The Wanted

Devon Connor is a single mother with a worry she can't shake. Her teenage son, Tyson, has been spending money he shouldn't have, and she assumes he's selling drugs. She takes the problem to Los Angeles private investigator Elvis Cole, expecting a routine job.

The real story is worse. Tyson and two accomplices have been robbing expensive homes, and the spree turns deadly when one of them is murdered. Tyson and his girlfriend then vanish. Somewhere along the way, the crew took something from a man who is not willing to let it go, and he has sent two professional killers to recover it. They are clever, ruthless, and very good at finding people.

Cole calls in his longtime partner, Joe Pike, because the odds are getting worse. The police want both men kept out of the investigation, the frightened teenagers are working hard not to be found, and the hired hunters leave bodies behind as they close in. Cole and Pike are racing to reach the kids first, and the closer they get, the less certain it is that reaching them will change the outcome. It could cost the two investigators their own lives.

The Wanted is part of Robert Crais's Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series, built around a missing-persons case that escalates into a tense chase.