Pun Salad

Robert Crais has been one of the few authors I auto-buy in hardcover. This new book is (unfortunately) not in his Elvis Cole series, but nevertheless an impressive page-turner. The protagonist is Max Holman, an ex-criminal just released from a ten-year sentence for bank robbery. He has hopes to see his estranged son Richard, but Richard is a cop, and he's gunned down with three other cops just before Max is released. Max takes it upon himself to find out what happened to his son. Things are complicated by policemen who have apparently been convinced by a too-pat solution to the case, and don't appreciate Max's interference.

Crais's characters are well-developed, the plot is intricate, and the book was obviously meticulously researched. A long scene is set around the famous Hollywood Sign, and it's obvious that Crais has done some crawling around up there himself.

Although this movie got kind of mediocre reviews, I thought it was better than OK. Harrison Ford plays a network security geek for a Seattle bank. Pay must be pretty good for that, because he's got a huge house on the water. (Although his wife is an architect, so that probably helps too.) If you saw any previews whatsoever, you already know about 80% of the movie: bad guys take the good guy's family hostage, he tries to turn the tables on them. It's pretty standard fare, but well done.

It was a pleasant surprise to see the luminescent Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe on 24) play … well, pretty much the same character as Chloe on 24. Does she ever worry she'll be typecast?