The First Rule

Frank Meyer is an old friend of Joe Pike, and one night he and his entire family are killed in a home invasion that looks like an execution. The police dig into Meyer's past and decide he must have been leading a secret life that brought the killers to his door. Pike refuses to accept that verdict, and he sets out to clear Meyer's name and make the people responsible pay for what they did.

What looks at first like a simple trail soon turns tangled. Pike, working alongside his partner Elvis Cole, runs into old grudges, double crosses and a thirst for blood vengeance. Each step leads toward a crime so terrible that even these two hardened investigators struggle to take its measure.

This is a fast, hard-edged Los Angeles crime thriller from Robert Crais, and it puts Pike's fierce loyalty to the test.