Interesting look into Joe Pike's past. Also this is why I hate reading books out of order, now the stuff that happens between Elvis and Lucy at the end of book 9 make a little more sense, even if I still don't really like it. Took way too long to write my review, but if you don't know by now that I love Elvis and Joe, you haven't been paying attention! ( )

You wouldn't know Pike and Cole are the good guys the way the Robbery-Homocide cops, particularly, 'Pants' Krantz treat them. L.A. Requiem is a quick,'tough male' type mystery set in Los Angeles.

Crais has a hard time with female characters; making them a combination of smart, tough, angry, sexy. Women seem to exist simply to provide sex or to be manipulated and disrespected by men. Frustrating.

Plot was weak.

Fieldnotes:
Laurel Canyon, Contemporary (p.1999)

1 Wise-ass Private Detective
1 Taciturn Former Cop / Military Man
1 Missing Ex-Girlfriend
1 Rich Man Pulling Strings

1 Extremely Hostile Robbery/Homicide Detective
2 Doctored Reports
1 Serial Killer
1 Impostor

1 Hot Cop Stuck on Babysitting Duty
1 Girlfriend Who Moved Across the Country for an Immature Commitment-phobe
Romantic Woes of the Protagonists' Own Making

Flashbacks
1 Dead Former Partner
1 Chaste Mooncalf Lurve
Misplaced Sense of Honor

The Short Version
I liked reading Pike's backstory flashbacks and wish we had gotten to actually work cases with him rather than just moon about with descriptions of his ice-blue eyes.

Elvis Cole remains irritating, stuck in self-inflicted romantic woes because apparently everyone finds him so irresistible as to fall in love with him after 3 meetings (what??) and he doesn't know how to say no to this.

I would watch this as a TV show (where I don't actually expect the motives to make sense since I just look to be entertained for 48 minutes). But as a book, I'm annoyed at the motivations not making a lick of sense and the clues that would have been necessary to play along being misleadingly obscured. ( )

A surprisingly thoughtful police thriller. While the plot itself wasn't particularly original or groundbreaking, the language and character development were. There is a particular subplot with the main character's girlfriend that could have been handled in a black and white/he's right she's wrong way that I was pleasantly surprised to find developed with nuance and heart. This was the first of the series I read (found it in a free library) but it will not be the last. ( )

So good in every way! ( )