Free Fall was published by Bantam in 1993. Jennifer Sheridan hires Cole because her fiancé Mark Thurman, an LAPD officer, is behaving strangely — secretive, frightened, and refusing to explain. Cole discovers that Thurman is part of a gang task force whose members have been shaking down drug dealers for cash and merchandise.
The investigation puts Cole directly against the LAPD — an institution that Joe Pike left under bitter circumstances (Pike’s backstory involves being drummed out of the force for refusing to cover for corrupt partners). Cole must determine whether Thurman is a corrupt cop, a frightened cop trapped in a corrupt unit, or something more complicated.
Crais wrote the novel in the aftermath of the Rodney King beating and the Rampart Division scandal that would later be exposed — the LAPD’s gang task forces were, in fact, running exactly the kind of operations Crais described. The novel predated the full exposure by several years, drawing on Crais’s research and LAPD sources.
Collecting Free Fall
First edition (Bantam, New York, 1993): First hardcover edition.
Market values:
- First hardcover, fine in jacket: $30–$60
- Signed first: $60–$120