Product Description

News reporter Irene Kelly untangles the threads of a past crime and a haunting disappearance while trying to survive the present -- in this suspense-charged bestseller from Edgar® Award winner Jan Burke.

Not long after the Las Piernas Express publishes Irene Kelly's articles profiling missing children cases, bones turn up at a California estate -- and a notorious murder-kidnapping is churned up once more. When artist Richard Fletcher was found bludgeoned in his studio years ago, his stepson was quickly apprehended with the murder weapon and ultimately convicted. But Richard's young daughter, Jenny, who went missing at the time of the murder, was never found. Now Irene has joined Richard's son Caleb, a graduate student of forensic anthropology, in the fight to prove his stepbrother's innocence and solve Jenny's disappearance. But digging up the tragedies of the sprawling and powerful Fletcher family isabout to set off a murderous chain reaction -- and put Irene's own life in peril.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #393597 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-25
• Released on: 2007-09-25
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.08" h x 4.16" w x 6.81" l, .43 pounds
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 400 pages

From Publishers Weekly
At the start of Edgar-winner Burke's well-crafted 10th novel of suspense (after 2005's Bloodlines), sociopathic killer Cleo Smith has just murdered a graphic artist, Richard Fletcher, who was a member of a large, bizarre California family, but Smith's motive for the killing remains obscure. Five years later, Fletcher's adopted son has been wrongfully convicted of the crime, and Burke's resourceful and compassionate reporter heroine, Irene Kelly, has written a story about missing children that has prompted a host of inquiries from desperate relatives who have lost their own children. When more bodies turn up and further clues point to involvement of Fletcher family members, Kelly, aided by her police detective husband, Frank Harriman, puts her life on the line to exonerate the innocent prisoner and uncover the disturbing secrets at the heart of the Fletcher clan. The many plot twists should keep readers turning the pages, even if the windup is a little improbable. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Family dysfunction takes on new meaning in Edgar winner Burke's latest mystery featuring newspaper reporter Irene Kelly (after Bloodlines, 2004). Like the earlier installments, this one is set in the fictional Southern California town of Las Piernas. Multimillionaire Graydon Fletcher and his wife have devoted their lives to providing for the less fortunate. Unable to have children themselves, the couple opts to adopt--21 boys and girls in all. Though they are not bound by blood, there's something incestuous about the Fletcher clan; nearly all of the offspring attend the elite Fletcher Academy (founded and funded by Graydon), and even as they grow older, the siblings spend nearly every waking hour in one another's company. After one Fletcher son is murdered and another is imprisoned for the crime, Kelly and her homicide-detective husband, Frank Harriman, unearth sinister truths about stolen identities and stolen lives. Burke's writing is crisp, but her characters are predictable, and her plot convoluted at best. Readers fascinated by forensic science should be content to focus on the pivotal clues gathered through the wonders of DNA. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Enthralling.... Jan Burke again shows her boundless energy in ratcheting up suspense while keeping a center of realism.... Burke's crisp writing steers the plot on a steady course and her affinity for creating believable, fully dimensional characters thrust into realistic situations succeeds multiple times in Kidnapped." -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel

"A refreshingly original mystery.... not to be missed."-- Library Journal (Starred Review)

"A sizzling story of betrayal, revenge, and murder....Smart and beautifully plotted."-- The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

"Burke's well-crafted novel of suspense [features] her resourceful and compassionate reporter heroine, Irene Kelly.... The many plot twists should keep readers turning the pages...." -- Publishers Weekly

"Fast-paced, superbly plotted." -- Green Bay Press-Gazette (Wisconsin)