Robert Crais (http://www.robertcrais.com/) is an American author of detective fiction who has been influenced by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. For those of a certain age who remember and loved Hill Street Blues (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_Street_Blues), Crais was the scriptwriter for that TV series. Now a highly successful writer of crime and thriller fiction, his latest publication is The Promise (2015). The summary is as follows. Loyalty, commitment, and the fight for justice have always motivated the private detectives Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. If they make a promise to a client, they keep it. Even if it could get them killed. When Cole is secretly hired to find a grief-stricken mother, he’s led to an ordinary house on a rainy night in Echo Park. Only the house isn’t ordinary, and the people hiding inside are a desperate fugitive and a murderous criminal with his own dangerous secrets. As helicopters swirl overhead, LAPD Officer Scott James and his German shepherd, Maggie also track the fugitive to this same house. They come face-to-face with Mr. Rollins, a killer who leaves behind a brutally murdered body and enough explosives to destroy the neighborhood. Scott is now the only person who can identify him. But the nasty Mr. Rollins has a rule: never leave a witness alive.
Meanwhile, sworn to secrecy by his client, Elvis finds himself targeted by the police even as Mr. Rollins targets Scott and Maggie. Arms dealers and corrupt officials don’t appreciate people poking into their affairs. As Mr. Rollins closes in for the kill, Elvis and Joe join forces with Scott and Maggie to follow a trail of lies where no one is who they claim — and the very woman they promised to save might get them all killed. Will they, indeed, get killed before you finish this gripping crime thriller? Enquire at your local library (or consult http://www.amazon.co.uk/Promise-Elvis-Cole-Pike-Novel/dp/140912715X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1453360888&sr=8-1&keywords=promise+crais for full bibliographic detail) and find out for yourself.
416 pages in Orion
First published November 2015
ISBN 978-1409127154
Robert Crais