The First Rule

An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel, Book 13

By: Robert Crais

Narrated by: Robert Crais

Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Joe Pike and his partner Elvis Cole must solve the murder of an old friend and his entire family in this gripping thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Robert Crais.

When Frank Meyer and his family are executed during a home invasion, the police begin investigating the secret life they're sure Meyer had. Joe Pike's on a hunt of his own: to clear his friend's name, and to punish the people who murdered him. What starts out as a simple trail gets twisted fast by old grudges, double crosses, blood vengeance, and a crime so terrible even Pike and his partner Elvis Cole have no way to measure it.

Investigate another case with Elvis Cole and Joe Pike.

©2010 Robert Crais (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Crais best novel yet!

Great story and drama. Well read by Robert Crais. I have listened to or read almost all of his novels.

First rule

I enjoyed the book. It’s well performed by the narrator! It’s an interesting story and was well performed!

One of the Best

Great action, story and narration. One of Crais' best. Got to love Joe Pike. I especially like the Elvis Cole books when Elvis, Jon, and Joe are in them together. I'm retired law enforcement and I'm hooked on this series.

Not Elvis but a good listen

Long time reader/listener of Crais. Big fan of Elvis Cole. This is second to feature sidekick Joe Pike. Missing the humour & humanity from the Elvis Cole books. My opinion Pike is better supporting character than feature. Crais as narrator neither hurt nor helped. That being said I still enjoyed this.

Great to spend time with Joe Pike again

I wasn't sure what to expect when I realized that Robert Crais would be narrating his own book because, while an author knows his or her own story best, this doesn't always translate into a sublime listening experience. In any case, Mr. Crais is a wonderful narrator and brought this story, focused on Joe Pike, to life. The book is a welcome "read": good characters, lots of unexpected twists and plenty of action.

More, please

My first book of this author. It took a little while to get used to his narration, but I loved the story and the narration as it went very well together. Have tried other of his books afterwards, but story nor narration in those have been as masterly done as in this book.

Good but not great

Good audio book but not in the clase of Daniel DaSilva, Vince Flynn or any of the other fast paced books. It was good but not one that that compellled me to go or a drive to keep listening to it.

The First Rule

Great Pike and Cole audio book!! I have listened to it many times. Fun to hear author's voice but he does need to work on his accents (smile).

Every gun in the world

First, allow me to say that I liked this book in spite of a number of flaws. I thought I would be getting some keen insight into the Russian Mafia, however the bad guys turned out to be Serbian, not Russian. And they were pretty secondary to the book. They just provided canon fodder for the Hero Joe Pike. Joe Pike was a great hero though. In many books the hero is presented as incredibly tough, but ends up being pathetically week. This guy is a real Jack Bauer (24) type. And what an array of guns he carries. If the author wanted to show his knowledge of all guns in the world, he dropped his entire amount of knowledge in this book. But that was OK too. I like guns and he had all the ones I like and he wasn't afraid to use them. The plot had very little twist to it, but still, I liked the book despite all these flaws. It had plenty of action that kept on coming.

So damn good. Best in series?

Real humanity plus an intelligent intricate block and Pike not just one dimensional. Love it. Crais did great as an author too. For one thing he didn’t use that ridiculous super deep monotone growl for Pike.