Stealing People

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.). (June)