Missing Dad: 1. Wanted

by J. Ryan

Missing Dad – Wanted is the first in a new series featuring the gutsy Joe St Aubin, the teenage son of a secret agent who has disappeared while working undercover. Sixteen year old Joe and his girlfriend Becks Bowman must learn the hard way how to deal with the criminal underworld after his father, secret agent Commander Julius Grayling, disappears. Desperately missing his father and failing at school, Joe is in deep trouble for driving underage, and suspected of a hit and run. In a chance encounter with the real culprit, a drug runner, Joe attracts the attention of billionaire drugs baron Alfredo Bertolini, who is hell bent on revenge. Joe is offered a glamorous job as chauffeur to the charismatic Monsieur Le Directeur of L’Ētoile Fine Wines, but his world implodes when he realises that he has been set up as a drug runner, in a Bentley loaded with cocaine and men with guns behind him. In the most terrifying drive of his life, Joe has to resort to some unusual tactics to deal with his unwelcome company. But even more danger awaits Joe and Becks when they confront Monsieur Le Directeur. The price of discovering whether he is friend or foe to Joe’s father turns into a nightmare of darkness, fire and water that drives the teenagers to the edge of despair. This series draws its appeal from Joe’s desperate search and love for his father and features compelling characters, fast cars and heart-stopping action.

• ISBN10: 1784624748
• ISBN13: 9781784624743
• Publish Date: 28 November 2015
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 22 March 2023
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Troubador Publishing
• Imprint: Matador
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 224
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

"Joe if someone had asked me if you would ever do something like this, I would have said absolutely not, that you just weren't the type. Now, I feel as though I hardly know you. "
See reviews first on my blog

When Joe is caught out late at night driving without a license and suspected of hitting a young man and then running, he is caught by the police and taken home to his mum and grandad. From there he is caught up in a legal case, and suspended from school. With this he is now spending all of his time working and searching for a new job and trying to figure out where his dad is and if he even remembers him at all. While working one day he searches for a new job and finds one that sounds like his dream job, driving a fast car and delivering wines. He gets the job almost immediately and moves to Bristol in order to be able to deliver the wines when needed.

"Am I sailing with the man who waved back to Dad? The colleague that Mum had said had sailed over from Marseilles? But even if I dared to ask,, I'm not sure where I'd began. "

One day when he is driving Monsieur (his boss) he takes him out on his boat and that’s when Joe remembers a memory from his father and begins to wonder if maybe this Monsieur is someone who knew his father and maybe he would know where his father was now.
As Joe continues to do the deliveries he realizes that something isn’t right and one night he opens them and sees that he’s not just delivering wine, but also cigars and an illegal substance. One that if he was caught with, would get him thrown into jail for a very long time.
With this new realization he knows he has to try to tell the police and find a way out of this job without getting killed. Easier said than done though and he has multiple attempts on his life, and it isn’t until he is able to contact his best friend Beck’s and she gets a message to the police that he is able to get out alive.

Overall I did struggle with this book a little at first, do it being a little slow paced and not understanding certain slang terms. But I did end up enjoy the last half of the book especially when him and Beck's were trying to find a way to safety.
If you want a quick action novel I would say this is a pretty good choice.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this book.