Wayward Son — Steve Goble

A PI goes hunting for a missing boy -- and ends up being prey

Ed Runyon, a former sheriff's deputy haunted by past missing child cases that went horribly wrong, is struggling to launch a PI agency and still live in the Ohio farm country he loves. His love life is in shambles, too, as his partner turns to someone else. His best friend got roughed up by a rogue cop, so Ed is in a fighting mood.

Ed finds a new focus when he is hired to find a runaway chess aficionado who is keeping secrets from his homophobic, religious parents. Finding kids is the reason he became a PI, so Ed is determined to succeed and put the demons and other problems behind him. But Jimmy Zachman made a bad move and ran into far more trouble than he was already in, and the hunt for him leads Ed to a deadly and desperate confrontation. Everything comes down to determination -- and one very risky move. Ed must find Jimmy at all costs.

Perfect for fans of John Sandford and Robert Crais

While the novels in the Ed Runyon Mystery Series stand on their own and can be read in any order, the publication sequence is:

City Problems
Wayward Son
Go Find Daddy (coming 2023)