The Sentry (Joe Pike)

✍ Scribed by Crais, Robert

• Publisher: Putnam Adult
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 142 KB
• Series: Joe Pike 3
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN-13: 9780399157073

✦ Synopsis

Amazon.com Review

T. Jefferson Parker and Robert Crais: Author One-on-One

In this Amazon exclusive, we brought together blockbuster authors

Read on to see T. Jefferson Parker's questions for Robert Crais, or

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

It’s a routine Southern California day when former cop and sometime mercenary Joe Pike intervenes to break up the gang shakedown of a sandwich shop. The shop is run by Dru Rayne and her uncle, Wilson, two refugees from Katrina starting a new life. The chemistry between Pike and Dru is immediate, prompting him to keep an eye on the store; the gang leader, Venice Trece, will surely return to deliver revenge. But as Pike and his sidekick, private detective Elvis Cole, soon learn, nothing about Dru and Wilson adds up. Even as he’s negotiating a truce with the duplicitous leader of the gang, Pike learns that Dru is likely not the innocent she seems. The latest Pike novel is a testosterone-fueled caper with tough guys doing hard things to bad people, but it doesn’t pack the emotional wallop of Crais’ best work. High-Demand Backstory: Crais’ last Joe Pike novel reached number two on the New York Times best-seller list; longtime fans may find this one not quite up to the author’s high standards, but the demand will still be there. --Wes Lukowsky