THE WANTED

5 stars out of 5

Private eye Elvis Cole and his partner, Joe Pike, make a great team - reminiscent of the late Robert B. Parker's Spenser and Hawk. Together, they can take on the world. But when they bump up against a trio of teens who specialize in upscale burglaries, they may have met their match.

For much of the first half of this book, Elvis takes solo center stage. He's hired by Devon Connor, whose son Tyson has been deviating wildly from his usual sweet self. It seems he's acquired some cash, expensive clothes and other high-end items, and his mother wants to find out if he's into the illicit drug business. As it turns out, it's worse; he and a couple of friends have been getting their jollies (and plenty of flashy trinkets) by invading the homes of the very wealthy, taking what they like and reselling what they don't want to keep.

With the cooperation of Tyson's mother, Elvis works out a deal through which Tyson will turn himself in with minimal consequences - but the deal goes south when Tyson goes missing. Around the same time, one of the teenage cohorts ends up dead - and while at first blush it looks to be a case of road rage gone horribly wrong, the bullets in the body tell a much different story.

Now, Elvis knows that Tyson and the third teen, an exceptionally maniculative girl, are sure to be the next targets of two highly accomplished hit men who apparently have been hired by one of the burglary victims. He calls in his partner Joe to help find the kids, but for a time the trail doesn't lead much of anywhere except to more dead bodies. When they finally start to close in on the teens, so, too, do the hit men. Who will get to them first results in a not-so-merry chase that kept me turning pages all the way to the end.

All in all, another excellent installment in this series - one of my favorites. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy.

The Wanted by Robert Crais (G.P. Putnam's Sons, December 2017); 336 pp.