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R E V I E W S from The Washington Post Kathleen George's Taken is a first-class first novel about a kidnapping in Pittsburgh. Its heroine, Marina Benedict, is a thirtyish, mostly unemployed actress, unhappily married to a lawyer who cannot father a child. One day, after she and her husband leave a marriage-counseling session, Marina stops to admire a baby being pushed in its carriage by its mother. Later that morning, Marina spots the same baby in the arms of a shabby-looking man. Suspecting foul play, she follows the man into a deserted building. For her troubles, she is taken prisoner, shot and left for dead. Because the baby's father is a young pitcher just signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates, the media are all over the kidnapping story, and the police expect a ransom demand. But none comes, because the kidnappers had snatched the baby at random to deliver to a shady lawyer, who would in turn sell it to a childless couple in a backdoor "adoption." Two of the kidnappers, realizing that Marina is alive and can identify them, return to find and kill her. Richard Christie, the lead detective on the case, puts her in a new apartment to live under an assumed name. The cop and the witness soon find themselves falling in love. Whether or not the missing baby will be found alive generates plenty of suspense, but it is George's grasp of the human factor that makes her novel such a pleasure. She understands the detective's anguish as he contemplates leaving a wife he does not love and children he does love; she captures the pain of the baseball player and his wife as the loss of their baby rocks their marriage. And Marina Benedict, intelligent and beautiful, brave in confronting criminals but uncertain in the face of love, is a heroine to savor. This is a thinking person's thriller, written with skill, self- confidence and sensitivity -- a fine piece of work. from Entertainment Weekly George's off-beat thriller about an out of work actress who accidentally becomes involved in a high profile child abduction case boasts three ingredients too often missing from the suspense genre: irony, humor, and plausibly flawed, cliché-free characters. Marina Benedict may be young and beautiful, and the cop she falls in love with handsome (and married), but they've got beautifully delineated inner lives that are far from picture perfect. George is as concerned with the random relationships between her protagonists (and thugs) as she is with the investigation. A refreshingly un-gimmicky denoument doesn't compromise these character-driven realities--or the reader's intelligence. A- from Glamour Magazine A pretty, baby-lusting actress whose marriage is on the rocks; a kind-hearted, workaholic cop; a set of new parents, the father a rookie pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates; and some cold-blooded, baby-stealing crooks. These are just a few of the players George expertly juggles in her gripping, romantic debut thriller, which kicks off when the actress, Marina, notices a mother and a baby, then moments later spots the baby with a suspicious stranger. You'll pant with every plot turn as you revel in George's sensual, often profound prose. from Kirkus Black-market adoption ring kidnaps a baby boy and nearly kills the gentle young woman who tries to stop them—in a first novel by short-story author George (The Man in the Buick, 1999). Leaving the downtown Pittsburgh office of her marriage therapist, numb with grief and shock after another disastrous session with her ought-to-be-ex-husband, Marina Benedict runs into a man holding a four-month-old boy. Intuitively aware that something isn't right, she strikes up a conversation and has her impression confirmed by the man's odd answers. Fearing for the child's safety, she follows them to a bleak, deserted building, where she's captured and roughed up by the stranger and his accomplice. Fragments of the talk she overhears fill in some details: the pair kidnapped the boy on impulse when his mother left him unattended for a moment, but TV reports inform them that he is the son of rookie Pirates pitcher Ryan Graves, and now they plan to take the infant out of state. Before Marina can learn more, she's bound and gagged, shot in the head, and left for dead. Found by Richard Christie, the rugged detective investigating the kidnapping, she can tell him almost nothing. [Christie] hides Marina in a safe house, but one of the kidnappers comes back to stalk her. He belongs to a black-market baby ring, we learn, and he's determined to avoid taking the fall for this screw-up. The FBI and the police work night and day to solve the case and find the missing child, but there are few leads. Readers, however, know that a shady, two-bit lawyer has arranged an "adoption" for upscale couple Steve and Valerie Emmons; he handed over Baby Graves at a clandestine meeting in the middle of the night, and theyasked no questions. The suspense comes from wondering not whodunit but how the indefatigable Christie will finally nab them all. A gripping thriller with real emotional power and remarkably subtle characterization. from Booklist Set in Pittsburgh, this engrossing thriller features the lovely and resourceful Marina Benedict, a would-be actress whose marriage is falling apart and whose career is at a standstill. During a tense counseling session with her husband, Michael, Marina asks for a separation. When Michael angrily drives off in their car, Marina is forced to take the bus and through this quirk of fate witnesses a strange, unfriendly man holding a baby she had seen with its mother a few moments earlier. Suspecting foul play, Marina warily gets off the bus in a bad part of town to trail the suspected kidnapper, who disappears into an abandoned building. Compelled to follow, Marina is captured by three thugs and joins the infant as a hostage. Assigned to the case when the abducted child turns out to be the baby son of one of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Detective Richard Christie has few leads--until he discovers a seriously injured Marina, shot and left for dead by the kidnappers. A lyrically written and fascinating tale. |
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