Taken

Taken by Robert Crais
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A woman hires Elvis Cole to find her kidnapped daughter. Elvis takes the case, only to find himself kidnapped. Can Joe Pike find Elvis before the kidnappers decide to silence him... permanently?

So now I'm finally completely caught up on the adventures of Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. How did this effort stack up to the rest of them? It held its own, that's for certain.

With Taken, Robert Crais put to rest my fears that maybe Crais might start phoning it in. He took a fairy basic kidnapping plot and did great things with it. The thing that sets Taken apart from other kidnapping books is the structure. While I bemoaned Crais's shifting viewpoints in the past, he used it to marvelous effect in this book. The viewpoint shifted between the kidnapping victims, Elvis Cole, Joe Pike, and Jon Stone, not only shifting between characters but jumping around in time as well. It's structure reminded me of Cornell Woolrich's The Bride Wore Black at some points and the movie Boondock Saints at others.

Cole and Pike were their usual selves. Jon Stone, one of Pike's mercenary buddies, has been growing on me in his last few appearances. The kidnappers were a horrible bunch and it was great when they finally got what was coming to them.

That's about it for me. If you've followed Joe and Elvis this far, I can't imagine not reading this book. Four easy stars.

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