Capital Punishment

Starred review from December 24, 2012
Set in London, this energetic, thoughtful first in a new series from Gold Dagger Award–winner Wilson (A Small Death in Lisbon) introduces Charles Boxer, a former cop turned private security professional specializing in kidnapping. When 25-year-old Alyshia D’Cruz, the daughter of a self-made Indian billionaire, is kidnapped after an evening out with her co-workers, Boxer is charged with getting Alyshia back alive. The kidnapper, who insists that the crime “is not about money,” urges the family not to involve the press or the police. That a lot more than money, or Alyshia’s safety, is at stake becomes clear as the plot slowly, impressively expands to include an enormous cast of characters and a broad array of themes—global finance, the inequality of wealth, Islamic fundamentalism, counterterrorism. While at times the story’s immensity threatens to overwhelm the appealing Boxer, who is supremely competent yet reassuringly flawed, fans of intelligent thrillers will eagerly await the next installment. Agent: Anthony Sheil, Aitken Alexander Associates (U.K.).

Starred review from February 15, 2013
When Indian billionaire industrialist Frank D'Cruz, once a Mumbai gangster and later a Bollywood movie star, learns that his estranged daughter, Alyshia, has been kidnapped in London, he hires Charles Boxer to negotiate her recovery. Boxer, a former soldier and homicide cop, has something in common with D'Cruz; his teenage daughter, Amy, is furious with him. Boxer struggles to focus on his assignment but adds to his own difficulty by immediately falling in love with Alyshia's mother. Strangely, the kidnappers seem more interested in tormenting D'Cruz than in ransom money, and soon MI5, MI6, and London's Metropolitan Police are investigating D'Cruz's myriad shady business contacts with rival Hindu and Muslim gangs, old-school London gangsters, mercenaries, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, and their links to each other and to the global drug trade and terrorism. It's a testament to Wilson's storytelling talents that all these threads don't rob the book of its momentum or suspense. In fact, each is riveting, giving readers a glimpse of plausible alliances, rivalries, and murderous feuds that could explode in London or the U.S. Capital Punishment is taut and addictive, one of the best thrillers so far this year.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)