The First Rule
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- ISBN13: 9780399156137
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
From the New York Times-bestselling leader who sets the standard for intense, powerful crime-writing comes a blistering thriller featuring Joe Pike and Elvis Cole.
The Watchman place 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 ex- 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 tree-no wife, no children. We are his family tree. 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 tree 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 reflect Meyer was hiding something very terrible, 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 very ancient grudges, blood ties, blackmail, vengeance, double crosses, and cutthroat criminality, 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.
Amazon.com Review
Robert Crais on Joe Pike 
Joe Pike is back, and this time I’m ready.
I have permanently 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 well loved, but c’monnnn.
We permanently see a spike in e-mail when a book is unrestricted (by “we,” I’m talking about myself and the sorely overworked Carol T, who makes 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 start 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 permanently gotten a lot of mail from women, but the tone of his mail now changed. They sent gifts. They sent pictures. They wrote, “I like 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 like 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 terrible-boy loners, held in check from their evil ways only by the like of a excellent woman, who is herself stirred by their tortured hearts. Has any vampire been as lethal as Joe Pike, or as tortured?
Pike is the essential terrible boy. He is treacherous, enigmatic, and male with a capital M, but it is his hurt soul that makes him sexy with a capital S. His lack of emotion suggests an inner landscape so hurt it is as lonely as the desert surrounding Tikrit. It also suggests an emptiness waiting to be filled, and therein lies Pike’s tragic scenery and, I suspect, the sexy-hot core of his huge appeal. My female readers intuit that he is redeemable, and an dreadful 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 language of friends—Pike wouldn’t be Pike if it weren’t for Elvis Cole, so hard-core Elvis Cole fans need have no dread: Elvis Cole is back, playing a large and vital role in The First Rule. I could no more write a Joe Pike novel lacking Elvis than I could write an Elvis Cole novel lacking 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)
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I used like Robert Crais and permanently waited for his books, but they seem to be getting less and less appealing. I find the Joe Pike character very thin and dull and not very realistic. The First Rule I bought but wish I had waited to get it out of the library. This is not a excellent read. I hope Crais starts making excellent work again soon. Sadly I have to recommend that you do not bother to buy this book.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Joe Pike and Elvis Cole combine forces against the Serbian mob. This follows the massacre of a mercenary friend of theirs. The massacre killed the friends and his family tree. Worth reading, but not his greatest.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
So this is the much expected First Rule. A robotic, competent tale. PIKE the super hero flits in an out of the most hard situation lacking a scratch. No adrenaline. An practiced game of billiard, but Pike misses too many cues. The reader is way yet to be on some issues. And it is too simple. All these excellent army followers from way back when providing improbably accurate information at the drop of a hat. Tough killers fold and blubber. Cole does not crack a single joke. And let us not get into the ending. Sigh.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
I have just loved Robert Crais’ writing. I reflect his writing is very fluid and very appealing. When his characters, Elvis Cole or Joe Pike, are driving the freeways of los angeles, I am right there with them. Robert Crais is usually very introspection with his two main characters, more so than any additional leader I’ve read. The only additional book that really didn’t do it for me was the Monkey’s Raincoat, but I liked it better than this one. I did not like it that there was no humor in this tale. Usually Elvis is very humorous, cracking sarcastic jokes that are very amusing. There is also the character, John Chen, who is very amusing, and his appearance in this novel was limited to a few sentences. I missed John Chen. But mainly in this second novel about Joe Pike was so hard and so was the Elvis character. There were no laughs and no feelings and no inner reflections. I reflect Robert Crais was mad when he wrote this book. I just know don’t know. But i hope his next book brings back the sensitivity and the humor that makes his books such a joy to read. I just wanted to hasten up and end it. I only gave it three stars because, at the end, Joe had shown some feelings about the baby, and that touched me.
I am sad to say that i really didn’t like this book very much.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
I have read all his books, the Elvis Cole novels and I like the 2 Joe Pike books. This one does not disappoint.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5