe is driving: “They followed Sunset Boulevard through the Palisades on a winding downhill slide to the sea. The rain slowed to a dying drizzle. Pike turned west on the Pacific Coast Highway, and followed the black edge of the ocean.” Nice writing, but PCH runs North and South, unless things have changed a lot since I left Southern California. But that’s a minor quibble as Crais continues his usual way of capturing the vibe of Southern California, noting how the “…warm night air was rich with the scent of night-blooming jasmine and orange blossoms…” Joe Pike is his usual self: “The blond man waited for Pike to say something, but Pike said nothing. The blond man filled the silence.” Crais is a master of having a character’s silence speak volumes, and in this case we have come to truly know the two main characters.

Or have we? Frankly, the relationship between Joe and Izzy is pretty warm and fuzzy, and I will not be surprised if we meet Izzy again in a future book in this series. But whether Joe will become warmer and fuzzier or whether his action in the final chapter (which may shock some readers) represents the man he has become (or maybe always has been?) is a big question.

In any case, I had a great time reading it, and look forward to the next adventure featuring Joe and/or Elvis. Five stars.

It all begins when Joe Pike goes to the bank. As he steps back into his jeep he witnesses the abduction of the bank teller (Izzy) who had just helped him. He quickly chases them down and the men are arrested. But, that’s when things begin to go downhill. The men post bail, then found murdered, and Izzy disappears. Joe prevails upon his friend, Elvis, to help him find Izzy and uncover the truth. What they find is a twisted tale of whistleblowing, large amounts of missing cash, and many lies.

A Dangerous Man is the 18th book in the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series and Robert Crais still has the spark. His writing is crisp, the characters are varied and interesting, the plot is intriguing and well-conceived, and there’s an unexpected plot twist as well. But, what I enjoy the most is the dialogue. It is humorous, original and totally believable. If you haven’t read any of his books I recommend that you start soon. You are in for a treat.

Thank you, Mr Crais, for creating such an enjoyable series. Long may you write!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

Leaving the bank, Joe Pike thwarts the abduction of the bank teller who just helped him. But when the perps are released on bail then killed execution style, he becomes a prime suspect and asks PI Elvis Cole for help.

This series never disappoints! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am always so excited to sit down with another Robert Crais novel. This one did not disappoint! Love reading the continuing series of Joe Pike and Elvis Cole...what a duo! I could not put this down and read in two days. Our library will definitely be purchasing. Thank you for the advanced copy.

Joe Pike engages Elvis Cole’s help protecting a 22 year old girl who appears to be the confusing target of a lot of nasty guys. Drawing in witness protection and massive scales of counterfeit drug peddling, the action takes us through L.A. and environs in Crais’ typical action-packed way. Entertaining, with plenty of sardonic banter and ultra-competent physical specimens. The women in this particular story were a little more annoyingly portrayed than usual — giggly, kind of stupid, and in desperate need of constant saving, but otherwise a good read.

Thank you for this advance copy. Joe Pike is back and is getting a bit talky. This is a wonderful read, lots of excitement, fast paced and keps you up till you’re finished. Love reading books with Joe and Elvis. Thank you.