What do You think about The Two Minute Rule (2007)?
"The Two Minute Rule" by Robert Crais was a very fun read. It begins with a bank robbery in which the robbers are shot after trying to have a shootout with the police officers there to arrest them. Then you meet Holman, a convicted bank robber about to be released from jail. But right before his release he is told his son, a police officer had been shot the night before. Holman questions police about what happened, but not getting answers that add up leaves Holman to search for answers himself. He makes contact with the only people he knows—his old friend, Chee, another ex-convict—and FBI Agent Pollard—the one who helped lock him away in the first place. Read more at http://compulsivebookreader.blogspot....
—Tiffany Young
This novel was paced wonderfully, contained characters that are very different from me but whom I could feel a bond of empathy, and was carefully plotted. The novel’s title comes from the basic criminal rule that a bank robber must get in and out of the bank in two minutes or risk getting caught. Naturally, with such a title, the book begins with an armed bank robbery that “proves” the rule. This is appropriate because the protagonist is a bank robber. The twist is that this particular bank robbery isn’t being perpetrated by the protagonist, but it has a tremendous impact on his life. The protagonist is a reformed bank robber, but don’t let that fool you into thinking this is a mere “To Catch A Thief” scenario. The protagonist loses his son, ironically a police officer who rejected his father’s mores and lifestyle, in a mysterious shoot-out. He cannot accept the easy answer provided by law enforcement authorities, so he starts his own investigation. Yet, in tremendous realism, he cannot do the investigation himself, so he hires a former law enforcement officer. Yes, irony of ironies, he hires the former FBI agent who put him in prison. And, to be honest, THAT’S not a spoiler because it is one of the minor twists and turns of this delightful novel. From the title through the choice of the most unusual “detective” protagonist I can remember to the very late unveiling of the real antagonist and every “red herring” that threatened to hook me, I enjoyed this excellent novel. I’m starting to think Robert Crais is close to replacing Michael Connelly as my favorite mystery/thriller writer. However, I’m quite unwilling to give either one up. I plan to read the entire canon of each.
—Johnny
Just days before his release from prison, career bank robber Max Holman's life is turned upside down when his son, now a police officer, is gunned down with three other cops under strange circumstances. Max tries to figure out what happened but gets nowhere on his own. The only person he can turn to: the woman who put him away!Sounds pretty good when I say it like that. Too bad it wasn't. I love Robert Crais. I did not love this book. In fact, I tossed it less than halfway through.On the surface, the book sounds like a winner. Elmore Leonard or George Pelecanos could have crafted quite a yarn from such a plot. My problem with the book was with the characters. I didn't care about Max Holman, I didn't care about his dead son, and I sure didn't care for the FBI agent that put him away that he was destined to tumble into bed with, Katherine Pollard.Max Holman didn't have much of a personality outside of his regrets over the past. The book (or the portion I read) reads like Crais was afraid to make Holman too much of a criminal or something. Instead, he made him a loser with no personality. 200 pages with Holman was more than enough. Since I'm a 50-75 page an hour guy, I couldn't see spending another three or four hours on this.Maybe it was just the wrong time but I kept thinking over other books I'd rather be reading or other household tasks I could be doing instead of pushing through The Two-Minute Rule. While I liked Hostage and Demolition Angel, Crais should probably stick to Cole and Pike. Crais should have definitely wrote another Elvis Cole when he was working on this. Two stars. This book is getting converted to store credit at my earliest convenience.
—Dan Schwent
