Added by: susan6th | Karma: 3133.44 | Fiction literature | 30 September 2010
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Desolate Angel
First in a series that takes readers into a new dimension in detective stories. He was once a second-rate cop, a mediocre husband, and an absent father. But ever since he was killed in a drug bust gone bad, Kevin Fahey's been a lost soul in limbo. Until he encounters a dead victim whose murder he thought he solved, a girl who points him to a fresh body. And Fahey realizes he imprisoned the wrong man-and the true killer is still on the loose.
Elvis Cole has a smart mouth, a flair for martial arts, a passion for truth, and a borderline sociopath for a partner. When a ruthless hotel magnate hires Cole to find a priceless Japanese manuscript, Cole heads into a nest of notorious Yakuza in the heart of L.A.'s Little Tokyo.
In the world of Pern, Harpers with great musical ability are held in extreme regard. This is why the young, mischievous Piemur carries himself with so much pride, for he sings like an angel. But when his voice begins to change, Piemur loses all confidence and questions his role within Harper Hall.
Laine Tavish is an ordinary woman living an ordinary life in the small town of Angel's Gap, Maryland, as the proprietor of Remember When, an antique treasures and gift shop. At least, that's what everyone in Angel's Gap thinks. They have no idea that she used to be Elaine O'Hara, daughter of the notorious con man Big Jack O'Hara. Or that she grew up moving from place to place, one step ahead of the law... Laine's past has just caught up with her, though - in a very dramatic way. Her long-lost uncle suddenly turned up in her shop, leaving only a cryptic warning before dying in the street, run down by a car.
Acclaimed for his Elvis Cole mystery series (L.A. Requiem, etc.), Crais deserves further garlands for this stand-alone crime novel. The book features one of the most complex heroines to grace a thriller since Clarice Starling locked eyes with Hannibal Lecter, a deliciously spooky villain in the person of a mad bomber known as Mr. Red, and an aggressively involving plot. Carol Starkey was a rising light in the LAPD Bomb Squad until, two years back, a bomb blew up in her face, maiming her and killing her lover/partner.
