Listening to the audiobook version of Demolition Angel I learned that the author’s name is pronounced Cray, not Craise, like Lauren and I had assumed. Boy did I feel stupid. I’ve read several of this man’s books, and all the while I was pronouncing his name wrong. I doubt Crais minds, of course. As long as we fans continue buying his books, he’ll remain a happy camper, I’m sure.
Demolition Angel is one of Crais’s earlier novels, and it demonstrates what it is that makes him such a star. These are action-packed thrillers with characters we all believe in. And it demonstrates Crais’s commitment to making his stories as beleiveable and real as possible. An incredible amount of research went into this novel. Crais immersed himself into LA’s elite bomb squad unit in order to accurately depict what it’s like to work in such a dangerous evironment. And all that research paid off. The story of Carol Starkey, a former bomb squad technician who died and lost her lover in a bomb, is one that snap crackles and pops. Three years have passed since Starkey was resuscitated by EMTs and saved from the bomb disaster. Now she’s merely a shell of her former self, spending off hours in therapy, smoking like a chimney and drinking like a fish. All of that woe-is-me is challenged however, when another bomb in LA explodes killing another bomb technician. Starkey is called to lead the case, and as she fights her way through alcoholism and well-hidden clues, an intriguing cast of supporting characters emerge, including a field agent of the ATF who shows up to help the LAPD nab the perpetrator.
This is one to read, folks. It’ll hold you to the very last page. Crais a master plot twister. Just when you think you’ve figured it out or just when you’re sure everyone is out of danger, Crais pushes it again, surprising you with yet another whiz bang you didn’t see coming — like those roller coasters that lead you to believe the ride is over just before it takes you down one final, gut-dropping plunge.