Book Review: The Big Empty by Robert Crais

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Jan 17, 2025
Robert Crais (photo by Jerry Ward)

Traci Beller’s father disappeared ten years ago, when she was thirteen years old, but suddenly at twenty-three, she has over eight million social media followers and the financial wherewithal to hire Elvis Cole, the (self-proclaimed) World’s Greatest Detective.

Traci (known to the public as The Baker Next Door) is charismatic, engaging and offers Elvis one thousand dollars (and delicious free muffins) for a twenty-minute introductory meeting. Traci’s father was known as a good husband and devoted father but has been missing long enough for her mother to declare him legally dead. Traci’s level of hope, determination and love is enough to engage Elvis, so the investigation is off and running.

Thomas Beller was last seen in the small California town of Rancha, and that’s where Elvis launches his search. He quickly encounters ex-con Sadie Givens and her daughter Anya, who lead him into a world of dangerous thugs and violence so extreme it nearly kills him.

Elvis finds himself in the hospital and facing great danger, but fortunately his partner is the formidable Joe Pike, who joins the investigation and helps uncover a gripping mystery.

The Big Empty contains a series of unexpected plot twists and shocking reveals that make this one of Crais’s finest novels, but also exceedingly difficult to review without spoiling this complex tale.

I was fortunate enough to speak with Crais to gain additional insight into the story without any reveals and he said the following:

“I wanted to write a book filled with surprises, so the reader begins the story and assumes it’s going follow a usual pattern and then it takes a hard left turn. Now you’re second guessing yourself and you think you understand what I’m doing, and then suddenly the thing flips over on its back. Then it pulls into a high climb and then spirals and flips again. This book deals with the thing we fear the most — the nightmare lurking just beyond the limits of our vision.”

The Big Empty also gives us three unique women characters in Traci, Sadie and Anya. The latter two are highly flawed, but that makes them even more endearing and obstacles the three of them face are incredibly challenging and a testament to the power of human resolve.

Crais mentioned that “the case takes a lot out of Elvis,” but I countered that it does with the reader as well. As a parent I felt Traci Beller’s emotional pain, and I found myself unexpectedly in tears from this remarkably powerful story. Life is not always what we expect, and neither is The Big Empty, but it is most certainly a masterpiece.

“It’s a book of ultimate betrayals, and I wanted this to be as upending to the reader as it was to Elvis,” said Crais.

You succeeded, Mr. Crais. And then some.