Taken [Tapa blanda]

Talk about an enjoyable read. This novel has it all: Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, innocent young adults, a determined parent, evil men and women with no sense of morality, and bajadores - ruthless bandits who prey on other bandits. Mix them all together with drugs, weapons, the buying and selling of victims, and brutal murder and you have the ingredients for compelling novel.

Add the painstaking detective work, the genuine humanity, the nerve-racking tension, the thrilling action, and unbelievable suspense that only a talented writer like Robert Crais can bring to this novel and you have a thriller that you won't soon forget.

Taken is the fifteenth Elvis Cole and Joe Pike novel and it's the first to feature them both equally. While I've enjoyed the last two books that had Joe Pike in the starring role, this novel ratchets up the tension by having Cole lead early and Pike take over in the second half.

The story centers on a young Latina and her Anglo boyfriend who are kidnapped by bandits along the Mexican border. These criminals are the worst of the worst - preying on other criminals figuring they can't or won't go to the police. This novel centers on bajadores who steal immigrants bound for the United States. This people kidnapping business is a rampant but often ignored problem along the Mexican border.

The mother of the kidnapped woman hires Elvis Cole to rescue her daughter. Cole soon discovers what has happened to her and he enters into a risky arrangement with a Korean organized criminal. It's a desperate move and Cole knows it.

"I was now in business with a Korean gang known for extortion, brutality, and violence, and about to put my trust into a drug cartel known for torture and mass murder. I told myself it was worth it. I told myself I had no choice. I lied to myself, and knew I was lying, but chose to believe the lies."

When the plan doesn't work out, Cole is seized by the bajadores and Pike must come to his rescue. With backup from fellow mercenary Jon Stone, Pike follows the trail left by his captors and holds nothing back from search for his best friend. The feds are also on the hunt for Cole and Pike must find him first before the federal agents make mistakes that could blow Cole's cover - and his life.

This is vintage Robert Crais weaving one of the most suspenseful thrillers I've read in a long time. This is a book you'll want to savor but if you're like me, the tension will build so quickly that you'll be unable to put it down. I finished it in a weekend. With fewer things to do, I'd have been done the same day.

I've read all of the Robert Crais novels available for a Kindle. While this is an entertaining book, it is not, in my opinion, up to the standards of his previous Elvis Cole/Joe Pike books. My experience is that a writer's talent is most obvious in the dialogue in a book. With good writers it's believable and flows easily. Here, it seems to be somewhat forced, especially that between Joe Pike and Jon Stone. To me, Elvis Cole and Joe Pike seem to have become caricatures of the ways they were developed in previous books. Jack Reacher has the same malady. I hope it hasn't spread to these two.

As a post-script, I should add that this book is not really representative of Robert Crais' talent. His other books in the series were so good that I read them in order, non-stop. If this had been the first that I'd read, I doubt I would have done that. As a long-time reader of virtually nothing but books of this type, I'd rate this book as fairly good, but not close to others in the series. I hope he gets back on course with his next book.

Robert Crais knows how to spin a good yarn, and he proves that once again with "Taken." He sucks you right in and never lets up, and there's nothing wrong with that approach. However, having read all his previous novels, I've come to expect more from this author than simple entertainment. All the characters seem rather one-dimensional. It's as though he decided that, having previously spent a great deal of time developing Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, there's no need for that here. And the rest of the bunch, particularly Jon Stone, come off as caricatures rather than fully realized characters.

I also found Crais's "time-shifting" method a bit gimmicky ("six days after they were taken ... eleven days after they were taken ... five days after they were taken"). Ditto for Elvis Cole speaking in first-person and the rest in third-person. And did we really need the whole Nancie Stendahl/ATF scenario?

Despite those complaints, I gobbled up this novel in two days.The action was relentless. So perhaps I'm being picky.

Regardless, while this novel certainly stands on its own, if you're new to Robert Crais I urge you to go back to the beginning of the Elvis Cole saga. Heck, I wish I were new to Crais, since it's been such an enjoyable ride with him over the years.