The Remorseful Day

Lullaby Town by Robert Crais
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Finally the Robert Crais I can say I enjoyed reading. This is my third Crais book featuring Elvis Cole, but by far this is the best and the most interesting. The first one was okay, and I thought that by the second book, I would get to know and like Cole and Crais better, but the second book fell flat and I ended up not being able to finish the book. I was bored, disgusted by the ever smooth talking Cole, and confused by the plot. Cole’s wise-ass attitude got on my nerves and I was desperately searching for the reason as to why these books are considered as masterpieces of crime writing. I was entering another PD James phenomena.

But, this third instalment of Cole and Pike got my attention, and made me realise that maybe there is substance in this series after all, and that one book blunder doesn’t make this series bland. LULLABY TOWN by Robert Crais stars when Elvis Cole is hired by hotshot action movie director Peter Alan Nelsen to find his child and ex-wife, the ones who he had dumped on his way to stardom. Cole finds them easily and then discovers that the lady has a secret of her own. She enlists Cole and Pike’s help to get her out of the situation and at that moment in comes Nelsen with his ego in his wake to jumble things up.

Starting out the plot had really no aspect of being a whodunit. By one-third of the book the reader gets to know the plot, and the players, and comes to realise the outcome. All the points revealed, along with the solution the book had the risk of falling flat. But that’s where Crais brings out his magic wand and creates a piece of crime writing which would keep the readers hooked just for the sake of knowing how the solution was reached. The pace of the book, his writing style, the dialogues, the scenes he created all made up for the lack of suspense and made this a highly enjoyable and satisfying read.


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