Stealing People

April 18, 2016
The opening of Wilson’s intelligent if overly ambitious third thriller starring kidnapping consultant Charlie Boxer (after 2015’s You Will Never Find Me) chillingly depicts several well-staged, perfectly executed kidnappings in the course of about 32 hours in London. The six victims are all children and young adults from exceptionally wealthy families with close ties to the governments of their countries of origin (India, China, Russia, Australia, Germany, and the U.S.). The London police are all over the high-profile case; Boxer gets involved when a young woman hires him to find her missing father, who “supplies security to the U.S. military.” Meanwhile, the minor crook boyfriend of Boxer’s ex-wife, Det. Insp. Mercy Danquah, disappears. Wilson raises disturbing questions about growing economic inequality and the hidden, privatized world of mercenaries and outsourced security. Readers will struggle, however, to keep track of the book’s many plot lines, characters, and their motives. Agent: Anthony Sheil, Aitken Alexander Associates (U.K.).

April 1, 2016
The third in a series featuring British kidnap consultant Charlie Boxer (You Will Never Find Me, 2015, etc.). Boxer, of the charitable foundation LOST, gets a request from Siobhan Jensen to find her billionaire father, Conrad, who's been missing for three days. Meanwhile, within little over a day, a half-dozen children of billionaires are snatched off the street, including an 8-year-old girl. The kidnappers want 25 million euros per captive for "expenses," not for ransom, but they don't seem to be terrorists. They make impossible demands and threaten to kill their hostages one by one. Boxer's ex-wife, DI Mercy Danquah, leads the police investigation as part of London's Kidnap and Special Investigations Unit. Meanwhile, Mercy's lover, Marcus Alleyne, is also kidnapped. It's a tangled web, with Jensen, Alleyne, and the missing children all caught in the strands. The "sexually voracious" Siobhan sleeps with Boxer's 19-year-old daughter, Amy, and Boxer's own lover, Isabel, is pregnant. Boxer is a complex and sympathetic hero who can cry over a devastating personal loss and still deal effectively with nasty and dangerous people. "You're a good man who doesn't have a problem with killing bad guys," he's accurately told. This well-honed skill seems like an odd trait for the head of a charitable foundation, but at least he doesn't seem to take pleasure in it. He's loyal, selfless, and emotional, but he has no hesitation about offing people who deserve it. Near the end, a spectacular twist gains worldwide attention and will make readers exclaim "Wow!" Then, after the denouement, the ending dawdles for a few pages. Wilson has created a great character whose emotional trials are exciting to follow. This series looks like it will have legs if the hero can stand any more emotional pummeling.

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May 1, 2016
The third installment in the Charlie Boxer series features a team of urban kidnappers who operate with eerie efficiency. Their modus operandi involves targeting young people who are either entering or inside carsa very simple thing to do, which makes it extra chilling. Charlie Boxer, a London freelance kidnapping consultant, and his ex-wife, Detective Inspector Mercy Danquah of the Kidnap and Special Investigations Unit of London's Metropolitan Police, again team up to recover missing persons. (The last time they did so was when their teenage daughter disappeared in You Will Never Find Me, 2015). Six offspring of UK billionaires (ages ranging from childhood to young adulthood) vanish within the space of 32 hours; we witness their kidnappings but are kept in the dark about the perpetrators. The action grows even more intense when the kidnappings reach Charlie and Mercy's own loved ones. The particulars of kidnapping prove perversely fascinating here, drawing us into the protracted games of cat and mouse, and Wilson's deft characterizations and excellent pacing ratchet up the tension still further. A fine thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)