Show, Don't Tell

I finished WALKING THE PERFECT SQUARE a week ahead of schedule, and am now reading the paperback of Robert Crais's THE LAST DETECTIVE. As I may have blogged before I'm not a fan of Crais's multi-POV style. It worked for his breakout book, L.A. REQUIEM, but in the long term it has lessened the suspense of his books.

I'm reading the book to catch up with Elvis Cole, Joe Pike, and friends after Crais took a two-book break from them (DEMOLITION ANGEL, HOSTAGE). While TLD has hooked me, there are three reasons I'm not more into it: 1) I've never warmed to Elvis's love interest Lucy Chenier and her 10-year-old son Ben. The plot involves Ben being kidnapped because someone wants revenge on Elvis. 2) My feelings aside, it's harder to feel Elvis's concern for Lucy and Ben because Crais went away from them a while. 3) At the end of L.A. REQUIEM, Lucy and Elvis seemed pretty much on the outs, and in TLD Elvis is taking care of Ben when he's abducted? The scenario might have been believable if we'd seen Lucy and Elvis patch things up. As it stands, there's a gap like the inexplicable one between THE PHANTOM MENACE and ATTACK OF THE CLONES--where it's dumped on us that Anakin has spent ten offstage years pining for Amidala. Where's the show?

So I find I'm reading as I would read a Clancy book, skipping the kidnapping angst, and reading the action.