Books, books and more books

I told myself this was going to be the summer that I read Les Miserables. I've seen several movie versions and seen the musical, while also reading a lot of essays about Les Miserable, so I thought it would be the perfect time to read it. It's summer, I have some other books I want to read, but nothing really pressing...it'll be like the summer I read Moby Dick a few years ago. Has it worked out that way? No, and i blame my friend D, the guy I see in the gym every day at work. We have much the same taste in books, so we talk about mysteries and we lend books to each other all the time. Essentially it's his fault I'm not reading Les Miserables because he lent me The Watchman by Robert Crais which lead me to reading nothing but Robert Crais this whole summer (which is very reminiscent of the summer I finally read a Dick Francis book after years of nagging by my Mother and sister, which lead me to read ALL of his books. Even though this was awhile ago, he was, and is, prolific. I didn't do much else that summer).
So, I'm reading Robert Crais. He's not the best writer in the world. He's not a philosopher like John D. MacDonald was-although he has philosophic moments. He does make some social commentary on Southern California-an area he clearly knows well. He is, however, a really good storyteller. He has great empathy for his characters and he knows how build up tension to the breaking point-it's very hard to put his books down once you've reached the last third of it. Elvis Cole and Joe Pike are very engaging characters who do their jobs well (especially Pike), so it's nice read about intelligent people actually detecting (as opposed to convenient plot twists and clues falling into their laps). So, sorry Les Miserables (it's still in the wrapper from the seller I bought it from on Amazon, I'm ashamed to admit). I'm sure I'll get around to you someday, but not this summer.