Plot Summary
Suspect will keep you on your toes throughout the whole story line. This thriller is packed with surprising twists that makes it among the best of modern crime fiction.
LAPD's Scott James is one of the easy-going guys on the force, until he and his partner Stephanie stumble upon a violent incident, and she doesn't make it out alive. The experience changes Scott from a likeable guy into an angry, unpredictable person; a bad combination for a cop.
Scott is assigned a new partner who has seen her bad days too. Three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan have scarred her emotionally after watching her own partner die from an explosive. The new partner, Maggie, is a highly trained German Shepherd and they find they understand each other.
As Scott and Maggie start on the quest to find Stephanie's killer, they find things they didn't expect, not only about the case but about themselves as well. The road is a long and arduous journey, both emotionally and physically. The story is full of twists and turns and nothing turns out as expected.
Author Robert Crais started his writing career in the television business, and branched out into novels with his well-known series featuring character Elvis Cole, a Los Angeles private investigator. He has had many offers to make the series into a movie or television show, but he has chosen to keep these books in print and audio form only. Hostage, published in 2001, was the only book adapted for a movie which starred Bruce Willis. Crais continues to focus on writing psychological thrillers that involve men and women of the police department.
"What the heck kind of review do you write when one of the book's main characters is a German Shepherd named Maggie? When I got about a quarter through Suspect, I realized it didn't matter. I was HOOKED. This is Crais at his best, and what I've come to expect from the master story-teller that he is. I was spellbound and captivated by not only the story but the characters' depth, loyalty and failings, all of which make for a page-turner that I'll be reading again and again - not only for entertainment but to continue learning from an author who, in my opinion, is one of the best there is. I simply can't say enough."
—
Terri (5 out of 5 stars)
Publisher Summary
For twenty-five years, Robert Crais has written extraordinary novels of crime and suspense. He is “a master of crime fiction” (Associated Press); “his novels get better with every new book” (Portland Oregonian); “Crais is hands-down the world’s greatest crime writer” (The Huffington Post).
But in Suspect, he may have written his most remarkable novel of all.
LAPD cop Scott James is not doing so well, not since a shocking nighttime assault by unidentified men killed his partner Stephanie, nearly killed him, and left him enraged, ashamed, and ready to explode. He is unfit for duty—until he meets his new partner.
Maggie is not doing so well, either. The German shepherd survived three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan sniffing explosives before she lost her handler to an IED and sniper attack, and her PTSD is as bad as Scott’s.
They are each other’s last chance. He was a young cop on the rise, she was bred to guard and protect. Now they are shunned and shunted to the side. They are suspect. And together they will set out to investigate the one case that no one wants them to touch: the identity of the men who murdered Stephanie.
Nine months and sixteen days later, they remained free. They were still out there.
What they begin to find is nothing like what Scott has been told, and where it will lead them will take them both through the darkest moments of their own personal hells. Whether they will make it out again, no one can say.
Thrilling, emotional, intense, with some of the best characters and well-crafted writing in all of crime fiction, Suspect is further proof that “Crais just keeps getting better” (Publishers Weekly).
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About Robert Crais
Robert Crais is an American author of numerous New York Times bestsellers, including Taken, which debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. He received the Ross Macdonald Literary Award in 2006, The Eye—Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, and the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award in 2014. He has written for such acclaimed television shows as L.A. Law, Cagney and Lacey, Miami Vice, and Hill Street Blues. A film adaptation of his novel Hostage was released in 2005, starring Bruce Willis as ex-LAPD SWAT negotiator Jeff Talley.
About MacLeod Andrews
MacLeod Andrews is an actor, voice actor, and Earphones Award–winning audiobook narrator who earned the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2018. He has starred in a number of independent short and feature films and is a member of the Rising Phoenix Repertory Company in New York City.