Runaway [Paperback] May, Peter

A Chinese teenager vanishes from a Glasgow tower block. Her uncle — a former Red Guard soldier turned restaurant owner — asks his nephew Li Yan, a Beijing detective, to find her. What begins as a favour turns into something darker when Li Yan discovers the girl was fleeing a brutal people-smuggling ring. Peter May weaves a taut, atmospheric thriller that spans from the gritty streets of Glasgow to the underbelly of illegal immigration networks. The writing is sharp and unsentimental, the stakes escalating with every chapter. May, best known for his Lewis Trilogy, brings the same skill for setting and tension here, dropping readers into unfamiliar worlds with visceral clarity. If you like crime fiction with international scope and moral weight — think John le Carré meets Ian Rankin — this delivers.