| The First Rule (Joe Pike) |  | Author: Robert Crais
Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged
List Price: $36.99
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Rating:  118 reviews
Sales Rank: 294,900
Format: Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 7
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7 x 5.1 x 1.4
ISBN: 1423375483
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781423375487
ASIN: 1423375483
Publication Date: January 12, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Robert Crais on Joe Pike 
Joe Pike is back, and this time I'm ready.
I have always received a lot of fan mail, but nothing prepared us for the tsunami that flooded my website when The Watchman was published. (The Watchman was the first Joe Pike novel. Joe is now returning in The First Rule.) I mean, I knew Joe was popular, but c'monnnn.
We always see a spike in e-mail when a book is released (by "we," I'm talking about myself and the sorely overworked Carol T, who creates our newsletter and manages our e-mail). This spike typically lasts eight to ten weeks, before leveling back to our average of about twenty e-mails a day. But when The Watchman was published, the spike was way larger, and didn't begin to fade until three months later. Then, amazingly, it grew again—coming back stronger than ever as thousands of readers—Joe Pike fanatics, bless'm!—spread the word. And the word was: sex.
Like Elvis Cole, Joe had always gotten a lot of mail from women, but the tone of his mail now changed. They sent gifts. They sent pictures. They wrote, "I love Joe Pike," but not in a way suggesting they were fond of him or maybe kinda crushing on him. Pike's fans were feral. They said, "I WANT Joe Pike."
Meaning: Pike is my love slave!
I get it. It is not lost on me that the young male heartthrobs in the current crop of insanely successful vampire films are all brooding bad-boy loners, held in check from their evil ways only by the love of a good woman, who is herself moved by their tortured hearts. Has any vampire been as lethal as Joe Pike, or as tortured?
Pike is the ultimate bad boy. He is dangerous, enigmatic, and male with a capital M, but it is his damaged soul that makes him sexy with a capital S. His lack of emotion suggests an inner landscape so damaged it is as barren as the desert surrounding Tikrit. It also suggests an emptiness waiting to be filled, and therein lies Pike's tragic nature and, I suspect, the sexy-hot core of his huge appeal. My female readers intuit that he is redeemable, and an awful lot of them want to help with his redemption!
For men, Joe Pike's appeal is different, but no less powerful. Pike takes no crap and fears no man, and this is a pretty common fantasy. Try to imagine Joe Pike getting cut off in traffic or shoved off the sidewalk? Ha—they wouldn't dare! Pike’s red-arrow tattoos probably sum up the fantasy best of all: here is a man who will not back up, or back down, and pretty much every guy wants to be that man (even if only in a fantasy life!) from time to time, or have such a friend as his wingman.
And speaking of friends—Pike wouldn't be Pike if it weren't for Elvis Cole, so hard-core Elvis Cole fans need have no fear: Elvis Cole is back, playing a large and important role in The First Rule. I could no more write a Joe Pike novel without Elvis than I could write an Elvis Cole novel without Joe. These guys are more than partners. They are friends. They are two underdogs who have turned themselves into heroes. --Robert Crais
(Photo © Patrik Giardino)
Product Description
The organized criminal gangs of the former Soviet Union are bound by what they call the thieves’ code. The first rule is this: A thief must forsake his mother, father, brothers, and sisters. He must have no family—no wife, no children—because only other criminals are his family. If any of the rules are broken, it is punishable by death.
Frank Meyer had the American dream—a wife and family he adored, a successful business—until the day a professional crew invaded his home and murdered everyone inside. The only thing out of the ordinary about Meyer was that—before the family and the business and the normal life—a younger Frank Meyer worked as a professional military contractor, a mercenary, with a man named Joe Pike. Frank was one of Pike’s guys, and they faced death together in every rotten hellhole around the world.
The police think Meyer was hiding something very bad, because previous home invasions by the crew had targeted only criminals with large stashes of cash or drugs. Pike cannot believe it, and with the help of Cole, he sets out on a hunt of his own: to clear his friend, to punish the people who murdered him.
A trail that at first seems relatively simple, however, very quickly becomes complicated, as the two of them find themselves entangled in a web of ancient grudges, blood ties, blackmail, vengeance, double crosses, and cutthroat criminality, and at the heart of it all, an act so terrible even Pike and Cole have no way to measure it.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 118
 Joe Pike brought to life July 11, 2010
NY Bookster (New York)
The best part of this second Joe Pike book is the decidedly different tone that the book uses to tell the story from Joe Pike's point of view. We have had many descriptions of Joe from the point of view of Elvis Cole from the previous books in the series, but this book really speaks in Joe's voice. As a result, we don't get the wisecracking and the same fast pace as the Elvis Cole books. I really think Robert Crais did a fantastic job of allowing us to truly experience this book through Joe Pike's eyes.
There are instances throughout the book where we get glimpses of how Joe Pike thinks and feels, which is not something that we get from an Elvis Cole book. For example, Joe was at Elvis' house and thinking about how happy he is when he spends time there. We know from Elvis how much the cat loves him when he is there, but we never knew what Joe Pike himself was feeling when he was there. Now we do. It is those little nuances that made me really appreciate that we were being told this story strictly from Joe Pike's point of view. I loved this book and the glimpse into the mind of Joe Pike. I do recommend reading all the books in the series first, it really will increase your enjoyment of this installment.
 Great opening...weak finish June 9, 2010
JoeNoir (Virginia)
I have been a Robert Crais fan since THE MONKEY"S RAINCOAT. He has written three of the finest crime novels I've ever read: THE WATCHMAN, THE TWO-MINUTE RULE, and the classic L.A. REQUIEM. This book is not in their class. He takes a great opening, and an interesting premise, and it all sort of deflates toward a weak conclusion. One of the most interesting details is never explained. Joe Pike is softer at the end of this novel than in any other book in the series, and it weakens the character. It's a fast read, and will hold your interest. It may even keep you in suspense at times. There is an absolutely terrific scene at a trailer park. I wish the rest of the novel had that caliber of writing.
Crais Keeps Getting Better and Better June 8, 2010
Bookreporter.com (New York, New York)
There is nothing better than good storytelling in a novel. I love the experience of sitting down during the course of an afternoon, cracking a book open and wondering where the time went some several hours later, with 300-plus pages having flown by. Robert Crais is one of those authors who consistently delivers the goods, developing a straightforward plot line but throwing in a surprising twist or two before all is resolved.
Until recently, Crais has earned his bread and butter almost exclusively with a stretch of novels featuring wisecracking private investigator Elvis Cole. In 2007's THE WATCHMAN, his focus switched to Joe Pike, Cole's more or less silent partner in the firm. Following the brilliant CHASING DARKNESS, Pike returns as the center of attention in THE FIRST RULE. Set aside an afternoon; you won't want to stop reading once you start.
Loyalty is the fuel that runs the engine of Pike's personality. Pike used to be a professional military contractor, unapologetically doing the rough work that permitted decent people to sleep peacefully in their beds. He worked with a man named Frank Meyer --- who left that job and Pike behind --- and achieved the American dream of a loving wife, family and successful business. But that idyllic existence ends abruptly when Meyer and his family are horrifically murdered in a home invasion, the latest in a series of crimes taking place in the Los Angeles area that have been visited upon criminals with large caches of cash or drugs. Pike is on a two-fold mission: revenge for Meyer, a friend with whom he had not spoken in 10 years, and clearing his name.
He sets about this endeavor single-mindedly, calling in favors for information, following one thread to another and seeing where it all leads. Cole is there to help, his wiseguy remarks masking a clear-edged competence. Jon Stone, a stone-cold operative who worked with Pike and Meyer in the past, is also along --- and gladly so --- as Pike follows a trail that leads straight to a quarrel with the Eastern European organized crime syndicate, which is fueled by guns and...something else.
It is that "something else" that got Meyer and his family killed, and when revealed, it will also uncover a side to Pike that has heretofore remained hidden. Along the way, Pike must make a deal with the FBI, one that compromises the promise he made to himself on behalf of his dead friend. His dilemma, accordingly, is how to fulfill each. Watching him do it is what keeps the book humming right down to the final paragraph.
Crais, who has been mesmerizing since his first novel appeared well over a decade ago, keeps getting better and better. It will be hard for him to top THE FIRST RULE, a dark journey through the furnace of L.A.'s criminal underground. I have a feeling, however, that he will.
Gelati's Scoop June 3, 2010
Giovanni Gelati (LEVITTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA, US)
I am not going to bore you with the inside of the book jacket synopsis. All one needs to know and understand is that this is a Joe Pike vehicle and Elvis Cole is along for the ride; nuff said. "The First Rule", you should read this book posthaste, make all haste to get this in your hands and indulge yourself. I was not raised too smooch gluteus maximus, but I must say if Mr. Crais is reading this, I am a big fan of your work. The characters are memorable, and the interplay engaging. The speed of the story, turbo! Suggestion for you when you grab this book, don't plan on doing anything for awhile. It grabs you and is hard to put down.
One must enjoy a story with the Russians; excuse me, the Serbs as the bad guys. The camaraderie of Pike and company, the dedication to each other that these so called characters of morally questionable behavior is to be enjoyed. "One of my guys" is spoken throughout, in addition to, honor, integrity and allegiance above personal gain and keeping the scales of justice in place.
The haters out there can't wrap their heads around the fact that if they had five dollars and Joe Pike had five dollars, he would have more money than they had. Many can't fathom the fact that Pike can punch a Cyclops between the eye. The other critics are claiming that Joe Pike is to perfect a character, tsk, tsk, tsk. Please get over yourselves; it's a book. It's enjoyable and entertaining.
I strongly suggest reading Robert Crais's work. I have read all his books and have not found one too weak or unworthy of my time. Joe Pike and Elvis Cole are strong characters with a great cast around them. Crais crafts good storylines with basic themes. The beginning, middle and end are all strong. The human condition and plenty of humor awaits you. Robert Crais has a nice website; give it a try. Enjoy; see you soon. I look forward to hearing from you.
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Joe Pike rules! May 27, 2010
Mari-Anne Kehler (Redondo Beach, CA)
Another great one by Robert Crais. The second Joe Pike novel, and just as well written and fast paced as the rest of the Elvis Cole series. Wonderful fun.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 118
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