Demolition Angel

Penzler Pick, May 2000: Like many authors with ongoing characters, Robert Crais has taken a break from his famous private eye. After eight novels featuring Elvis Cole and his loyal sidekick Joe Pike, Crais has created Carol Starkey, a bomb squad veteran now doing time as a Detective-2 with LAPD's Criminal Conspiracy Section. Three years have passed since the detonation that killed Carol's partner and lover, but she is still severely scarred both mentally and physically. She can't bear to look in the mirror, and she hasn't been with another man since David Boudreaux left her bed that last morning he went to work. She gets through the day with the help of Tagamet and alcohol. When a bomb call takes the life of another colleague, Carol begins to investigate a series of explosions that seem to be designed to exterminate bomb technicians. She soon realizes that she's "the one that got away." With the help of an FBI agent whom she loathes professionally for interfering with her job but finds attractive anyway, Carol must track down one of the most frighteningly brilliant killers of the modern age. This edgy thriller's protagonist is one that the reader at first may have difficulty liking, but she's got a background and history that make her truly three-dimensional. One hopes that Crais, one of the handful of young crime writers capable of writing consistently luminous prose, will continue to give us characters like Carol Starkey to star in his always powerful portraits of modern-day Los Angeles. --Otto Penzler From Publishers Weekly Acclaimed for his Elvis Cole mystery series (L.A. Requiem, etc.), Crais deserves further garlands for this stand-alone crime novel. The book features one of the most complex heroines to grace a thriller since Clarice Starling locked eyes with Hannibal Lecter, a deliciously spooky villain in the person of a mad bomber known as Mr. Red, and an aggressively involving plot. Carol Starkey was a rising light in the LAPD Bomb Squad until, two years back, a bomb blew up in her face, maiming her and killing her lover/partner. Now Carol's a bitter, chain-smoking alcoholic with the LAPD's Criminal Conspiracy Section, who gets drawn into a literally explosive conspiracy when a bomb kills Charlie Riggio, one of her former bomb squad colleagues. Forensic evidence points toward the bomb being the work of John Michael Fowles, aka Mr. Red, a coldhearted young bomber-assassin-for-hire and master of disguise. Much of the narrative concerns Carol's pursuit of him, most excitingly on the Net through a secret mad-bombers' site, aided by a saturnine federal (ATF) agent, Jack Pell. Intercut are scenes of Mr. Red's various mad plottings, which take a hairpin turn when he learns that the cops think he killed Riggio: for in fact he didn't. That murder pans out as a copycat crime for personal gain, and now Carol must pursue both Riggio's killer and Mr. Red, who in turn has taken an intimate interest in this bomb-savvy female cop. The subsequent pas de deux between Carol and Mr. Red is too reminiscent of the dance between Starling and Lecter, but otherwise this novel gets high marks for originality, and even higher ones for suspense and, above all, for multidimensional, wounded characters who give all the excitement a rare depth. BOMC and Literary Guild featured selection; Mystery Guild main selection; author tour; film rights sold to Columbia/Tri-Star. (May) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal After seven successful novels featuring Los Angeles PI Elvis Cole, Crais made a secondary character the star of his eighth (L.A. Requiem, LJ 6/1/99). In his latest, he changes even more, dropping the male PI for a female police officer. Carol Starkey, an LAPD bomb-squad technician who nearly died in a blast three years earlier, is emotionally burned out. When a partner is killed by a bomb in what Starkey realizes is an assassination, she finds herself caught up in a deadly game with a serial bomber who targets individuals--including her. Working against colleagues and procedures, and helped by an ATF official who is not what he seems, Starkey pulls us into the surreal world of those who love explosives. Fast paced, authentic, well written, and combining suspense and police procedural, this tale features a tough heroine who should win a whole new audience for Crais. Highly recommended.--. -Roland Person, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist Los Angeles police detective Carol Starkey survived the blast that killed her lover and bomb-squad partner David Boudreaux three years ago. The scars remain--too much booze, too many cigarettes, as many therapists as other people have shoes--but Starkey is back on the force when bomb squader Charlie Ruggio is blown apart. With the assistance of an edgy federal ATF agent named Pell, Starkey initially ascribes the blast to the infamous Mr. Red, the "nom de boom" of an egotistical explosion freak. After Pell introduces Starkey to the frightening online world through which Mr. Red shares gossip and explosive devices with domestic terrorists and the morbidly curious, Sharkey makes e-mail contact with Red, who claims that he didn't kill Ruggio and is upset that someone placed his signature on the bomb. A race is on between Red and Starkey to identify the real killer. Author Crais, best-known for his Elvis Cole novels, is clearly not limited by the parameters of a series hero. Carol Starkey is a very different character than Cole but equally compelling. Those who reach out to Starkey are frustrated by bitterness, self-pity, substance abuse, and emotional distance. Yet she understands that unless she takes control of her life, she will have been defeated by the same dark impulses that led to the death of her lover. Crais has set a serious exploration of personal regeneration in the context of a crime novel, and he is successful on both levels. Wes Lukowsky "Robert Crais...should be mentioned in the same breath as Robert B. Parker, Tony Hillerman, Sue Grafton, and James Lee Burke."- Houston Chronicle Praise for L.A. Requiem :"[ L.A. Requiem ] manages at once to be a riveting serial-killer tale, a convincing revenge scenario, an engrossing police procedural, an affecting love story, and a tense action thriller."-- The Wall Street Journal "One of the best crime novels I've ever read. Absolutely terrific!"--David Baldacci"Crais has crafted a full-bodied novel that explores such topics as honor and friendship and justice and love, that brings its protagonists to a new point of self-awareness...xa0xa0and provides the kind of puzzle plot that sends mystery fans into paroxysms of joy."-- Los Angeles Times " L.A. Requiem is a powerful portrait of Los Angeles in our time: swift, colorful, gripping, a real knockout."--Dean Koontz"Darker, denser, deeper, and more satisfying than anything he's written before."-- Denver Post From the Inside Flap t unforgettable female lead character since Clarice Starling, Demolition Angel is a blistering stand-alone thriller from the freshest bestselling voice in crime fiction.Carol Starkey is struggling to pick up the pieces of her former life as L.A.'s finest bomb squad technician.xa0xa0Fueled with liberal doses of alcohol and Tagamet, she's doing time as a Detective-2 with LAPD's Criminal Conspiracy Section.xa0xa0Three years have passed since the event that haunts her--a detonation that killed her partner and lover, David "Sugar" Boudreaux.xa0xa0Fragments from the same explosion sliced through Starkey's protective Kevlar, scarred her beyond repair, and left her outside looking in at the life she left behind.xa0xa0Now she can't bear her reflection in the mirror, and hasn't been with another man since Sugar left her bed the morning they rolled out to the bomb site.When a seemingly innocuous bomb call turns into a devastating murder s "Robert Crais...should be mentioned in the same breath as Robert B. Parker, Tony Hillerman, Sue Grafton, and James Lee Burke."- Houston Chronicle Praise for L.A. Requiem :"[ L.A. Requiem ] manages at once to be a riveting serial-killer tale, a convincing revenge scenario, an engrossing police procedural, an affecting love story, and a tense action thriller."-- The Wall Street Journal "One of the best crime novels I've ever read. Absolutely terrific!"--David Baldacci"Crais has crafted a full-bodied novel that explores such topics as honor and friendship and justice and love, that brings its protagonists to a new point of self-awareness... and provides the kind of puzzle plot that sends mystery fans into paroxysms of joy."-- Los Angeles Times " L.A. Requiem is a powerful portrait of Los Angeles in our time: swift, colorful, gripping, a real knockout."--Dean Koontz"Darker, denser, deeper, and more satisfying than anything he's written before."-- Denver Post Robert Crais is the author of nine previous novels, including the bestselling and Edgar-nominated L.A. Requiem .xa0xa0In addition to his previous award-winning books, Crais has written for such acclaimed television shows as L.A. Law and Hill Street Blues. He lives in Los Angeles.xa0xa0Demolition Angel has been purchased by Columbia/TriStar and producer Laurence Mark (Jerry Maguire, As Good As It Gets), and is being developed as a major motion picture. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. PROLOGUE To be disrupted: when the human body is blown apart; as by the pressure force of a bomb. —Gradwohl’s Legal MedicineCode Three Roll Out Bomb Squad Silver Lake, CaliforniaCharlie Riggio stared at the cardboard box sitting beside the Dumpster. It was a Jolly Green Giant box, with what appeared to be a crumpled brown paper bag sticking up through the top. The box was stamped green beans. Neither Riggio nor the two uniformed officers with him approached closer than the corner of the strip mall there on Sunset Boulevard; they could see the box fine from where they were.“How long has it been there?”One of the Adam car officers, a Filipino named Ruiz, checked his watch.“We got our dispatch about two hours ago. We been here since.”“Find anyone who saw how it got there?”“Oh, no, dude. Nobody.”The other officer, a black guy named Mason, nodded.“Ruiz is the one saw it. He went over and looked in the bag, the crazy Flip.”“So tell me what you saw.”“I told your sergeant.”“Tell me. I’m the sonofabitch who’s gonna approach the damned thing.”Ruiz described seeing the capped ends of two galvanized pipes taped together with silver duct tape. The pipes were loosely wrapped in newspaper, Ruiz said, so he had only seen the ends.Riggio considered that. They were standing in a strip mall on Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake, an area that had seen increasing gang activity in recent months. Gangbangers would steal galvanized pipe from construction sites or dig up plastic PVC from some poor bastard’s garden, then stuff them with bottle rocket powder or match heads. Riggio didn’t know if the Green Giant box held an actual bomb or not, but he had to approach it as if it did. That’s the way it was with bomb calls. Better than ninety-five percent turned out to be hairspray cans, some teenager’s book bag, or, like his most recent call-out, two pounds of marijuana wrapped in Pampers. Only one out of a hundred was what the bomb techs called an “improvised munition.”A homemade bomb.“You hear ticking or anything like that?”“No.”“Smell anything burning?”“Uh-uh.”“Did you open the bag to get a better look?”“Hell, no.”“Did you move the box or anything?”Ruiz smiled like Riggio was nuts.“Dude, I saw those pipes and shit my pants. The only thing I moved was my feet!”Mason laughed.Riggio walked back to his vehicle. The Bomb Squad drove dark blue Suburbans, rigged with a light bar, and crammed with all the tools of the bomb technician’s trade, except for the robots. You wanted the robots, you had to call them out special, and he wasn’t going to do that. The goddamned robot would just get bogged down in all the potholes around the box.Riggio found his supervisor, Buck Daggett, instructing a uniformed sergeant to evacuate the area for a hundred yards in all directions. The fire department had already been called, and paramedics were on the way. Sunset Boulevard had been closed, and traffic rerouted. All for something that might turn out to be some do-it-yourself plumber’s castoff drain trap.“Hey, Buck, I’m ready to take a look at that thing.”“I want you in the suit.”“It’s too hot. I’ll use the chest protector for the first pass, then the suit if I have to bring out the de-armer.”All Riggio would be doing on the first pass was lugging out a portable X-ray to see inside the bag. If the contents appeared to be a bomb, he and Daggett would formulate a game plan and either de-arm the device, or explode it in place.“I want you in the suit, Charles. I got a feeling about this one.”“You’ve always got a feeling.”“I’ve also got the sergeant stripes. You’re in the suit.”The armored suit weighed almost ninety pounds. Made of Kevlar plates and heavy Nomex batting, it covered every part of Riggio’s body except his hands, which remained bare. A bomb tech needed the dexterity of unencumbered fingers.When the suit was in place, Riggio took the Real Time RTR3 X-ray unit and lumbered toward the package. Walking in the suit was like walking with his body wrapped in wet quilts, only hotter. Three minutes in the armor, and sweat was already running into his eyes. To make it worse, a safety cable and hardwire dragged behind him, the hardwire connecting him to Daggett via a telex communicator. A separate wire linked the Real Time to a computer in the Suburban’s cargo bay. He felt like he was pulling a plow.Daggett’s voice came into Riggio’s ear. “How you doing out there?”“Sweating my ass off, thanks to you.”Riggio hated this part the most, approaching an object before he knew what it was. Every time was the same: Riggio thought of that unknown object as a living beast with a life and a mind. Like a sleeping pit bull. If he approached it carefully and made the right moves, everything would be fine. If he startled the dog, the damn thing would rip him apart.Eighty-two slow-motion paces brought him to the box.It was unremarkable except for a wet stain on one corner that looked like dog piss. The brown paper bag, crumpled and uneven, was open. Riggio peered into the bag without touching it. Leaning over was hard, and when he did, sweat dripped onto the Lexan faceplate like rain.He saw the two pipes that Ruiz had described. The pipe caps appeared to be about two-and-a-half inches in diameter and taped together, but nothing else about them was visible. They were loosely wrapped with newspaper, leaving only the ends exposed. Daggett said, “How’s it look?”“Like a couple of pipes. Stand by. I’ll get us a picture.”Riggio placed the Real Time RTR3 on the ground at the base of the box, aimed for a side view, then turned on the unit. It provided the same type of translucent shadow image that security personnel see on airline baggage units, reproducing the image on two screens: one for Riggio on top of the RTR3 and another on the computer back at the Suburban.Charlie Riggio smiled.“Sonofabitch. We got one, Buck. We got us a bomb.”“I’m seeing it.”The two pipes were impenetrable shadows with what appeared to be a spool of wire or fuse triangled between them. There didn’t appear to be a timer or an initiator of a more sophisticated nature, leading Riggio to believe that the bomb was a garage project made by an enterprising local gangbanger. Low-tech, dirty, and not particularly difficult to de-arm.“This one’s going to be a piece of cake, Buck. I make a basic fuse of the light-it-and-run-like-hell variety.”“You be careful. Might be some kind of motion switch tucked away in there.”“I’m not gonna touch it, Buck. Jesus. Gimme some credit.”“Don’t get cocky. Take the snaps and let’s figure out what’s what.”The procedure was to take a series of digital computer snaps of the device via the Real Time at forty-five-degree angles. When they had the device mapped, Riggio would fall back to the Suburban where he and Daggett would decide how best to destroy or de-arm it.Riggio shuffled around the box, aiming the Real Time over the different angles. He felt no fear as he did this because he knew what he was dealing with now and trusted he could beat it. Riggio had approached over forty-eight suspicious packages in his six years with the Bomb Squad; only nine had been actual explosive devices. None of those had ever detonated in a manner that he did not control.“You’re not talking to me, Charlie. You okay?”“Just got to work around the potholes, Sarge. Almost done. Hey, you know what I’m having? I’m having a brainstorm.”“Stop. You’ll hurt yourself.”“No, listen to this. You know those people on the infomercials who make all that money with the stupid shit they sell? We could sell these damned suits to fat people, see? You just wear it and you lose weight.”“Keep your damned head with that bomb, Riggio. How’s your body temp?”“I’m okay.”In truth, he was so hot that he felt dizzy, but he wanted to make sure he had good clean shots. He circled the box like a man in a space suit, getting front, side, and off angles, then pointed the Real Time straight down for a top view. That’s when he saw a shadow that hadn’t been visible in the side views.“Buck, you see that? I think I got something.” “What?”“Here in the overhead view. Take a snap.”A thin, hairlike shadow emerged from the side of one pipe and extended up through the spool. This wire wasn’t attached to the others, which confused Riggio until a sudden, unexpected thought occurred to him: Maybe the spool was there only to hide this other wire.In that moment, fear crackled through him and his bowels clenched. He called out to Buck Daggett, but the words did not form.Riggio thought, Oh, God.The bomb detonated at a rate of twenty-seven thousand feet per second, twenty-two times faster than a nine-millimeter bullet leaves the muzzle of a pistol. Heat flashed outward in a burst of white light hot enough to melt iron. The air pressure spiked from a normal fifteen pounds per square inch to twenty-two hundred pounds, shattering the iron pipes into jagged shrapnel that punched through the Kevlar suit like hyperfast bullets. The shock wave slammed into his bo... Read more