Lullaby Town - Robert Crais

Private Investigator Elvis Cole has been hired by the famous director, Peter Alan Nelson, to find his ex wife and son. Peter hasn't seen his ex wife in over ten years after leaving them and now wants to be part of his sons life. Elvis believes it to be a simple case of finding her and passing on that information. However, Karen Shipley has now changed her name and built a life for herself. A life she is reluctant to give up. The problem is she has a secret and Elvis finds himself stuck in the middle of it.

This is the first of this months books for the books I should have read by now challenge. It was one of those books I picked up cheap when I decided to be more open minded about crime books. Although had I realised it was the third book in a series I probably wouldn't have done so at the time. That being said not once did I feel that I needed to have read the others to follow the story. It's one of those books that where the main characters is the same the story itself is different. There might have been a few hints to previous books but I just put it down as background information on Cole and moved on with the book.

I did like it. I decided to read it as a break from Anna Karenina and Shantaram. I am loving both of those books but they are both very series and I needed something light. This was perfect. Other than John Connolly I haven't read many crime books where the main character is a PI so I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it. Cole though is a likeable character. He is tough but has a soft side which you see when he decides to help out Karen. You don't actually learn too much about him at all. I wonder if that happens in the first book. If so it's refreshing that later books in the series don't regurgitate it all as some serial books are prone to do.

My favourite character though is his enigmatic partner, Pike. He actually reminds me a lot of Ranger from the Stephanie Plum series back in the early days. I'm talking the first few books when he doesn't say much and really doesn't need to. Pike has that quality about him with just a twitch of the mouth to show his humour.

The story itself was good. I wasn't expecting the ex wife to have the problems she had which turned into the main story line (I won't say for fear of spoiling it). In the first few pages I thought the first character narrative was going to be irritating. It seemed like the author felt the need to use it to tell every single movement of the main character (which can be a downside to first person). I did think that it was going to put me off so much that I wouldn't continue but it settled down. I also was not impressed by the Hollywood aspect. I've never really been enticed by stories like that but that turned out to be a minor part of the book.

As I said I did like it and I would probably read more. I think if I was going on holiday I would happily pack a couple of these into my bag. Having said that I don't think I would feel the need to read every single book in the series. It's not one I would feel loyal to.