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The First Rule |  | Author: Robert Crais
Publisher: Putnam Adult
This item is no longer available
Rating:  119 reviews
Sales Rank: 2247
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
Publication Date: November 19, 2009
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Amazon.com Review
Robert Crais on Joe Pike 
Joe Pike is back, and this time I'm ready.
I have always received a lot of fan mail, but nothing prepared us for the tsunami that flooded my website when The Watchman was published. (The Watchman was the first Joe Pike novel. Joe is now returning in The First Rule.) I mean, I knew Joe was popular, but c'monnnn.
We always see a spike in e-mail when a book is released (by "we," I'm talking about myself and the sorely overworked Carol T, who creates our newsletter and manages our e-mail). This spike typically lasts eight to ten weeks, before leveling back to our average of about twenty e-mails a day. But when The Watchman was published, the spike was way larger, and didn't begin to fade until three months later. Then, amazingly, it grew again—coming back stronger than ever as thousands of readers—Joe Pike fanatics, bless'm!—spread the word. And the word was: sex.
Like Elvis Cole, Joe had always gotten a lot of mail from women, but the tone of his mail now changed. They sent gifts. They sent pictures. They wrote, "I love Joe Pike," but not in a way suggesting they were fond of him or maybe kinda crushing on him. Pike's fans were feral. They said, "I WANT Joe Pike."
Meaning: Pike is my love slave!
I get it. It is not lost on me that the young male heartthrobs in the current crop of insanely successful vampire films are all brooding bad-boy loners, held in check from their evil ways only by the love of a good woman, who is herself moved by their tortured hearts. Has any vampire been as lethal as Joe Pike, or as tortured?
Pike is the ultimate bad boy. He is dangerous, enigmatic, and male with a capital M, but it is his damaged soul that makes him sexy with a capital S. His lack of emotion suggests an inner landscape so damaged it is as barren as the desert surrounding Tikrit. It also suggests an emptiness waiting to be filled, and therein lies Pike's tragic nature and, I suspect, the sexy-hot core of his huge appeal. My female readers intuit that he is redeemable, and an awful lot of them want to help with his redemption!
For men, Joe Pike's appeal is different, but no less powerful. Pike takes no crap and fears no man, and this is a pretty common fantasy. Try to imagine Joe Pike getting cut off in traffic or shoved off the sidewalk? Ha—they wouldn't dare! Pike’s red-arrow tattoos probably sum up the fantasy best of all: here is a man who will not back up, or back down, and pretty much every guy wants to be that man (even if only in a fantasy life!) from time to time, or have such a friend as his wingman.
And speaking of friends—Pike wouldn't be Pike if it weren't for Elvis Cole, so hard-core Elvis Cole fans need have no fear: Elvis Cole is back, playing a large and important role in The First Rule. I could no more write a Joe Pike novel without Elvis than I could write an Elvis Cole novel without Joe. These guys are more than partners. They are friends. They are two underdogs who have turned themselves into heroes. --Robert Crais
(Photo © Patrik Giardino)
Product Description
From the New York Times-bestselling author who sets the standard for intense, powerful crime-writing comes a blistering thriller featuring Joe Pike and Elvis Cole.
The Watchman put Joe Pike, Elvis Cole's strong, taciturn partner, front and center, and not only won Robert Crais new audiences but remarkable reviews. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel said "Robert Crais elevates crime fiction" and now with The First Rule he does it again.
The organized criminal gangs of the former Soviet Union are bound by what they call the thieves' code. The first rule is this: A thief must forsake his mother, father, brothers, and sisters. He must have no family-no wife, no children. We are his family. If any of the rules are broken, it is punishable by death.
Frank Meyer had the American dream-until the day a professional crew invaded his home and murdered everyone inside. The only thing out of the ordinary about Meyer was that- before the family and the business and the normal life-a younger Frank Meyer had worked as a professional mercenary, with a man named Joe Pike. The police think Meyer was hiding something very bad, but Pike does not. With the help of Cole, he sets out on a hunt of his own-an investigation that quickly entangles them both in a web of ancient grudges, blood ties, blackmail, vengeance, double crosses, and cutthroat criminal-ity, and at the heart of it, an act so terrible even Pike and Cole have no way to measure it. Sometimes, the past is never dead. It's not even past.
The First Rule is the most astonishing novel yet from the master of the crime thriller.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 119
Fast Moving, Decent Plot, Quick Read November 29, 2009
Burgmicester (Pittsburgh)
77 out of 84 found this review helpful
Robert Crais has created one of the genre's favorite character sets: Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. The first several books focused on Elvis, but with "The First Rule", Crais has now published his second "Joe Pike" novel. The action is constant, the pace is quick, and the plot is good. Crais has selected the Serbian Organized Crime mobs to set this story. One of Pike's long time friends and family are murdered like animals and Joe Pike takes this personally. From there you can guess how the pace and action rip ahead.
Elvis Cole is called on to help as are a couple of other characters that Crais has used in the past. But this is mostly a Joe Pike story. While there are some twists and turns, the plot moves along towards a somewhat believable conclusion. We learn a little about the Serbian mob and how they are accumulating wealth in America, but there is little depth to this novel.
In this book, Crais has taken out any of the filler. There are no underlying themes, no further character development on any of our favorites, and no attempt at humor - a Crais trademark for the Elvis Cole stories. I vacillated between a three star or four star rating for this book, but moved it to four stars because I enjoyed the book - as quick a read as it was. At 305 pages, it is good for a couple of hours on a plane or to while away the afternoon. I am a little disappointed in Crais as the last several books have been very average without his trademark snide humor and camaraderie between characters. This book could have been Joe Smith and Elvis Jones instead of Pike and Cole. There is very little that ties them together in this story. It is difficult to rate this book without matching my expectations to the story that is delivered. I expected more and wanted more, but the story delivered is good, just not what I wanted.
 Would be good for most, but subpar for Crais November 29, 2009
Tung Yin (Portland, OR)
57 out of 70 found this review helpful
Robert Crais is one of those authors whose new books -- especially in the Elvis Cole series -- send me rushing to the bookstore or to Amazon. There's nothing necessarily unique about Crais' storytelling or his protagonists; just skilled writing, tight plotting, and a corny but endearing private detective (Cole) who answers his phone "the world's greatest detective."
Cole is a character in "The First Rule," but a rather minor character. The main focus is on Cole's sidekick, the taciturn but lethal Joe Pike. Pike is basically superhuman -- he doesn't seem to need much sleep, he's lethally accurate with guns or his body, he doesn't talk much, and he's always there to help Cole out. In small doses, he's an effective character. But he's hard-pressed to carry a book as the main character.
To be clear, this is not the first time that Crais has used Pike as the lead -- see also "L.A. Requiem." Like that book, this one is a story of revenge. An apparent home invasion gone wrong leaves Pike's former mercenary colleague Frank Meyer and his family dead (appallingly brutal, but nice to see Crais actually have the guts to write a nasty scene rather than be safe and saccharine by having the family members somehow get away), and Pike is out to take care of the killers. Along the way, Pike has to dodge the police (one officer says to Pike that it's a wonder someone who's killed as many people as he -- Pike -- has remains free), the federal Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms department, and an emotionally hardened Serbian prostitute and her protector. As might be expected, much mayhem results.
Because Pike is so powerful, there actually isn't much tension in this book. It's like Steven Seagal in the movies; invincibility can be boring. What's worse is that Pike is so uninteresting as a character. He has no wants, no weaknesses, no connections other than to his former "crew" and to Cole, so what we're left with is a methodical tracking of the killers, interrupted occasionally by cliches like the deadly man who would hospitalize anyone who took his sunglasses off, but lets a 10 month old baby play with them.
 Immensely satisfying thriller December 14, 2009
Jody (Northwest Ohio)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
The First Rule begins a few minutes before a brutal and bloody home invasion in which an entire family is killed. Crais gives such complete characterizations in just a few lines, we are stunned by the violence and understand private detective Joe Pike's grief and outrage when he finds out one of the victims used to work for him as a mercenary. Pike promises he will find the perpetrators and make sure they are punished. The remainder of the book follows Pike as he skirts the law, outwits the police, confronts some really bad guys and makes good on his promise. The story twists and turns as Pike finds out the truth behind the tragedy.
Crais' tight plot and stark words make The First Rule thrilling in every sense of the word. Spot on characters, vivid imagery and non-stop action make this one a real page-turner whether Pike is smashing a gangster's plasma TV to extort information, or lulling a baby to sleep. Laconic, principled and disciplined, Pike is a strong hero and balances the more flamboyant Cole. Somehow I've completely missed Robert Crais' Elvis Cole books up to now, but I'll be remedying that as soon as possible.
"If at first you don't succeed try, try again. Then quit. There's no use being a damn fool about it." W. C. Fields March 13, 2010
michael a. draper (Guilford, CT)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Home invaders break into the home of Frank Meyer, killing his family and wounding his nanny. Frank was a successful businessman but prior to meeting his wife, Cindy, he had been a mercenary working for Joe Pike.
Joe is approached by detectives inquiring if he had any information to share. He's informed that the home invasion group had broken into six other homes. All prior homes were owned by drug traffickers and other criminals. Police feel that it is a trend and want to know if Frank was dirty.
Joe is intent on finding the truth and making the killers pay for what they did. He goes to the hospital where the nanny, Ana Markovik, is in critical condition. He wants to see if he could get anything from her. When he arrives, Ana's sister Rina, was guarding her sister's room. She initially suspects that Joe might be part of the group who tried to kill her sister. He explains that he was a friend of Frank and learns that Rina and her sister are Serbians. Since Joe knows that Frank wasn't involved in anything, he wonders if it could have been the nanny that the invaders were after.
Joe asks his partner, Elvis Cole, to research more background about Rina and her sister.
With Elvis' help, Joe learns that Rina's full name is Karina Markov and has a history as a prostitute that she's trying to hide.
Joe returns to the hosptial but finds that Ana has died. Rina then admits that she knows who killed her sister. The answer is totally unexpected and leads Joe down a trail that is filled with danger and involves the AFT (Alcohol and Firearms).
The story was a quick and easy reading experience. Robert Crais is one of the better thriller writers around and Joe Pike is a heroic character that in their fantasies many readers would dream that they could be more like. The pacing is well done right up to the end which seemed to bring things together a little too conveniently.
Joe Pike becomes Jack Reacher February 3, 2010
Ms Terry (USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I've loved Joe Pike from the moment we first met him. His deep flaws make him intensely interesting...but.... in this latest outing he seems to have become less realistically human and more auto-hero. Pike is Cole's foil and was strong enough to carry a book only when we deep dove into his miserable and formative childhood. Without sufficient use of Cole's wryness as a complement, Pike morphs into Jack Reacher. A great shame. Crais is one of the better writers in a sea of formula - driven dreck. Come back Elvis - and bring Joe with you as Tonto - he's just not complex enough to be the masked man, I fear.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 119
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