I thought I’d read Jeffery Deaver before but I must have been mistaken. This book started out great but after about 1/2 way point it just kind of went rambling through more twists The Never Game 

The Never Game 
by Jeffrey Deaver 
2019/ 
Read by Kaleo Griffith 
Rating – B+/ mystery-thriller 
(#1 in Colter Shaw series) 

First we’re introduced to the protagonist, Colter Shaw, who describes himself as a  “missing person finder.”  He supports himself by collecting the rewards offered for finding missing persons of various sorts but he’s not a bounty hunter. His new assignment is finding a 19-year old woman who went missing after a fight with her now distraught father.   

Because this is the first of a 4-book series (to date) Deaver spends time developing Colter’s character. Watching this reward-motivated missing person hunter go about his business is fascinating. He totally thinks things out and goes by the percentages. His father was a political science professor and his mother, who still lives in the Sierras is a retired psychologist. They had turned survivalist who were semi-off-the-grid with guns and Shaw remembers fascinating bits and pieces of his childhood especially advice from his father.  He went to college but after trying it out finds  he does’t want to work in an office. He’s been doing this for 10 years now, ,living in a nicer RV and staying in the Sierra Nevadas when he can.   

Much of the plot is kind of standard thriller with emphasis on procedurals for a guy doing non-procedural work. Then it takes a turn for the techie with some serious gaming as the set-up.  I’ll likely read more.