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The Watchman: A Joe Pike Novel | 
| Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Category: EBooks
List Price: $7.99
Buy New: $6.39
You Save: $1.60 (20%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  143 reviews
Sales Rank: 1242
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
ASIN: B000NY11VU
Publication Date: March 2, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
The city was hers for a single hour, just the one magic hour, only hers. Larkin Conner Barkley lives like the City of Angels is hers for the taking. Young and staggeringly rich, she speeds through the city during its loneliest hours, blowing through red after red in her Aston Martin as if running for her life. Until out of nowhere a car appears, and with it the metal-on-metal explosion of a terrible accident. Dazed, Larkin attempts to help the other victims. And finds herself the sole witness in a secret federal investigation. For maybe the first time in her life, Larkin wants to do the right thing. But by agreeing to cooperate with the authorities, she becomes the target for a relentless team of killers. And when the U.S. Marshals and the finest security money can buy can't protect her, Larkin's wealthy family turns to the one man money can't buy -- Joe Pike. Pike lives a world away from the palaces of Beverly Hills. He's an ex-cop, ex-Marine, ex-mercenary who owes a bad man a favor, and that favor is to keep Larkin alive. The one upside of the job is reuniting with Bud Flynn, Pike's LAPD training officer, and a man Pike reveres as a father. The downside is Larkin Barkley, who is the uncontrollable cover girl for self-destruction -- and as deeply alone as Pike. Pike commits himself to protecting the girl, but when they immediately come under fire, he realizes someone is selling them out. In defiance of Bud and the authorities, Pike drops off the grid with the girl and follows his own rules of survival: strike fast, hit hard, hunt down the hunters. With the help of private investigator Elvis Cole, Pike uncovers a web of lies and betrayals, and the stunning revelation that even the cops are not who they seem. As the body count rises, Pike's biggest threat might come from the girl herself, a lost soul in the City of Angels, determined to destroy herself unless Joe Pike can teach her the value of life...and love.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 138 more reviews...
 Dramatic, sucks you right in September 22, 2008
This is a great book! Totally entertaining.
I picked it up yesterday afternoon and finished it several hours later. Great diversion.
Story has a fast moving plotline with lots of twists and turns. But it works. And feels 'real' - meaning it doesn't rely on completely outlandish, unbelievable events to keep the pace up (um, well, maybe there are a few that stretch credulity, but all in all, plausible).
And the characters are vividly cast and interesting. They really come to life. Pike is a real man's man - yet has a sensitive side to him that helps round out the appeal. Even the Paris Hilton-lookalike is likeable as she turns out to have some substance as the story progresses.
 What Pike does August 18, 2008
Robert Crais is the noted author of the Elvis Cole PI novels which are fairly solid books in their own right. This time out, Crais takes Cole's back-up man, Joe Pike, and shows us what Pike does during the times he's not helping Cole. Several months have passed since the events of The Last Detective and Joe must respond to the favor called in by Jon Stone. Pike is to protect a wealthy, young, attractive, attention-hog of Larkin Barkley. Larkin was in a traffic accident which turns out involved some bad people. She wants to do the right thing and from then on her life is being threatened. Pike is brought in to protect her but there's a leak in the works so Pike takes Larkin and drops off the radar, taking matters into his own hands. As expected, Pike calls in Cole to help him on a few investigative matters but this time Cole is the sidekick, not Pike.
While the story is not the strongest it is what we have always figured Pike does when not helping Cole. We do get a slightly larger look into what makes Pike tick. Unfortunately, it's pretty straight forward in that we know Pike is going to get the bad guys but there's never a real feeling of threat from THE bad guy as he doesn't even appear until 3/4 through the book. Basically we get an opening shoot out, then lots of hiding and investigation, and then a closing shoot out. More involvement with the antagonists would have been better but this is what I figured a Joe Pike novel was going to be like and it certainly was enjoyable.
If you read the Elvis Cole novels, you're going to read this one too. However, it can be read as a stand alone but it does fit into the Elvis Cole timeline which gives away some of those novels' endings.
Great as an audio book! August 15, 2008
Wonderful as an audio book. Great plot with back and forth time jumps that are intriguing rather than confusing. Wonderful plot twists.
Great characters July 23, 2008
I loved this book. Especially Joe Pike is phenomenal. I even liked the dialogues and descreption of Pike more than the story which is also good. The only remark I have is when Joe becomes sort of melodramatic towards the girl, all this touching of hands does not go well with his image.
Absolutely recommend this book
 Another Good Entry In the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike Series July 22, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I've read nearly all of Robert Crais's Elvis Cole novels, and have really enjoyed the series as a whole. For the most part, Crais is a strong writer who knows how to write a compelling story. THE WATCHMAN, the eleventh Elvis Cole novel, is yet another strong effort with an interesting twist.
Most of the appeal of THE WATCHMAN comes from seeing Joe Pike, who normally serves as Cole's sidekick, assume the role of leading man. In this novel, Pike is forced to serve as a bodyguard for a spoiled heiress in the mold of Paris Hilton. The novel deals with Pike's efforts to protect her, as well as the nature of their evolving relationship. It also provides Crais with another excuse to delve into Pike's background and explain what makes him the man he is.
I like Pike very much as a character, and all the best scenes in THE WATCHMAN deal with his unique reactions to the events around him. But the background plot, which has a lot of pointless twists and turns, was too convoluted for my taste. Crais is one of those authors who attempts to fake out the reader at multiple levels, but I found the results in this case to be confusing and overblown. I think Harlan Coben does a far better job with this type of plotting.
Overall, however, I found THE WATCHMAN to be an enjoyable read, with a lot of great action scenes and a fascinating central character. Crais's next novel in 2009 is also supposed to star Pike, and I look forward to reading that one when it comes out.
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