At the beginning of this year I saw that an untitled Robert Crais novel was set to be published in the Fall of 2024. Well, the novel now has a title — THE BIG EMPTY — and has been further delayed until January of 2025.

I have access to an electronic advance reading copy from NetGalley and am reading it right now. Elvis Cole is faced with a near-impossible task. Here is the plot:

Traci Beller was thirteen when her father disappeared in the sleepy town of Rancha, not far from Los Angeles. The evidence says Tommy Beller abandoned his family, but Traci never believed it. The police couldn’t find her dad and neither could the detectives her mother hired, but now, ten years later, Traci is a super-popular influencer with millions of followers and the money to hire a new detective: Elvis Cole.

Taking on a ten-years-cold missing person case is almost always a loser, but Elvis heads to Rancha where he learns an ex-con named Sadie Givens and her daughter, Anya, might have a line on the missing man. But when Elvis finds himself shadowed by a deadly gang of vicious criminals, the simple missing persons case becomes far more sinister and dangerous. Elvis calls in his ex-Marine friend, Joe Pike, to help, but even Pike might not be able to help.