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—because only other criminals are his family. If any of the rules are broken, it is punishable by death. Frank Meyer had the American dream—a wife and family he adored, a successful business—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 worked as a professional military contractor, a mercenary, with a man named Joe Pike. Frank was one of Pike’s guys, and they faced death together in every rotten hellhole around the world. The police think Meyer was hiding something very bad, because previous home invasions by the crew had targeted only criminals with large stashes of cash or drugs. Pike cannot believe it, and with the help of Cole, he sets out on a hunt of his own: to clear his friend, to punish the people who murdered him. A trail that at first seems relatively simple, however, very quickly becomes complicated, as the two of them find themselves entangled in a web of ancient grudges, blood ties, blackmail, vengeance, double crosses, and cutthroat criminality, and at the heart of it all, an act so terrible even Pike and Cole have no way to measure it.
The First Rule (Joe Pike Novels)
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Amazon.com Review
T. Jefferson Parker and Robert Crais: Author One-on-One 
Parker: You’ve got a new novel coming out in January of 2011. I haven’t read it yet, so can you tell me a bit about it?
Crais: It's a Joe Pike novel. Wasn't supposed to be, so I was taken by surprise, but that's the way Pike is. I planned to follow my last book, The First Rule, with an Elvis Cole novel, but I saw Pike meet a woman in Venice, California, a few moments after Pike saved her uncle from a robbery. Ideas for books come to me that way--I'll see an image. The way Pike looked at her, I knew right away I had to follow their story. So it's a love story, but not your usual love story--it's a Joe Pike love story. As the Kirkus review said, "Prepare the body bags."
Parker: Did you have any surprises as you wrote the book?
Crais: A character named Daniel. Daniel is a hit man who is after the woman Pike is falling for. He is not your typical hit man. Daniel is very strange dude, and the creepiest character I've ever created. When I wrote his first scene, I sat back, and said, whoa, where did this guy come from?
Parker: You write terrific heroes and terrific villains. How do you get inside their heads, learn their methods and tricks?
Crais: The answer would scare you. Really.
Parker: Can you describe a typical work day?
Crais: It's pretty boring. I get up, go for a hike or work out because I like to get the exercise out of the way, then I sit down to work. The work requires discipline because there are so many distractions. Though, honestly, I can't think of a better way to spend my time than hanging out with Joe Pike and Elvis Cole and even strange and dangerous characters like Daniel.
Parker: Okay, when all the work is done (is it ever?) what do you do for plain-old, flat-out fun?
Crais: Anything outside. Hiking, scuba diving, flying. As a writer, I spend most of my time inside, staring at my computer. When the work is finished, I want OUT. It's like being paroled.
(Photo of T. Jefferson Parker © Rebecca Lawson)
(Photo of Robert Crais © exleyfotoinc)
--This text refers to the
Mass Market Paperback
edition.
In this Amazon exclusive, we brought together blockbuster authors T. Jefferson Parker and Robert Crais and asked them to interview each other.
T. Jefferson Parker is one of only three writers to be awarded the Edgar Award for Best Novel more than once and the bestselling author of numerous novels, including Iron River. Parker lives with his family in Southern California.
Read on to see T. Jefferson Parker's questions for Robert Crais, or turn the tables to see what Crais asked Parker.
Parker: You’ve got a new novel coming out in January of 2011. I haven’t read it yet, so can you tell me a bit about it? Crais: It's a Joe Pike novel. Wasn't supposed to be, so I was taken by surprise, but that's the way Pike is. I planned to follow my last book, The First Rule, with an Elvis Cole novel, but I saw Pike meet a woman in Venice, California, a few moments after Pike saved her uncle from a robbery. Ideas for books come to me that way--I'll see an image. The way Pike looked at her, I knew right away I had to follow their story. So it's a love story, but not your usual love story--it's a Joe Pike love story. As the Kirkus review said, "Prepare the body bags."
Parker: Did you have any surprises as you wrote the book?
Crais: A character named Daniel. Daniel is a hit man who is after the woman Pike is falling for. He is not your typical hit man. Daniel is very strange dude, and the creepiest character I've ever created. When I wrote his first scene, I sat back, and said, whoa, where did this guy come from?
Parker: You write terrific heroes and terrific villains. How do you get inside their heads, learn their methods and tricks?
Crais: The answer would scare you. Really.
Parker: Can you describe a typical work day? Crais: It's pretty boring. I get up, go for a hike or work out because I like to get the exercise out of the way, then I sit down to work. The work requires discipline because there are so many distractions. Though, honestly, I can't think of a better way to spend my time than hanging out with Joe Pike and Elvis Cole and even strange and dangerous characters like Daniel.
Parker: Okay, when all the work is done (is it ever?) what do you do for plain-old, flat-out fun?
Crais: Anything outside. Hiking, scuba diving, flying. As a writer, I spend most of my time inside, staring at my computer. When the work is finished, I want OUT. It's like being paroled.
(Photo of T. Jefferson Parker © Rebecca Lawson)
(Photo of Robert Crais © exleyfotoinc)
From Publishers Weekly
When garment importer Frank Meyer and his family are executed in their Los Angeles home at the start of bestseller Crais's adrenaline-fueled second thriller to feature PI Joe Pike (after The Watchman), LAPD detectives soon connect Meyer to Pike, who knew each other from their days as military contractors. Pike is convinced that Meyer, who left soldiering to start a family, wasn't dirty, even though his murder is the seventh in a series of violent robberies where the victims were all professional criminals. Determined to clear his friend's name, Pike discovers that Frank's nanny and her family have ties to Eastern European organized crime. With the help of PI partner Elvis Cole (the lead in Chasing Darkness and eight other books), Pike engages in a dangerous—and not always legal—game of cat and mouse with some of the city's most dangerous crooks. Pike emerges as an enigmatically appealing hero, whose lethal skills never overshadow his unflappable sense of morality. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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More About the Author
Robert Crais is the author of the best-selling Elvis Cole novels. He was the 2006 recipient of the Ross Macdonald Literary Award.
A native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he grew up on the banks of the Mississippi River in a blue collar family of oil refinery workers and four generations of police officers. He purchased a second-hand paperback of Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister when he was fifteen, which inspired his lifelong love of writing, Los Angeles, and the literature of crime fiction.
He journeyed to Hollywood in 1976 where he quickly found work writing scripts for such major television series as Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, and Miami Vice, as well as scripting numerous series pilots and movies-of-the-week for the major networks.
Feeling constrained by the collaborative working requirements of Hollywood, Crais resigned from a lucrative position as a contract writer and television producer in order to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a novelist. His first efforts proved unsuccessful, but upon the death of his father in 1985, Crais was inspired to create Elvis Cole, using elements of his own life as the basis of the story. The resulting novel, The Monkey's Raincoat, won the Anthony and Macavity Awards and was nominated for the Edgar Award. It has since been selected as one of the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.
Crais conceived of the novel as a stand-alone, but realized that, in Elvis Cole, he had created an ideal and powerful character through which to comment upon his life and times. Elvis Cole's readership skyrocketed in 1999 upon the publication of L. A. Requiem, which was a New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller and forever changed the way Crais conceived of and structured his novels. Larger and deeper in scope, Publishers Weekly wrote of L. A. Requiem, "Crais has stretched himself the way another Southern California writer, Ross Macdonald, always tried to do, to write a mystery novel with a solid literary base." Booklist added, "This is an extraordinary crime novel that should not be pigeonholed by genre. The best books always land outside preset boundaries. A wonderful experience."
Crais followed with his first non-series novel, Demolition Angel, which was published in 2000 and featured former Los Angeles Police Department Bomb Technician Carol Starkey. In 2001, Crais published his second non-series novel, Hostage, which was named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times and was a world-wide bestseller. The editors of Amazon.com selected Hostage as the #1 thriller of the year. A film adaptation of Hostage was released in 2005, starring Bruce Willis as ex-LAPD SWAT negotiator Jeff Talley.
Robert Crais lives in the Santa Monica mountains with his wife, three cats, and many thousands of books. Additional information can be found at his website, www.robertcrais.com.
A native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he grew up on the banks of the Mississippi River in a blue collar family of oil refinery workers and four generations of police officers. He purchased a second-hand paperback of Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister when he was fifteen, which inspired his lifelong love of writing, Los Angeles, and the literature of crime fiction.
He journeyed to Hollywood in 1976 where he quickly found work writing scripts for such major television series as Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, and Miami Vice, as well as scripting numerous series pilots and movies-of-the-week for the major networks.
Feeling constrained by the collaborative working requirements of Hollywood, Crais resigned from a lucrative position as a contract writer and television producer in order to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a novelist. His first efforts proved unsuccessful, but upon the death of his father in 1985, Crais was inspired to create Elvis Cole, using elements of his own life as the basis of the story. The resulting novel, The Monkey's Raincoat, won the Anthony and Macavity Awards and was nominated for the Edgar Award. It has since been selected as one of the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.
Crais conceived of the novel as a stand-alone, but realized that, in Elvis Cole, he had created an ideal and powerful character through which to comment upon his life and times. Elvis Cole's readership skyrocketed in 1999 upon the publication of L. A. Requiem, which was a New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller and forever changed the way Crais conceived of and structured his novels. Larger and deeper in scope, Publishers Weekly wrote of L. A. Requiem, "Crais has stretched himself the way another Southern California writer, Ross Macdonald, always tried to do, to write a mystery novel with a solid literary base." Booklist added, "This is an extraordinary crime novel that should not be pigeonholed by genre. The best books always land outside preset boundaries. A wonderful experience."
Crais followed with his first non-series novel, Demolition Angel, which was published in 2000 and featured former Los Angeles Police Department Bomb Technician Carol Starkey. In 2001, Crais published his second non-series novel, Hostage, which was named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times and was a world-wide bestseller. The editors of Amazon.com selected Hostage as the #1 thriller of the year. A film adaptation of Hostage was released in 2005, starring Bruce Willis as ex-LAPD SWAT negotiator Jeff Talley.
Robert Crais lives in the Santa Monica mountains with his wife, three cats, and many thousands of books. Additional information can be found at his website, www.robertcrais.com.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
102 of 111 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fast Moving, Decent Plot, Quick Read,
By
This review is from: The First Rule (Joe Pike Novels) (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
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.
77 of 92 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Would be good for most, but subpar for Crais,
By
This review is from: The First Rule (Joe Pike Novels) (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
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.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Joe Pike becomes Jack Reacher,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The First Rule (Joe Pike Novels) (Kindle Edition)
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.
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