Traci Beller was 13 when her father — co-owner of a heating and air conditioning company — went out on some service calls and never returned home. The police, who found no trace of him, concluded that he had simply abandoned his family.
The family then turned to Jessica Byers, a Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office investigator turned private eye — and a darned good one. But she also turned up nothing.
Ten years later, the missing man has been officially declared dead, but Traci, now a known as “the muffin girl,” a celebrity chef with a huge following, never believed her sweet daddy had walked out on her without a word. The people managing her career urge Traci to let it go and get on with her life — but she can’t. Instead, she turns to Elvis Cole, the self-declared world’s greatest detective.
So begins “The Big Empty,” Robert Crais’ 20th novel featuring Cole and his partner, Joe Pike.
After warning Traci that his chances of finding something the police and Byers overlooked is extremely small, Cole begins by chatting up the people at the SurfMutt, a burger joint in the little desert town of Rancha, Calif., where the missing man was last seen.
Before long, he begins to suspect that Traci’s father wasn’t the sweet daddy that she remembers. As he digs deeper, local thugs start tailing him, he gets jumped and severely beaten, and potential witnesses turn up dead.
With Pike, an ex-Marine, arriving to provide backup, the partners gradually unravel a long-hidden, deeply disturbing conspiracy that explains why Traci’s daddy never came home. But just when it appears the case is resolved, the author introduces a startling twist that leads to a violent conclusion.
As always, Cole spices the action with wryly humorous observations, Pike is an irresistible force and Crais’ clear, precise prose makes reading as easy as breathing.
Crais has helped keep the classic tradition of the hardboiled Los Angeles private detective alive with this fine series, and his new novel may well be his finest yet.
DeSilva, winner of the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award, is the author of the Mulligan crime novels including “The Dread Line.” He also reviews books for The Associated Press.
