Disordered Shelves : The Professionals by Owen Laukkanen (2012)
Four recession-hit college dropouts stumble into a life of crime, by kidnapping middle management corporate executives and ransoming them for thousands rather than millions of dollars. Owen Laukkanen’s debut thriller is a meat-and-potatoes, straight-down-the-line chase procedural, with some well written action sequences. Lauded by Lee Child on the cover for having “characters that live and breathe - and chills aplenty”, which is higher praise than I think it merits. A bonus point though for having the lead detective named after 80s Snooker player Kirk Stevens - I’m hoping that Tony Drago or Cliff Thorburn will get walk-on roles in further instalments.