Tangled Web UK Review June 2008
Chasing Darkness by
Robert Crais
hbk out July 08
Published by Orion
at £9.99
This is hardboiled detective fiction at its best.
Private eye Elvis Cole is a direct descendant of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser, and Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, a tough guy with a heart of gold and a wisecrack for every occasion. This is Cole’s twelfth outing, inclusive of The Watchman, the Joe Pike novel. Once again Mr Crais manages to use the ever-increasing regulation of detective work, police specialisation, and reliance on forensic evidence to his advantage, while managing to maintain the realism so essential to the subgenre - no mean achievement in the twenty-first century. He has also displayed a lack of compromise throughout the series, refusing to sell the film rights and refusing to give his detective a mobile phone. Chasing Darkness sees a new, improved, hi-tech Cole armed not only with a mobile, but also a personal computer complete with Google. Even the "World’s Greatest Detective" has to move with the times.
During the Los Angeles fire season police officers stumble upon the body of Lionel Byrd, a recluse who appears to have committed suicide. Evidence recovered at the scene implicates him in a series of seven murders. Byrd was not only charged with the murder of the fifth victim, Yvonne Bennett, but was also the only suspect ever identified in any of the deaths. Enter Cole and his sidekick, Pike: Cole was employed by Byrd’s defence attorney and found a witness that placed Byrd somewhere else at the time of Bennett’s murder. The evidence found by the police is incontrovertible, however. Conclusion one: Cole was wrong; conclusion two: by keeping Byrd out of jail, he shares responsibility for the last two murders. Obviously, this isn’t a situation he can live with, and he dives headfirst into the case, ruffling more than a few feathers along the way.
Carol Starkey, the protagonist of Demolition Angel, makes a welcome reappearance, now working for Homicide and still smoking her way into an early grave. All the usual Crais touches are here, fascinating characters, a brisk tempo, and a convincing storyline. There is only one point at which he strays from the traditions of the hardboiled school, and this is in the use of third person interludes in a narrative otherwise told in the first person. Many will find this heightens the suspense, but others may regard the change of voice as detrimental to an otherwise nimble delivery.
The subject of Chasing Darkness is by its nature murky, and intensified by Cole’s self-doubt as he considers the possibility of having made such a catastrophic mistake. In typical heroic style, Cole seeks the truth, no matter the cost to himself. As with all the best series detectives, this is as good a place as any to meet him; and as with so many of life’s pleasures, his adventures are improving with age.
(
Rafe McGregor
Rafe's own site - www.rafemcgregor.co.uk)
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