The Sentry: A Joe Pike Novel (Joe Pike series Book 3)

It is a great read

Crais is a superb writer. His style reminds me of the dark, gritty flair and panache of Elmore Leonard mixed with the breakneck, thrilling pace associated with Lee Child, although Crais is a better writer than Child. His descriptions are evocative, yet simple and clean. His characters are so perfectly real, so fully realised and so entrenched in their desires and wants as to fairly leap off the page and seize you by the throat. The Sentry is top-class Crais. The antagonist is as unhinged and lethal as Crais has created, albeit there could be a little more background marbled into the prose and, by the end of the book, I felt as if I wished I had known him better. Elvis Cole and Joe Pike are so fundamental to Crais now that he needs to be careful not to give them too much of his books at the expense of the bad guys. Rarely are his antagonists wooden/paper-thin, but in the Sentry, we could have seen a little more. Yet the action is unstinting, the plot (as Crais favours) clean and precise. Crais's plots are not complex - they tend to turn on a handful of key events with a twist or two, particularly in the latter stages, but they hook from the beautifully crafted opening sequences. The Sentry is no different, although this time the key protagonist is Joe Pike, rather than Elvis Cole. Everything you could want in a class-act thriller is present and this is a book to be devoured.

I only started to read the Elvis Cole series (Robert Crais) last year when I picked up one in the Library on holiday. Since then I have started from the beginning and read them all. I absolutely love them. OK - they are a bit 'boys' stories' but with enough humour, a really good story line and the two main characters are really strong and likeable. I have passed them on to my husband who is also loving them. In the latter novels Joe Pike has had a bigger role - he's just as captivating to read about as Elvis Cole. All in all - I thoroughly recommend them to anyone who likes a good story with a lot of action with good characters. Did feel in this particular novel that Joe Pike wouldn't have been quite so gullible but if I say too much it will give the plot away.

I've read several books in the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series and all have been consistently good. The balance between Coles banter and the quiet ruthlessness of Pike make them and interesting combination and the body count at the end is always huge.This time however Pike has centre stage with Elvis Cole having a minor role in the background. Yes one learns a bit more about Pike and his emotions, and yes there is plenty of non stop action with the inevitable massacre, but the humour is missing....hence dropping this book to 4 stars. Nevertheless a good read.

never a bad read

Thought this was brilliant - mainly because it tends to centre on Joe Pike with Elvis Cole bought into the story at the end. Wish the author would write more stories on Joe, as his other books tend to focus more on Elvis Cole as a good detective/investigator with Joe Pike bought in as a kind of "fixer to alleviate a problem". Elvis Cole comes across as the main character.

Another excellent read from Robert Crais with a character that has blossomed since being 'just' a support player. These Pike books are always well written and pacy but and this is not unique to Robert Crais, when will crime writers stop having 'super killers/assassins who outwit their pursuers continually through guile and cunning only to succumb in the last chapter through abject stupidity. Our killer here met the aforementioned typecasting perfectly when to all intents and purposes he had Pike nailed and then allows himself to be shot in a rather mundane manner.

Greatly enjoyed Robert's story and great characters he has written. The story kept me captivated and will certainly look out for more from him