Demolition Angel: A Novel

Tough, wounded, self-destructive female lead? Check. Tough, wounded, self-destructive male lead for female lead to inexplicably fall in "love" with? Check. Second-half "twist" that we saw coming early on? Check. Standard secondary characters--psychotic serial-killer villain, whiny Asian tech, blowsy bimbo detective, uptight Christian detective, "give me your badge" supervisor, interchangeable Feds in suits? Check, check, check--and check out. Bland, predictable, and dull. Interesting glimpse into bomb-disposal techniques circa 1992, though.

I love this author, with the Elvis/Pike series. But this one about the female dectective they work with, I just could not get into her character, and was ready to borrow a cigarrette just to burn the book!

Good book, the first I have read of Robert Crais. He definitely does not mince his words. The pace moves at a brisk pace and the twists and turns keep coming. Flawed characters who aren't alcoholics like in other detective novels is a relief and refreshing too. You will be sorry you missed this one.

Before diving into Robert Crais’s Elvis Cole and Joe Pike mysteries, I’d read or listened to all of his stand alones except one – Demolition Angel. When I started actually listening to his series, I decided to save this one until I hit it in publication order. I was curious since I’d heard such good things about it. For me, this one really had to grow on me.

Before we go further, I do have a confession to make – I listened to an abridgement of the book. I hadn’t paid attention until I got it from the library. In my defense, it was the only audio version that either library system I have access to have available. I honestly don’t think that factors into my opinion, but keep that in mind as you read my review.

This book introduces us to Carol Starkey. She is a former member of the bomb squad who now works for the LAPD in the Criminal Conspiracy Section, and her latest case is hitting very close to home. She is tasked with investigating the death by bomb of a member of the bomb squad. She herself was blown up while on the bomb squad, and she lost her partner and lover in the blast. She still hasn’t recovered from it emotionally, and that was three years ago.

Carol has barely started her investigation when the ATF shows up in her office announcing they think the bomb was the work of a notorious serial bomber nicknamed Mr. Red. While fighting to keep control of her case, Carol also begins to investigate the bombing and Mr. Red. Can she catch this man?

Honestly, I think I’m glad I was listening to an abridgement of this book. Why? Because before the first disc was over, I was rolling my eyes at Carol. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Because of the death of her partner/lover, she has been driven to drink and smoke. She’s hostile to others and hard to get along with. Yeah, I was rolling my eyes, too. Mind you, I’ll read clichés in my cozies without blinking an eye, but this one irritated me. It didn’t help that Carol herself irritated me. Her character arc, while predictable, did finally make me warm up to her as the book progressed, but it was late in the book before it happened. I honestly would have had a very hard time getting through the entire book.

Which leaves the plot. This at least was interesting as it included several good twists and turns before we reached the climax. The climax had me hanging on every word even though I knew where it was going to go.

The abridgement is read by Patricia Kalember. She could do a bit more to make characters distinct, especially when they are just talking with no tags between dialogue, but I was able to follow along with what was happening, so this is a very minor complaint.

The underpinnings of the mystery in Demolition Angel are good, but Carol is so predictable that the book itself winds up just being average.

I first found the hardback book at barns and noble's and liked the author very good so i looked to see what other books he had written , there were many so i decided to start purchasing from the store to get the " best deal" so as it turns out,not only did i have to wait to receive the book, it was the same $ amount as barns and noble. point is i could have purchased the book and got it right away. ???
Sorry for the complaint but you asked for this survey

Title: Demolition Angel
Series Number: The first.
Author: Robert Crais
(Audio) Narrator: Paul Hecht

One sentence summary: Ex-bomb squad member has to work through her past accident while working on a current case where one of her old coworkers died.

Theme(s): Single past events can drive people’s actions for years. There are multiple ways to cope with PTSD and other results of said past events.

(Audio) Narrator review: I had one huge issue; the main character is a female and they choose a male narrator. I’m not sure why, and distracted me numerous times in the first two chapters. After a while I got used to it, and I think that overall Paul Hecht did a good job, but I think they could have chosen someone similar to the main character; a female who smokes a lot.

What I liked:
I love that page one scene one the main character is talking to a therapist about her problems. This is a great way to start the story, obtaining the mindset of the main character, and the mindset of one person who has been helping her since the accident. (Also both characters are female, so this book passed the Bechdel test immediately which is pretty cool.)

The characters are well defined and have distinctive background events that drive them forward. They all seem real and their actions feel authentic, even when they aren’t professional.

The ending is wonderfully satisfying. No spoilers, so I won’t say more, but it’s unexpected yet completely inevitable.

What I disliked:
Honestly I liked all of it. There is nothing that I can think of that would have made this a better book.

Rating:
9/10 – Excellent read. Lives on my bookshelf. Often recommended to friends. Might or might not read again. (I’ll recommend this to friends that like mystery/thriller, but probably wouldn’t recommend to those who don’t. I would be happy to read it again if I ever forget enough of it to make it worthwhile, but I suspect that this book will be sticking with me for a long time.)

Crais is best known for his "Elvis Cole" private eye series, but this is a departure for him -- and a good one. It's an unusual police procedural thriller, in that half of it is an exciting, well-plotted, and very suspenseful story about a sociopathic serial killer and the other half is an equally well-developed character study of a cop suffering from PTSD. There's even a hesitant love story in there besides.

Three years ago, Los Angeles bomb technician Carol Starkey and her partner (and lover) were checking out an improvised explosive in a trailer park when one of L.A.'s frequent minor earthquakes rumbled through and set the thing off. Both techs were killed by the blast, but the EMTs brought Starkey back to life five minutes later. But not her partner. After months of hospitalization and therapy and reconstructive surgery, Starkey is back on the job, though not as a bomb tech. And she's not at all the same person she was. She drinks and smokes constantly, she hardly sleeps at all, and she drives her lieutenant and most of her coworkers crazy. She lives in constant fear of being ordered to go to the LAPD shrink, which would mean the end of her career -- and all she wants is to continue being a detective.

Then another bomb explodes in a parking lot -- this time by remote control, which means the bomber was watching -- and another tech is killed. And Starkey gets the case. Almost immediately, an ATF agent named Pell shows up and attaches himself to her -- and now she has to worry about the feds grabbing her case, too. And then she has reason to believe this latest bomb is the work of "Mr. Red," who has been making a name for himself with carefully constructed explosives all around the country. Starkey has her hands full. Can she figure out who the Bad Guy is? Can she keep Pell at arm's length, even as she begins to develop feelings for him? Can she manage the two other detectives on her investigative team, one of whom is ratting her out for the drinking? Will she ever get a full night's sleep again?

Crais does an excellent job of delineating Starkey's internal struggle in balance with the exterior facts and questions of the investigation she's trying to run. And Pell has his own legitimately earned demons. And then there's the skewed character of "Mr. Red" and the other warped personalities of the world he inhabits. And over everything is the harrowing day-to-day life of the Bomb Squad. A gripping and first-rate novel of the white-knuckle variety that will really hold your attention.

I thought this was one of the best detective novels I've ever read, really up there in the pantheon. Crais is one of the few fiction writers I can still read and unlike many series, I did not get bored after a few books. There are great writers who have either jumped the proverbial shark (as great as Stephen Hunter is as a writer, he has made Bobby Lee Swagger a super human caricature of himself) or keep writing the same story over and over (I don't know if I can read another Reacher novel - we know. . . we know he gets the girl and beats up 5 guys at once). Crais keeps creating new characters within his universe and though he stays within the genre, Demolition Angel pushed the envelope. Though Elvis Cole and Joe Pike have their flaws, they are still much more conventional fictional detectives than Carol Starkey, who is so torn up by life (physically and emotionally) you wonder how she can recover from it all. Her relationships are complicated and much more real than heroes or heroines who are leaping in and out of bed with people. She is vulnerable and likes people she shouldn't. She obsessively smokes and drinks and many of us out there can relate to the body image problems. Yet Crais accomplishes all that without making her unattractive or making the story somber or slow moving. It sizzles.

One reviewer who hated this book wrote about the repetition concerning her drinking; another one complained about foul language. Okay. That's there. And in another book, I might agree. But it all worked for me here because Carol, with all her flaws, is a much more honest portrait than is typical of the genre and evoking her internal drama and unfulfilled desires while keeping the plot stoked was great writing. I'm glad she joined the Cole universe. Good for Crais.

However, several things just aren't fun. Crais used brought and bring wrong time after time. When was "take" and "took" eliminated from the English language? I assume the author is a smoker, since he seemed to know a lot about it through the book. Same for drinking to excess. The hero (or heroine) no longer smokes or drinks! Smoking is not even socially accepted these days! Except for these annoyances, it was a decent plot and I'm waiting for the next book.

1. Reading it for the second time and finding more layers to this story than I did earlier.
2. Exciting in a completely different way than the Elvis Cole books, this one digs deeper into its characters, who are fascinating to begin with.
3. I don't know that Crais has a Best Book, but this one would be very near the top. No wisecracking here, just straight mystery with a large dollop of psychology of the twisted kind. One of the author's best books.

Robert Crais is a diverse writer -re: the Elvis Cole & Joe Pike novels, etc. In this novel the author writes about Carol Starkey, the LAPD bomb tech who gets blown up, dies (momentarily), and is resuscitated, and then goes on to head up the investigation team into the death of a colleague and to deactivate the notorious "Mr. Red", a psychopath with an explosive agenda. An excellent book.

This standalone novel is mid-booklist of the growing Crais bibliography, and introduces police detective Carol Starkey (who will appear from time to time in later stories in small parts). Starkey is a former bomb squad expert whose partner was killed in the same explosion that almost took her life - she was actually heart-dead for several minutes before being revived. Now a detective, she's working a case where another bomb expert has been killed in an explosion, but soon signs point to a probable homicide. A federal agent, John Pell, comes to assist on the case, and for the first time since her "death" three years ago, Starkey develops a romantic interest in Pell, which contrasts mightily to her other habits, including three packs a day, a bottle of gin, and Tagamet for most "meals"! The plot thickens when it appears a "Mr. Red", apparently a well-known bomber who has eluded police all over the country, may be a factor in Starkey's case. Her pursuit of minutia leads to rather amazing developments in the case.

We were generally pleased by the tale, typical of our reaction to Crais' work. Starkey is not particularly that lovable, although she's very smart, intuitive and persistent; and her interactions with other characters and Pell were well crafted by the author. The story itself is plenty suspenseful and rather twisty at the end. We would probably be a little more enthusiastic if there had been less details about bomb making and fewer transcriptions of instant messaging chat sessions (more of a novelty in 2000, the year published); but all in all, an entertaining book we enjoyed well enough.

every new Elvis Cole book released by Robert Crais, I'll see a few reviews on the store saying "at least Carol Starkey wasn't in it." While Starkey may not be a fan favorite, I really like her, and she was introduced in DEMOLITION ANGEL.

Bomb Squad member Charlie Riggio is blown to bits by a bomb in the back of a strip shopping center, and Starkey, along with her partners Beth Marzik and Jorge Santos, investigate the tragic event. They soon discover the bomb was deliberately exploded, and that it may have been the work of Mr. Red, a serial bomber and assassin who kills for money and often targets bomb squad members.

This book really worked for me. I enjoyed the police procedural aspect of it and all the different characters. Charlie Pell is a DEA agent helping Starkey while also working behind her back. CSI John Chen makes an appearance, perhaps his first, in a Crais novel. Starkey has great interaction with Santos and Harzik and other police officers. Crais really makes the reader a part of the investigation.

Starkey is the best character. She's still recovering from a bomb explosion 3 years ago that killed her lover and scared her both physically and emotionally for live. She smokes nonstop, drinks on the job, and is unable to get close to anyone. Still, she gets the job done. I wish I'd read this book before being introduced to Starkey in other Cole novels. She's a good character who carried this novel. Crais is at his best in DEMOLITION ANGEL.

Robert Crais, with his critically acclaimed "L.A. Requiem" and now "Demolition Angel" has solidified himself as one of the best crime writers of the new century. "Demolition Angel" is a taut, suspenseful endeavor into the dreadful lives of bomb squad technicians, the horrors that can arise from bombing tragedies, and the maniacal minds that demonically destroy others with the detonated devices. Much like James Patterson and other crime novelists, Crais paints a vivid picture with his lead characters, purposely playing certain chess moves with the reader to get them to believe something, only to completely turn against the reader with a checkmate.

Carol Starkey plays the lead protagonist, a chain-smoking, alcoholic criminal conspiracy detective who is still trying to piece back together her life that was forever changed three years before when she was nearly killed in a fatal bombing accident that took the life of a loved one. Once a spirited bomb technician with the love of her life and a great future ahead of her, Starkey is now a astringent, unstable rogue cop who is fed up with her co-workers, her bosses, her three psychiatrists, and her complete loneliness in life. When Starkey learns that a fellow police officer, bomb squad member Charlie Riggio, is killed when a bomb suppression attempt goes awry, her feelings of despair and horror linger in the back of her mind. What Starkey originally believes is a freak bomb accident soon becomes a criminal investigation like no other: Mr. Red, a maniac bomber who has eluded the cops for years, is in town and is targeting Starkey next. Just as Starkey is the heat of the case, a federal agent named Pell bungee-jumps onto the scene and aligns with the detective to catch Mr. Red once and for all. With every move that Starkey and Pell make, the closer to the truth they get and the farther Mr. Red is in their grasp.

"Demolition Angel" develops well from the initial bombing scene, the interrogation of the witnesses, the inner delving through Starkey's sour mindset, and her increasingly personal relationship with her federal partner. Crais's greatest achievement in the novel; however, is not the characterization of Starkey, but the intertwining of Mr. Red's desire to become the most feared man in the world. The author manages to depict Mr. Red in a light makes him an undeniably likable, funny villain-and one that you almost want to root for. It is Mr. Red's witty character development and Starkey's constant angst that makes "Demolition Angel" a very entertaining, page-turning triumph, but the book also shines because a shelf of solid supporting characters and well-written knowledge of bombs. A very proficient, admirable effort.

Sometimes authors make changes because they are tired of writing the same stuff with the same patterns and the same characters. Crais decided to change it up a bit by using a female detective from the bomb squad that has quite the unusual persona. I don't blame Crais for this change, and don't feel that this story was a bad one; it just wasn't a good one. It was just another thriller like many others.

I liked the new Carol Starkey character and the newly introduced surrounding group (Chen being the same CSI as in the Elvis Cole stories) has some potential. Many of the critics of this book said that Carol was one dimensional, but I disagree. They are comparing her (one book) with Elvis (several books). We know much more about Elvis and we love that character. Comparing them is not possible at this stage. I like the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike duo, but I've known them for years and through many escapades. And yes, I like them better then the Starkey character at this point. But that wasn't what I thought was average in this book. I didn't like her relationship with the one dimensional character of Jack Pell. It fell flat for me. The build up of the surrounding group was not enough either. Even Mr. Red was very boring as a bad guy. So I'm not blaming the Carol Starkey character, but instead I'm blaming the non development of the rest of the cast.

Additionally, the story was sort of formulaic. While I can laugh at Cole/Pike in an average story, these characters do not pick up that slack.

It's a good quick read for a beach chair or a lazy fall evening, but it's nothing that I'm going to remember past the next book.

Anyone who has ever watched technicians disarming a bomb on television has probably felt gripping tension and possibly even fear. Few do not empathize with those brave people who approach bombs to make life safer for all of us. Demolition Angel is an intense exploration of the emotions and perspectives of those on the bomb squads and the warped people who make and plant these bombs. Robert Crais has succeeded in taking the reader inside the heads of those who live in a world that we would not otherwise enter and understand. Unfortunately, the book wallows in a crudity that will make you feel dirty by the time you finish reading it. I'm not sure that all of this crudity and ugliness was necessary to tell the story, and have graded the book down accordingly.
The book centers around Carol Starkey who is now a Detective-2 with the L.A.P.D.'s Criminal Conspiracy Section, who investigates bombings. Three years earlier she had been on the bomb squad. While defusing a bomb, she was severely injured and lost the man she loved. She has been trying to keep her life together since then, but has just been keeping her head above water. She smokes like a chimney, is drunk most of the time, and lives in a filthy house with no groceries. Her main connection to other people is through her shrink.
At this moment, a new explosion takes another bomb technician's life, and Starkey is in charge of the investigation. Soon, she is jockeying to keep the ATF from taking the case away from her. All the clues point to the bomber being a maniac who calls himself, Mr. Red.
The story is told from Carol Starkey's perspective and from that of the bombers you will meet in the story. The interactions are especially revealing.
The book contains a good mystery, and you will enjoy it. The character development is the thing. I was impressed that Mr. Crais could handle those who are permanently damaged by the evil and the misfortune they encounter so well. In L.A. Requiem, the evil was sublimated into incredible goodness in Joe Pike. This book is more realistic, I think.
After you finish enjoying the suspense, I suggest that you think about others who do dangerous jobs. What might their motives be? What benefits do they gain from doing their work? Why do they see the danger as worthwhile?
Challenge yourself to accomplish more than you think you can . . . and in ways that develop your character and your connection to others!

In Demolition Angel, Robert Crais tells the story of Carol Starkey, the LAPD bomb tech who was killed when an earthquake occurred while she was on a bomb call and was brought back to life. I first met Carol Starkey when I read The Forgotten Man and have kind of worked my way back in the series to learn her story.

Robert Crais is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. I enjoy the seamless way he blends the personal lives of his characters with their professional lives and appreciate the way that he makes me care about them and want to know more about them. In this book, three years after Carol Starkey was brought back to life, she is still trying to put her life together, trying to deal with her death and resurrection and the lasting death of her partner and lover. Now a detective in the Criminal Conspiracy Department of the LAPD, she is the lead on another case involving a detonation that kills another bomb squad detective.

I found this book impossible to put down. Not only is it a great police procedural, but it's a terrific detective story as well. Starkey is a complex character, on the surface hard to like, but underneath you recognize her devotion to protecting the people she serves, and her own vulnerabilities. This is an excellent addition to my Robert Crais library, one I will probably enjoy reading over and over again.

Having recently read a few run-of-the-mill cookie-cutter thrillers, the first things that struck me about "Demolition Angel" is that Crais is one of the more gifted prose stylists working in the mystery/thriller genre. Sure, he doesn't have the linguistic dexterity of a Nabokov or the insight into character of a Trollope, but I did not find myself constantly tripping over his sentences, and that is surely something.
"Demolition Angel" features a heroine who is pretty far removed from his usual protagonist, Elvis Cole (a fact which has infuriated some of the reviewers who post here, quite unfairly I think; what could be more unfair than criticizing a writer for wanting to do something new?). This time we get the hard-boiled, hard-drinking, hard-luck case Carol Starkey, former bomb squad technician who lost her boyfriend, also a bomb squad tech, and suffered physical and emotional scarring when a routine disarming turned into a freak accident. Three years later, Starkey is drowning her sorrows in gin while still working the bomb beat, now as an investigator. Things get interesting when a bomb tech is killed during a blast which appears to be the work of a serial bomber who calls himself Mr. Red. Enter an attractive ATF agent for whom Starkey has conflicted feelings, and you've got yourself a novel.
All of which is fine and fun, but we are, of course, firmly in Genre-Convention Land here. Mr. Red loves to leave clues for the investigators and develops a pathological attachment to Starkey, half erotic half murderous. Starkey, meanwhile, is trying to beat down her own demons and solve this case that she might redeem herself. Crais's gift, demonstrated slightly more effectively in "LA Requiem," is to pen stories so compelling that the reader doesn't even notice the problems until the ride is over. In "Demolition Angel" the major problem is the clichéd plot and characters, leaving the reader with the feeling that he or she has been down this road many, many times before. Sure it makes for a fine entertainment, but I believe that Crais has the talent to do better than this, if only he is willing to think outside the box of generic convention. He has tried to push himself with this book and I hope he will go even further with the next.

L.A. Detective Carol Starkey is damaged goods. The former bomb-squad technician is descending into a vortex of alcohol, cigarettes, and guilt; all the result of a bomb that went off -- literally -- in her face. The resulting explosion scarred her severely, killed her partner (who'd protected her at the cost of his own life), and simultaneously ended the most meaningful romantic relationship she'd ever had.

Teetering on edge of a mandatory visit to the Police equivalent of a psych ward, another bomb changes everything. A sinister device discovered in a parking lot takes the life of another of her former partners, bomb-squad tech Bill Roggio. Starkey's expertise is needed because the device had the unique hallmarks of a dreaded serial bomber, known only as "Mr. Red."

When the ATF shows up, Starkey becomes their liaison to the L.A. Police Department. And her exceptional skills at sniffing out clues leads to the first major break in the case: the explosive mixture included a rare compound called RDX, access to which is limited to the U.S. military.

Crais has created a mind-twisting, compelling novel that you can't second-guess. Nothing is as it seems and the masterful plot twists are impossible to predict. Mr. Red is the bomb-squad equivalent of Hannibal Lecter: highly intelligent, completely psychopathic, and deadlier than a rattlesnake. And Starkey is a tough, human heroine trying desperately to veer back onto the road to redemption. But she hits an unexpected pothole when Red shows up: her life will never be the same.

This genre is teeming with novelists and lead characters that (for me, anyway) begin to blend together. With DEMOLITION ANGEL, Robert Crais has introduced a heroine who stands out from the pack.

Carol Starkey is a former bomb squad technician, currently assigned to another division where the demons of her past, and the gin she guzzles in the attempt to outrun, them will probably lead to her demise less spectacularly than clipping the wrong wire. She is physically scarred and mentally wounded, as the result of an incident three years past where she lost her partner, who was also her lover, and a great deal of her zest for life. When another technician is killed under similar circumstances, she catches the case and is catapulted back into an arena she would just as soon avoid, especially when clues arise that indicate the same culprit is responsible. Enter Jack Pell, an ATF agent from Washington who has pursued the mad bomber throughout the country, but has a reticence about him indicating he has issues of his own. Gradually, the two investigators form a tenuous working arrangement to unmask the elusive Mr. Red.

A very fast read, DEMOLITION ANGEL is a decent story marred by what appears to be a rushed conclusion. A number of characters, and most specifically Mr. Red, are a little too generic to this category, but the creation of Starkey still makes this hard-boiled book a worthwhile endeavor for the reader.

Perhaps physically and emotionally traumatized female police officers are the new rage in crime fiction. Recently, I read FLINT starring Scotland Yard Inspector Grace Flint, rehabilitating on the job after a horrific beating. Now, in DEMOLITION ANGEL, we have Carol Starkey, an LAPD detective assigned to head the investigation into the killing of a department bomb disposal technician. Carol used to be one of those herself until she was killed along with her partner-lover by a device that went boom. Paramedics brought her back to life, but not her colleague. Now she subsists on gin, cigarettes, Tagamet and psychotherapy, bears terrible mid-body scars, and carries a chip on her shoulder so big it looks like a cross.
The book begins with the death of Charlie Riggio as he peers into a bag containing a sophisticated pipe bomb. Reconstruction of the device afterwards points to a serial killer named "Mr. Red", whose profession is assassination by demolition, and whose hobby is bushwhacking bomb disposal experts. Trouble is, Mr. Red, John Michael Fowles, is introduced to the reader almost from the start, and he didn't do it. So who did? And what is Jack Pell's interest? Jack is down from the Fed's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, suffers debilitating headaches, and is carrying some pretty heavy baggage of his own.
DEMOLITION ANGEL is a page-turner from the very first detonation. Starkey, like Grace of FLINT, is an intriguing persona, though significantly more hard-edged than the latter. And author Robert Crais provides enough plot twists to keep things interesting. However, I can't bring myself to award 5 stars for a couple reasons. First, blast survivor Carol is so self-pitying and self-destructive that her evolving relationship with Pell is a plot device that seems a bit forced. Perhaps Crais would have been better advised to carry the two over into a second novel and let things simmer a bit. Secondly, though obviously not the sort you'd want marrying your only daughter, Mr. Red never achieves that level of psychopathic evil worthy of an Anthony Hopkins role in the film version. At times, Fowles seems not much more than a mischievous prankster.
DEMOLITION ANGEL is the perfect thriller for taking on that otherwise interminable plane flight, or aboard the cruise ship for those slow moments between buffets.

She was a bomb squad technician who enjoyed her work. She loved and was loved by her beau David "Sugar" Boudreaux. While working together to disarm a bomb, an earthquake struck setting off the mechanism. Sugar died and Carol Starkey was severely injured and badly disfigured.

Three years have passed since that fatal accident. Starkey left the bomb squad to work for the Los Angeles Police Department's Criminal Conspiracy Section as a detective. She smokes and drinks way too much, even imbibing while on the job.

Her latest case involves a bomb squad technician who was killed while trying to disable an explosive device. Although the case brings its own trauma to Carol, she is determined to catch the perpetrator who killed one of LAPD's own. ATF Special Agent Jack Pell also wants the culprit stopped because he recognizes the MO and pushes his way into the investigation over Carol's objection. Still they work together to try and capture a bomber. Their hunt leads to a deadly cat and mouse game between the perp and Carol.

Robert Crais, author of the best-selling Elvis Cole/Joe Pike crime series, has written a stand-alone novel that is filled with force, surprises, and shockers. The audience will empathize with the lead protagonist, who remains likable even as she suffers from mental and physical scars. Carol is a fighter surmounting one obstacle after another. DEMOLITION ANGEL is a notable work that deserves fan attention to encourage Mr. Crais to write more Starkey stories.

Harriet Klausner

This gripping novel about emotionally and physically scarred former Bomb Squad ace, Carol Starkey, who remains a detective in the LAPD after recovering from a fatal explosion that killed her lover and she herself (before being revived), but is carrying a ton of haunted survivor's guilt, shame, psychic damage and a nasty drinking habit, is top notch from beginning to end.

An insidious serial bomber who when not executing professional devastation and murder for hire enjoys blowing up police demolition experts for fun and to get himself on the FBI top Ten Most Wanted list, has killed a bomb tech in LA and Carol gets the case. Naturally, this is going to open unhealed wounds and memories and put her in harm's way while creating doubts as to her fitness with her superiors. Also into the scene comes an ATF agent tracking the bomber, Mr. Red, with problems and baggage of his own.

Crais keeps the suspense high and this tale takes many twists and turns on the way to a very satisfactory finale. Carol Starkey has appeared in the last 2 Elvis Cole novels and she is a complex, flawed and interesting character. This is her story and it is a pip. Well worthwhile.

DEMOLITION ANGEL was written by Robert Crais in 2000, and was his first novel not to feature the private detective Elvis Cole. Instead, this novel is about a LAPD bomb expert, Carol Starkey, and her investigation of a serial killer who uses explosives to kill his victims.

This book is smoothly written and well plotted. Overall, though, I was somewhat disappointed with DEMOLITION ANGEL. The characterization is rather thin, and Starkey is a very difficult character to like. Many of the supporting characters are barely fleshed out. The romance between two characters is underdeveloped and unconvincing (how did these characters fall in love exactly?). I also found the climax to be a little over-the-top in its execution. In many ways, this book reminded me of a big action movie: it's well paced and exciting, but very little of it is truly memorable.

Crais is a top-notch crime writer, and I have really enjoyed some of his other efforts, most notably THE TWO MINUTE RULE. My advice is to start with that novel first, and then try some of his Elvis Cole novels, which are first rate.

OK -- I'm another reviewer wishing this was an Elvis Cole book and immediately disliking Crais' female protagonist Carol Starkey right from the beginning. She's adversarial and has more demons of her own than she knows what to do with. Somewhere, midway through the book, she becomes more vulnerable and consequently more likeable to this reader. Carol Starky is with the bomb squad in LA when she and her partner/lover are victims of a bomb blast that kills him and puts Carol in the hospital for 54 days. Now, 3 years later, she is a bomb investigator and is investigating the death by bomb of another friend and bomb squad technician. Her mind is very keen as she unravels one clue after another amazing the reader page after page. Everyone thinks that this bomb has been planted by a serial bomb-for-hire specialist, Mr. Red. Carol is not so sure about this and sets out to find out if Mr. Red is involved. While she is investigating him, he becomes fascinated by Carol which could turn up deadly for her. My one complaint about this book is that Crais never gives you a description of Carol until after page 200 where he tells you that she is tall and athletic -- nothing more. Other than that, your guess is as good as mine. So even though this isn't another Elvis Cole masterpiece by Crais, he does prove once again that if you're a great author, it doesn't matter who your main character is.

This was written before The Hostage, which I read first, my first time reading Mr. Crais. I loved The Hostage, it was so fast paced, so I thought I would read some of his other novels. This started off slower than Hostage, not grabbing you quickly, but the more you get into it the better it gets. The characters are believable. Readers cannot help but feel empathy with the main character, Carol Starkey, detective and bomb expert, who lost her life briefly but was revived after a terrible blast which also took the life of her lover. This story begins 3 years after that fact. She is still having trouble dealing with it, still undergoing therapy, and surviving on gin, cigarettes and Tagamet. Yet, her mind is sharp and her experience invaluable in seeking the answers to what happened and who is responsible when another of her close associates is killed in yet another blast. Her involvement with agent Jack Pell, in trying to solve the case and catch Mr. Red, the presumed bad guy, draws them closer together, which creates havoc for each of them emotionally, as they each have baggage to deal with and don�t know how to do so. The plot twists are page-turners and keeps the reader involved and on the edge of your seat after the first few chapters. I had trouble putting this book down for the last third of it. The internet dialogue between Carol and Mr. Red, is riveting, and the climax very intense. I do recommend this book if you are a fan of crime drama and suspense.

With this book, Robert Crais stretches his fiction-writing muscles even further. Fans of his Elvis Cole series already know Crais' ability to write suspenseful, smart mysteries in the private eye genre. "Demolition Angel" shows he can make it work with a fast-paced police procedural.
"Angel" is gripping from the start- a volcanic prologue and opening that offers a glimpse of our flawed hero, Starkey: cigarettes, Tagamet, gin and all. Anyone might crack under the pressure of the danger and tragedy she's lived, and by the job she must do- stop a mad bomber named Mr. Red who takes personal satisfaction in killing cops.
As in Crais' breakthrough novel, "L.A. Requiem," much more territory is explored here than in an average mystery/suspense novel; the protagonists are complex and flawed, working at cross purposes with one another, becoming personally involved with the case and each other. All this leads to a jarring climax that will leave the reader amazed and ready for Crais' next work, be it a stand-alone like this or more Elvis Cole.
I certainly am. This one won't disappoint.