THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERInvestigator Elvis Cole and his partner Joe Pike take on the deadliest case of their lives in the new masterpiece of suspense from #1 New York Times-bestselling author Robert Crais.It seemed like a simple case—before the bodies started piling up… When single-mother Devon Connor hires Elvis Cole, it’s because her troubled teenage son Tyson is flashing cash and … because her troubled teenage son Tyson is flashing cash and she’s afraid he’s dealing drugs. But the truth is devastatingly different. With two others, he’s been responsible for a string of high-end burglaries, a crime spree that takes a deadly turn when one of them is murdered and Tyson and his girlfriend disappear.
They stole the wrong thing from the wrong man, and, determined to get it back, he has hired two men who are smart and brutal and the best at what they do.
To even the odds, Cole brings in his friend Joe Pike, but even the two of them together may be overmatched. The police don’t want them anywhere near the investigation, the teenagers refuse to be found, and the hired killers are leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. Pretty soon, they’ll find out everything they need to know to track the kids down—and then nothing that Elvis or Joe can do may make any difference. It might even get them killed.
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Love the writing!
Love Robert Crais
Crais never disappoints
Another action paced Elvis Cole and Joe Pike thriller. You won’t want to put it down.
Crais is always entertaining.
Another nail-biter with Elvis Cole and Joe Pike trying to find a young thief from a pair of assassins sent to kill him. Despite the assassins, the novel isn’t as violent or bloody as some of Crais’s other Cole/Pike pieces. This one kept me up late reading.
I LOVED this book. I couldn’t wait to finish it and then was sad that it had ended. I highly recommend this book. My favorite of all of Mr. Crais’s books and I am a huge fan of his previous works.
This was a great story by Crais. I have loved most of his books but this one was particularly good.
Anything Crais writes is terrific. This book is no exception. Elvis and Pike make the ideal pair of good guys. Warm and cold, tough and tougher, verbose and silent, clever and super-competent. Two of my favorite characters of all time. Another really entertaining and interesting read.
I have read and loved all Robert Crais’s books. There isn’t one I wouldn’t recommend. If you haven’t read him yet, hurry up and start. Great writing, believable characters and plots, no gratuitous violence, just excellent stories.
I do like Mr Crais’s style of writing – it’s like a James Lee Burke ‘light’ style, not quite as southern, not quite as ethereal, but just as intriguing.
‘The Wanted’ tells the tale of a young man, and his girlfriend, who make some bad choices. In comes Elvis Cole, at the request of the young man’s mother, after it all goes wrong for the youngsters.
This is a great read, well paced, and full of very well drawn characters. There’s elements of John Connolly’s hit men (Louis and Angel) in here with Crais’s antagonists – not sure who came first with the trope – but only elements. Crais’s protagonist Cole plays a good game, and there’s plenty to learn here for other writers in terms of plot development, character, and style. There’s a couple of jarring moments – such as when the protagonists go deep into a rabbit hole about music – but they’re few and far between. My only, very minor, gripe is that the ending felt a bit rushed. Almost as if Mr Crais had had enough, and just wanted to get the bloody thing finished. But I know that feeling well…!
A very solid 4 out of 5 stars.
One of the blurbs for this book insists that this may be the “deadliest case” that Elvis Cole and Joe Pike have ever taken on. Considering some of the previous cases that they’ve barely survived, that may be a bit of a stretch, but The Wanted is still a very engrossing thriller and it’s a lot of fun to read.
The book opens when Elvis is hired by Devon Connor, a hard-working single mother who’s trying to raise a teenage son on her own. Under the best of circumstances, this is not an easy task, but Devon freaks out when she finds her son in possession of a Rolex watch worth several thousand dollars. The kid, Tyson, claims that the watch is a knockoff, that it’s not worth anything, and that his mom shouldn’t worry.
Fat chance.
Devon worries that her kid might be dealing drugs and calls in Elvis to figure out what’s actually going on. It turns out that Tyson, previously a shy and withdrawn boy, has fallen under the spell of a sexy new girlfriend. Elvis fairly quickly discovers that the problem is much worse than drugs. Tyson, his new main squeeze, and another boy have been ripping off the houses of wealthy people who are away from their homes. They’ve converted the things they’ve stolen into a pile of cash which they are flashing around and spending like crazy at trendy clubs. And when Mom starts asking too many question, Tyson disappears.
Unfortunately, the trio of thieves has inadvertently stolen something particularly meaningful to a very rich man who has no scruples whatsoever. He, in turn, has hired a couple of particularly nasty characters to track down the thieves and recover his property before it falls into the wrong hands. At this point, these kids had better pray that Elvis and his partner, Joe Pike, find them first.
The only problem I had with the book was that, for me at least, it strained credulity to think that these three high school kids could have such a long successful string of ripping off the houses of such wealthy people, virtually all of which have very elaborate security systems, and especially given the way in which the thieves are lavishly spending the proceeds of their burglaries. Realistically, the cops should have had them very early on, and it was hard to believe that they hadn’t found these kids long before Cole was even called into action. But setting aside that concern, I really enjoyed the book. Elvis Cole is one of my favorite crime fiction characters and I always enjoy following his adventures.
can’t go wrong with a Robert Crais book!
I’m never disappointed when I pick up a Robert Crais book. The Wanted carries on the tradition Elvis Cole and Joe Pike deliver every time!
What should have been a simple case for Elvis Cole turned out to be anything but simple. In fact, it became quite deadly. Sure was great to see the boys working together again. A well written thriller that will keep you guessing as to what will happen next. I’ve always enjoyed Robert Crais’ stories involving Elvis and Joe. Looking forward to there being another one.
The latest adventures of Elvis Cole and Joe Pike will not disappoint. I found myself laughing out loud!
Unbelievably awesome!!!
a very enjoyable read
You can’t beat a Robert Crais novel! Elvis Cole is a character you root for from the start. Always a great storyline for this detective.
The mystery in this book wasn’t revealed until after all the bad guys were dead and then it was a head-scratcher. I’ve never been a fan of bad guys leaving detailed evidence of every criminal act–even if the Billionaire Boys Club did it in real life.
Granted Hitchcock famously never revealed what was on the microfilm that everyone was killing for in North by Northwest, but then he put a great deal of fascinating intrigue around the chase. This books is an excruciating step-by-step procedural. The only step left out was how many sheets of toilet paper the hero used for wiping. No question is left unanswered, no red herrings questioned, no clues examined for the reader to decipher. It was a three hundred page countdown to the inevitable confrontation.
Having just read The Fourth Monkey, my expectations-bar for intrigue has been raised significantly, but for the money you should get a mystery in your mystery novel. Just my $0.02.