Arthur Pender and his college friends have few prospects and many reasons to turn to crime after the U.S. economic collapse. Embarking on what they call “the Pender Program,” the group launches into a series of low risk kidnappings designed to allow them to retire in five years while avoiding police or media attention. When the gang’s next mark takes an unexpected vacation, Pender and his crew are left scrambling. Needing a payday, they make a bad decision: Beneteau, the choice to replace their erstwhile mark, has ties to organized crime. When he ends up dead, two groups are alerted to the activities of Pender and his crew: Beneteau’s mobster friends, and the cops.

Despite his world-weariness, Kirk Stevens of the Minnesota state police is meticulous about his work. Suspecting that pros like Pender and his gang are from out of state, Stevens approaches agent Carla Windermere of the FBI. The notion of jurisdictional infighting among state police and the feds is a bit of a cliché in this genre; Stevens’ willingness to engage the FBI and his ensuing partnership with Windermere is therefore refreshing.

As for Pender and his buddies, for the first time they find themselves on the run. After one of the group is apprehended, they become increasingly desperate, the body count ratchets up, and the friends find themselves torn between self-preservation and loyalty.

The strength of Toronto writer Owen Lukkanen’s debut lies in its eponymous gang of professional kidnappers. Their camaraderie and banter engenders sympathy that transcends their misdeeds. Readers end up rooting for them, and hoping they get away clean. While Stevens and Windermere have good chemistry, more attention is paid to the criminals than the cops, and as a result it’s sometimes uncertain whose story this is.

What is certain: Lukkanen can write, and The Professionals remains tense right up to its final, bloody resolution.