THE TWO MINUTE RULE
By Robert Crais
Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0-7432-8161-6
Hardback, 336 pages, $24.95
Genre: Mystery

The two minute rule refers to the length of time a bank robber is assured before the police show up. When Max Holman, a former bank robber, is released from prison, his only goal is to reconcile with his estranged son, who is now a policeman. But the night before Max's release, his son and three other cops are shot to death. Although the police quickly arrest a suspect, Max learns the suspect has an alibi and begins to doubt they have the right man. Max asks the person who arrested him ten years before, former FBI special agent Katherine Pollard, to help him investigate who actually killed his son and why. At every turn, the police thwart their efforts to learn the truth behind the killings, and it isn't long before the FBI starts throwing up walls.

Max Holman is an interesting character, a man whose past revolved around taking drugs and robbing banks and who took little interest in his son until his incarceration. Although Max is intent on staying straight, life's circumstances keep disrupting his efforts. Katherine Pollard is a woman who abandoned her life as an agent to raise her two young sons and now finds herself adrift and bored. She and Max hold an attraction for each other which neither feels comfortable acting upon.

The book moves, for the most part, at a fast pace; enough to keep this reader turning pages and engaged in the story. The characterizations are wonderfully portrayed and the mystery a good one.