What's in this book
- Robert Crais's 2000 standalone thriller - LAPD bomb-squad detective Carol Starkey hunts a serial bomber
- Canonical contemporary American thriller; one of Crais's most-recommended standalones
- 352 pages of patient bomb-squad procedural construction and a sustained PTSD subplot
- Author is also the canonical contemporary American writer behind the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series
- David Stuart audiobook is the definitive audio production
- For readers of the broader Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series, Michael Connelly, and contemporary American thrillers
Buy this book
Books N Bytes participates in affiliate programs including Amazon Associates and Bookshop.org. We may earn a commission when you purchase through our links at no extra cost to you.
Demolition Angel is the Robert Crais standalone that announced he could do the procedural form at the highest level. Carol Starkey is a LAPD bomb-squad detective who was in an explosion several years ago that killed her partner-fiancé and that she barely survived. She is now back on duty in a different bomb-related role, with the PTSD and the substance-use issues that the form would suggest. A bomber starts operating in LA. The case becomes hers.
Crais writes the bomb-tech material with the kind of technical precision that the form rewards. The pacing is taut. The procedural beats are immaculate. What lifts the book above its competitors is the way Crais handles Starkey's recovery. She is not redeemed by the case. She works the case and is still in recovery at the end, which is the truth.
Five stars. One of the great American police procedurals of the 2000s. Recommended to fans of Lehane and Connelly.
Related reads
If you liked Demolition Angel
Suspect
by Robert Crais
Robert Crais's standalone with K-9 dog Maggie and ex-Marine handler Scott James. The book that broke me and most other Crais readers I know.
The Promise: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel
by Robert Crais
Robert Crais bringing Maggie the K-9 dog back into the Cole and Pike series. The crossover I did not know I needed.
Chasing Darkness
by Robert Crais
The 11th Elvis Cole. Robert Crais writing a cold-case sequel to one of his previous victories. A genuinely difficult moral problem.
Hostage
by Robert Crais
Robert Crais's 2001 standalone. A small-town California police chief, three teenagers in a wrong house, and a hostage situation that escalates into something else.
The Two Minute Rule
by Robert Crais
A Robert Crais standalone outside the Cole/Pike series. An ex-bank-robber father searching for his estranged son's killer. Crais doing classic noir without his regulars.
The Lincoln Lawyer
by Michael Connelly
The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly 2005 review. Mickey Haller, a Los Angeles defense attorney who works out of the back of a Lincoln Town Car, takes a case that pulls him into something larger. The novel that launched a series and a film franchise.
More by this author