Book 14

The Sentry

by Robert Crais

Published 1 January 2011
Dru Rayne and her uncle are Louisiana refugees who relocated to Los Angeles after Hurricane Katrina. Now, five years after the storm, their struggling restaurant faces a different danger. When Joe Pike witnesses Dru's uncle beaten by a neighbourhood gang intent on extorting protection money, he offers his own brand of protection. But neither Dru nor her uncle want his help - and neither do the federal agents mysteriously watching their store -- agents who seem more than willing to let the gang have their way. But Pike is falling for Dru, and won't back away whether she wants his help or not. As the violence escalates, the gang targets Pike, who, with Elvis Cole's help, learns that Dru and her uncle are not who they seem. It soon emerges that everything Pike thought he knew about them, their relationship to the gang, and the reasons they fled New Orleans have been lies. Now, a vengeful and murderous force from their past is catching up with them, pitting Pike and Cole against the combined forces of South American crime lords, rogue federal agents, and contract assassins on the bloody hunt for twelve million dollars in missing stolen cash.

The First Rule

by Robert Crais

Published 22 December 2009
The team thought that Frank Meyer had got out of the 'life' safely. He had put an end to his mercenary days, turned over a new leaf and settled down with his wife and children. It had been a hard decision but, encouraged by his boss and friend Joe Pike, he had walked away. But ten years later, a group of armed men break into his Los Angeles home and brutally gun him and his family down. It's a vicious, cold and professional job. The crew leave no trace behind except the bodies. But they have made one catastrophic, and almost certainly terminal, mistake - Joe Pike. Because Pike is now determined to hunt down and eliminate everyone involved in the attack one by one. And it doesn't matter that, as he starts to investigate, he discovers that this group of criminals are bigger and more well-organised than he ever could have imagined - part of sprawling gang of east European mafia. None of that matters, they are going down anyway.