First Rule

'Crais just gets better and better . . . Crais's novels are as appealing as chocolate eclairs and just as satisfying. Trouble is, like cream cakes, I want to eat them all at once' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY'A nerve-racking, switchbacking tale of guilt and redemption...so good it gives you goosebumps' EVENING STANDARDJoe Pike is out for revenge and no cop, no bad guy, no one alive, is going to stop him.Frank Meyer had got out of 'the life' safely. He had put an end to his mercenary days, turned over a new leaf and settled down with his wife and children. It had been a hard decision but, encouraged by his boss and friend Joe Pike, he had walked away.Ten years later, a group of armed men break into his Los Angeles home and brutally gun down him and his family. It's a vicious, cold and professional job. The crew leave no trace behind except the bodies.But they have made one catastrophic, and almost certainly terminal, mistake - Joe Pike. Because Pike is now determined to hunt down and eliminate everyone involved in the attack, one by one. And it doesn't matter that, as he starts to investigate, he discovers that these criminals are bigger and better organised than he ever could have imagined, because they are about to learn the first rule:Don't make Joe Pike mad...

A nerve-racking, switchbacking tale of guilt and redemption...so good it gives you goosebumps, Ah, the twist. The twist gives the book heart, the twist made me cry at the end. The twist makes this a classic Robert Crais novel and a marvellous Joe Pike story ... this spare book with its emotionally reserved main character is one of the most moving novels I've read this year, Crais just gets better and better . . . Crais's novels are as appealing as chocolate eclairs and just as satisfying. Trouble is, like cream cakes, I want to eat them all at once, Crais writes some of the snappiest procedurals coming out of the States, An adrenaline rush of a novel that's got the laconic verve of Lee Child's thrillers and the plot surprises of Michael Connelly's mysteries

Robert Crais is the author of the bestselling Cole & Pike novels. A native of Louisiana, Crais moved to Hollywood in the late 70s where he began a successful career in television, writing scripts for such major series as CAGNEY & LACEY, MIAMI VICE and HILL STREET BLUES. In the mid 80s, following his success with the TV buddy genre, Crais created a series of crime novels based around the characters Cole & Pike. In addition, Crais has also written several bestselling standalone thrillers. In 2014 he became a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America. Robert Crais lives in Los Angeles with his wife and family. Find out more at www.robertcrais.com.