The Watchman
Robert Crais
Simon & Schuster, 2007
Rating: 4.2

After years spent chronicling the exploits of wisecracking detective Elvis Cole, Robert Crais finally turns his attention to Cole’s enigmatic partner, Joe Pike. Just as Crais’ last two Cole novels, The Last Detective and The Forgotten Man, explored that character’s psyche and back story in illuminating detail, The Watchman peels back the curtain to provide a look at the inner workings of his tightly controlled friend. And just as those books (and non-Cole works like Demolition Angel and The Two-Minute Rule) did, it showcases Crais’ ever-evolving skill as a crafter of compelling character studies as well as urgently paced thrillers. In fact, after more than twenty years, it reveals Crais at the peak of his powers in both arenas.

The Watchman finds the quiet, terse former cop, Marine and mercenary agreeing to protect Larkin Conner Barkley, a spoiled young heiress who’s become the target of assassins after a late-night car accident put her in the orbit of a wanted killer named Alexander Meesh. Crais kicks off the book in media res, with Pike and Larkin already on the run, their safety compromised by an apparent traitor, and deftly fills in the unanswered questions as he goes along, interspersing the action with scenes involving both Cole, whom Pike enlists for aid, and John Chen, a horny forensics specialist in the LAPD’s Scientific Investigation Division. The author jumps seamlessly between the different POVs – Pike’s steely calm, Cole’s playful banter and Chen’s comic-relief quest for sex – while smoothly advancing the plot, laying out clues, increasing the tension (and the body count) and diverting attention to a number of potential turncoats – including Pike’s former partner and guide on the force –  with practiced skill.

But as expertly as Crais navigates the twists, turns and suspense, The Watchman is most notable for his insight into Pike’s emotional makeup and the circumstances, including an abusive father and a police scandal, that shaped him. It’s a measure of Crais’ intelligence as a writer that he not only resists painting Larkin as merely a petulant Paris Hilton figure, he exposes just enough of her believable vulnerability to let us plausibly accept Pike recognizing something of a kindred spirit in, of all things, a lost party girl.

One senses that Crais’ been wanting to tell more of Pike’s story for some time – some of the foundations for this story were laid years ago in L.A. Requiem, which marked a pronounced shift in the writer’s work. Wisely, he seems to have waited until he was sure enough of his talents to do justice to the character’s complexity. In that regard, and as a gripping page-turner, The Watchman proves well worth the wait.

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