Taken

An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel, Book 15

By: Robert Crais

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

The search for a missing girl leads private investigators Elvis Cole and Joe Pike into the nightmarish world of human trafficking in this #1 New York Times bestseller from Robert Crais.

When Nita Morales hires Elvis Cole to find her missing daughter, she's sure it's a ruse orchestrated by the girl and her boyfriend. She's wrong. They've been taken by bajadores - border bandits who prey on the innocent by buying, selling, and disposing of victims like commodities.

Cole and Joe Pike start an undercover investigation to find the couple, but their plan derails when Cole disappears, leaving Pike to burn through the murderous world of human traffickers to find his friend as well as the missing young people. But he may already be too late...

"Luke Daniels doesn't just narrate Robert Crais's latest novel featuring Elvis Cole and Joe Pike - he transports us to the terrifying world of human trafficking, which Cole must infiltrate in order to find a client's missing daughter."--Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

Investigate another case with Elvis Cole and Joe Pike.

©2012 Robert Crais (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Good story

This is a good story and the performer is good too, but his voice for Pike was kinda creepy.

Another Enjoyable Cole and Pike novel

I have been reading the Cole/Pike series for years and greatly enjoy it. This one was right up there with the others. I found it interesting how it was told in a timeline of before and after Cole was taken by the "bad guys". Cole is a lot of fun, love his irreverant sense of humor. Pike is an interesting character who I would love to see more about.

The story was interesting and kept my attention while listening. You know that ultimately Pike will rescue Cole but you don't know what will happen to the characters who were taken.

It also makes you think about the struggles faced by people who try to come to the US illegally.

Good enjoyable story.

love this series

Any additional comments?

My only complaint about Crais' books is that they are too short! This one was a page turner. I listened all the way through the night and was disappointed when it ended because I wanted more.

Taken by Storm

Would you consider the audio edition of Taken to be better than the print version?

Don't know

What other book might you compare Taken to and why?

Other Crais books

What about Luke Daniels’s performance did you like?

Very clear and realistic

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Pike pulling the Jiminy Cricket out of his pocket.

Witty Detective - or tries to be.

What did you love best about Taken?

Good story.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Joe Pike - no nonsense tough partner.

What does Luke Daniels bring to the story that you wouldn???t experience if you just read the book?

He brings out the characters traits really well.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It was hard to put down. You were kept on the edge of your seat hoping the kids would be rescued safely.

Any additional comments?

If you like

Good thriller, but I miss the mystery

Excellent thriller by Crais. I do miss his original style though, which was more detecting, more mystery.

In his thrillers Crais uses everything in his power to ratchet up the suspense-- flash-forwards, flashbacks, foreshadowing. In this book for example every chapter starts with a countdown to the moment when Elvis Cole himself is kidnapped (so it's not a spoiler that the publisher mentions this event in the book's teaser.) The story alternates between the points of view of Elvis, Joe, some kidnap victims, and others, and it's all designed to keep the plot at a high boil. It's all extremely effective, as usual.

The downside for me is that whenever Crais has a choice between tension and mystery, he goes straight for tension. There is a fair amount of detecting done by the heroes, but most of the time we already know what happened. While it's still interesting to see how Elvis and Pike manage against the odds to connect the dots, this is not structured like a mystery story.

(There were also a character that I thought was going to play a significant role in the denouement, and was instead became merely a witness. Not sure if this was a red herring or if Crais was setting up that character to appear in a future book.)

Crais is really good at keeping the tension up for insanely long stretches, and I am still a big fan of his writing, and of Elvis and Joe. But I hope he occasionally takes a break from trying to top himself in stakes, tension, and body count, and remembers Elvis Cole's roots.

It took me a while to get used to this narrator, but he's perfectly fine. I can't put my finger on what I'd change about the reading. Maybe it's just the usual problem of hearing someone else's voice doing characters I've only heard in my head for so many years.

good read

Would you consider the audio edition of Taken to be better than the print version?

the audio version meets my needs. i can no longer read for long periods of time as i once could and the audio also allows me to multitask.....browse, garden,drive etc.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Taken?

i cannot remember one particular moment in retrospect the story has good continuity and Joe and Elvis work it out.

Which character – as performed by Luke Daniels – was your favorite?

I like elvis best as the story teller and combined with joe as the action maker to back him up.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

this subject matter is everyday news and is sad commentary on todays lifestyle.

Any additional comments?

i have read all of the books in this series and they all entertain and enlighten.

Exciting & Complex. More, please!

This is a complex, fast moving and exceptionally well constructed story with two legendary characters. The evil of the bad guys (bajadores -- criminals who prey on other criminals) and terror of the kidnapped comes through vividly. Crais presents a wide range of interesting characters that one must either hate or love - there is no middle ground. I found myself developing genuine concern for the main kidnapped characters, Krista Morales and her boyfriend Jack Berman. The addition of Jack's aunt - an ATF bigwig was a great stroke of genius, adding an extra layer of interest and tension to the story. Human trafficking, kidnapping, and a "good guy" organized gang of Korean killers - it all works! Only Crais could weave this together in such a masterful way. It was great to get more of Joe Pike in Taken versus most other novels from the series. In fact one could argue that Joe is the main character this time. (The Pike character, however, is too one dimensional to carry a story on his own. The story must be built around him, as Taken seems to be. Pike is the solution not the suspense.) The narrative bounces back and forth in time quite a bit, especially at the beginning, and switches narrative perspective a few times. I'm not sure this technique was necessary and it makes it a bit difficult to follow as an audiobook - I was probably 90 minutes into the audio before I developed a sense of what the book was about and knew enough to follow the story without long pauses and rewinding.

Awesome Author

What did you love best about Taken?

Robert Crais writes the most interesting books, I am never bored listening to all the books I've downloaded from his series. They make my day at boring work go by really fast!

Classic Cole and Pike

I love this series , it is fantastic to learn the characters and to grow with them . This book is up there with the best of the series , not the best but up there.