The world of human smuggling, the trading of human lives and the dehumanizing of those victims represents the background for Robert Crais's new book. While I found the background story to be worthy, I was left wondering what happened to rest of the story. The book was written with each of the character groupings telling their own story. It was a process of jumping back and forth in the sequencing of the plot and at times it was hard to follow. It was almost as if the novel was written for television.

I guess the character of Elvis Cole that I learned to enjoy from The Monkey's Raincoat and LA Requiem is no longer to be found. This wasn't an Elvis Cole novel but a combination of Joe Pike and other characters that had equal importance in the novel. I will admit that I do not like the character of Joe Pike. I find that character to be cartoonish and one dimensional so I am sure that that has influenced my feelings for the book.

So if you like Joe Pike with all of his super human tracking, fighting and general mayhem abilities then you will like this book. However, if you are wanting a return to the Elvis Cole of earlier novels, then this book will disappoint you.