Crais brings together some favorite protagonists in a thriller that starts off with a missing woman. Asked to find her, Elvis Cole discovers that she's a defense contractor staffer being blackmailed into supplying explosives for the bad guy. LAPD officer Scott James and his trusty patrol dog, Maggie, enter the case when they stumble upon a building full of explosives and get assaulted for their troubles. The New York Times best-selling author's 20th novel.

Even as Elvis Cole tracks a woman who seems to have disappeared with someone she met online, LAPD K9 officer Scott James and his patrol dog Maggie enter a vacant building in search of a nasty thief. They find the thief dead, the building packed with explosives, and a battered Joe Pike hiding in the shadows. The 16th Cole/Pike outing from this multi-award winner.

Master crime fiction writer Crais delivers another winner, teaming up PI Elvis Cole and Cole's partner, Joe Pike (Taken) with LAPD K-9 officer Scott James (introduced in Suspect) and his companion, a large German shepherd named Maggie. The plot centers on a dowdy chemical engineer, Amy Breslyn, who appears to be selling 400 kilos of a highly specialized plastic explosive to terrorists. Cole unknowingly stumbles into a crime scene involving Amy as a result of his being hired by someone to investigate an unrelated matter. Appearances can be deceiving, and it takes Cole, Pike, Scott, Maggie, the FBI, and a slew of others to eventually uncover the truth. Crais deftly avoids giving short shrift to his main players while providing a deeper and more sympathetic portrait of a particular series-recurring tough guy, Jon Stone. VERDICT For readers who long for character crossovers and unambiguous resolutions, this excellent thriller should fit the bill. A skillfully convoluted plot evolves ever so slowly and culminates in a satisfying finish that also successfully ties up multiple story lines. [See Prepub Alert, 6/1/14.]—Jeffrey W. Hunter, Royal Oak, MI

MWA Grandmaster Crais is at the top of his game in his 16th Elvis Cole novel (after 2012's Taken). When the L.A. PI goes looking for chemical engineer Amy Breslyn, who has absconded with $460,000 from her company, Woodson Energy Solutions, he learns that Amy's motive involves her journalist son, who died in a terrorist bombing in Nigeria 16 months earlier. The investigation takes Cole to a house in Echo Park crammed with explosives—a locale that also attracts LAPD K-9 officer Scott James and his German shepherd Maggie (the protagonists of 2013's Suspect). At the house, a criminal mastermind eludes the team, but when the crook realizes that James can identify him, he determines to eliminate the K-9 officer. Meanwhile, the Major Crimes squad becomes suspicious of Cole, who calls on his partner, the ultracryptic Joe Pike, for help. Pike in turn enlists the talents of former Delta Force op Jon Stone, now a mercenary. The resolution of the complicated conspiracy is both clever and touching. Agent: Aaron Priest, Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency. (Nov.)