CSI: Snake Eyes - Max Allan Collins

As of July 2010 this is the final CSI novel to be written by Max Allan Collins. I’m quite disappointed by this as I have very much enjoyed reading the CSI books he has written although I am looking forward to seeing how the other author tackle the series.


Thankfully this book comes with a little note at the beginning to help the reader to get in the correct time frame which the novel takes place in. I am very grateful for this piece of information as it is often difficult to place yourself in to correct period of time. Especially given the books tend to follow quite far behind the television air dates which can make the time leap quite jarring.

I found the storylines in this book to be very interesting reads. I especially enjoyed the relationship between Greg and Warrick and having the pair of them separated from the others and working together back in Vegas. It was also nice to be able to see just how Greg is adjusting from being a lab rat to a CSI. The Greg and Warrick stuff though is very much a background storyline playing second fiddle to the larger storyline which takes place in Boot Hill.

I was quite surprised with the direction the Boot Hill storyline took and was very much surprised by who the killer actually was. The bits that occurred in the police station, were very edge of your seat and definitely had me reading frantically to find out just what was going to happen. Of course I knew to an extent what wasn’t going to happen (i.e. the main CSI’s getting killed) because obviously that doesn’t happen in the TV show and nothing in the books changes the TV cannon. So in that respect there is sometimes a lack of suspense but it’s still pretty good reading.

I think Max Allan Collins has done well with the CSI books he has written. Again Tomas appears but I doubt we’ll hear any more from him in the future novels. The author has captured the characters in a way to keep them true to their television counterparts while still giving little bits of extra information here and there.

One little thing I did like was a possible reference to the television show Friends and the couple Ross and Rachel. On page 180 a breakfast cook called Mr Ross is mentioned at a place called Rachel’s. I thought that was kind of cute.