{"id":2313,"date":"2011-03-27T21:02:11","date_gmt":"2011-03-28T02:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=2313"},"modified":"2021-05-30T21:50:38","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T01:50:38","slug":"the-first-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2313","title":{"rendered":"The First Rule"},"content":{"rendered":"

The First Rule<\/a><\/em> (2010) Robert Crais<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Frank Meyer, his family, and their au pair are brutally murdered by a gang of burglars. Except that this looks far more like an execution than a burglary gone wrong, and Frank was not just ex-military but was also a mercenary (now retired) with Joe Pike. When Joe finds out that Frank and his family have been murdered, he is determined to solve the murder and get revenge upon the gang that killed Frank’s family.<\/p>\n

This is another Joe Pike novel, and although Elvis Cole makes several appearances, this story is about Pike, and spends most of the story with him.<\/p>\n

I’m still trying to decide how I feel about this story. <\/p>\n

The Elvis Cole mysteries are hard boiled, but with the glib tone and dialog that made me love Robert B Parker<\/a>‘s Spenser so much.<\/p>\n

Joe is an entirely different story. Joe is neither glib nor witty, and speaks very little. Even though this book is from Pike’s POV, he is still a mystery, and in fact by the end of the story I’m even less sure about him that I was when we first met him.<\/p>\n

Pike was a mercenary. He never tried to hide this any more than he chose to brag about it; it just is who he was, and suited his personality and world view exceedingly well. The problem is that the books have pushed that to the background, focusing on how he helped Elvis, and the clients their detective agency hires. (Much, I must say, the way Hawk’s life of crime is ignored by Spenser. Hawk is a bad guy, and we know it, but we don’t really<\/em> see it.)<\/p>\n

This story shows us why Joe was such a very good mercenary, why most of the cops (even the ones who didn’t know him when he was on the force) hate him, and why he chose to be co-owner of the detective agency with Elvis.<\/p>\n

Joe Pike believes in right and wrong, and has no about qualms taking action when there has been a wrong. This is a problem where the legalities are concerned, because what is right (especially what is right to Joe) quite frequently has little or no bearing upon what is legal.<\/p>\n

Elvis gets himself into bad situations where he has to take the life of another person in self-defense or in defense of another person. But it has always been in a life or death situation.<\/p>\n

Joe Pike doesn’t necessarily see these niceties, and does what he believes needs to be done. In fact, multiple characters in this book are that way, and this is a hard thing for me to accept. It also leads me to wonder whether Joe is right and justified in his actions, and whether he truly does belong in a society of law and order.<\/p>\n

That’s a surprising thing to spend time considering at the end of a best selling thriller.<\/p>\n

If you have not read a mystery by Robert Crais before, I highly recommend this one, and although you can read it without having read the previous books in the series, I can’t decide if having done so changes the complexity of this story.<\/p>\n

Regardless, it’s highly recommended.
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The First Rule (2010) Robert Crais Frank Meyer, his family, and their au pair are brutally murdered by a gang of burglars. Except that this looks far more like an execution than a burglary gone wrong, and Frank was not just ex-military but was also a mercenary (now retired) with Joe Pike. When Joe finds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,8,291,43],"tags":[104,105,103],"class_list":["post-2313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-mystery","category-paper","category-private-eye","tag-elvis-cole","tag-joe-pike","tag-robert-crais"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-Bj","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1832,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1832","url_meta":{"origin":2313,"position":0},"title":"L.A. Requiem","author":"Michelle","date":"July 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"L.A. Requiem (1999) Robert Crais Synopsis: Although this is an Elvis Cole novel, the heart of the story is really about Joe Pike. As Lucy and Ben are settling into L.A., Joe asks Elvis to help him solve the murder of a women with whom he was once involved. In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/LA-Requiem.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9068,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9068","url_meta":{"origin":2313,"position":1},"title":"The First Rule","author":"Michelle","date":"May 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The First Rule (2010) Robert Crais I really thought I hadn't read this book--aside from the very beginning (the murder) none of it seemed familiar. It seems like I read it in the months before Grandmom died, so that explains that distraction. Apparently re-reading this series is just like reading\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/First-Rule.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1804,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1804","url_meta":{"origin":2313,"position":2},"title":"Sunset Express","author":"Michelle","date":"June 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Sunset Express (1996) Robert Crais Synopsis: A woman is found murdered, and her husband becomes the immediate suspect. However, when he hires a celebrity lawyer to defend him, stories start appearing in the case, and Elvis is hired to see if any of those hole in the case are real.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mystery"","block_context":{"text":"Mystery","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/mystery"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Sunset-Express.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1756,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1756","url_meta":{"origin":2313,"position":3},"title":"Stalking the Angel","author":"Michelle","date":"June 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Stalking the Angel (1989) Robert Crais Synopsis: In the second Elvis Cole book, Elvis is hired to find a missing ancient manuscript. He doesn't much like the guy hiring him, and he doesn't much like the job he's hired for, but he takes the job anyway. In doing so he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mystery"","block_context":{"text":"Mystery","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/mystery"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Stalking-Angel.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9066,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9066","url_meta":{"origin":2313,"position":4},"title":"Chasing Darkness","author":"Michelle","date":"May 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Chasing Darkness (2008) Robert Crais This story switches back to Elvis, who seems to be recovered from almost dying. And his cat is still old and a jerk who doesn't like anyone except Cole and Pike. He was sitting by his dish where he waits for breakfast, only this time\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Chasting-Darkness.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1913,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1913","url_meta":{"origin":2313,"position":5},"title":"The Watchman","author":"Michelle","date":"August 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Watchman (2007) Robert Crais After the events in The Forgotten Man, Elvis is recovering, so Joe Pike takes center stage in this story (don't worry, we get to spend time with Elvis). When he had to help Elvis recover Ben Cheney in The Last Detective, Joe made a deal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mystery"","block_context":{"text":"Mystery","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/mystery"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Watchman.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}