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KIDNAPPED
by Jan Burke
Simon & Schuster, October 2006
384 pages
$24.00
ISBN: 0743273850


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Newspaper reporter Irene Kelly and her homicide detective husband Frank Harriman return in Edgar-award winner Jan Burke's 12th novel. To introduce myself to these characters, I dug out my as yet unread copy of Burke's first novel, GOODNIGHT, IRENE, and immediately ensconced myself in the captivating environs of Las Piernas, California, a seaside community near Los Angeles. This provided me with a great springboard from which to dive into KIDNAPPED.

The Fletchers are a large family of adopted and foster children taken in by one of Las Piernas' most prestigious and well-connected patriarchs, Graydon Fletcher. Graydon has long made education a primary focus for his children, and the Fletcher Academy is one of the top private schools in the state. Most of Graydon's 'children' adopt or take in foster children of their own, and all of them are gifted, intelligent young people who are nurtured and cultivated into adults who hold positions of power in every stratum of society.

Graphic artist Richard Fletcher thinks the family has become almost cult-like and rebels against attempts to bring his children into the fold. He's discovered bludgeoned to death in his studio. Missing are his three-year-old daughter, Jenny, and his rebellious stepson, Mason.

Mason is found hours later, naked and passed-out drunk in a wrecked car in the San Bernardino Mountains. Police find plenty of evidence to implicate him in his stepfather's murder, but no sign of Jenny. Mason is convicted of murdering both his stepfather and sister, although his mother and brother Caleb steadfastly believe in his innocence.

The story picks up five years later with Irene Kelly doing an article on missing children and custodial abductions for her newspaper, the Las Piernas News Express. Her phone is flooded with calls that will come to haunt her – tips, grieving parents, and suspicious theorists.

One such call is from the ex-wife of a man, Gerry Serre, believed to have kidnapped their son two years earlier. Then Serre's remains are discovered on a muddy slope, and new questions arise as to the whereabouts of the boy.

Caleb Fletcher, who in response to his family's tragedy has made a point of disassociating himself from the Fletchers while studying forensic science in college, still holds out hope that his sister Jenny will be found alive and that his brother Mason's conviction will be overturned.

Because of her husband's position with the Las Piernas Police Department, Irene is prohibited from covering stories related to any types of crime. When links between her story and the murders are unearthed, however, Irene uses her considerable investigative skills to piece together the growing evidence about Jenny Fletcher's disappearance, and discovers a plot so intricately constructed that it's difficult to tell which of the Fletchers are involved and which are innocent.

Also mixed up in this complicated web of information is a self-serving search-and-rescue specialist with ties to the far-reaching Fletcher family. Irene and a fledgling reporter from the Express go to the woman's house to interview her about the forensic evidence she and her trained SAR dog found at the Serre crime scene. When they arrive, they discover the woman has become yet another victim of a cold, methodical killer.

Irene writes another story about a young girl believed to have been kidnapped by her non-custodial mother and is immediately contacted by a child who believes herself to be that girl. When Irene goes to meet the little girl to get her story, she stumbles onto the astonishing truth and nearly becomes a victim herself.

Burke's first-person point of view with Irene is interspersed with a third-person narrative from the points of view of the various Fletcher family members. I figured out who was who and what was what early on, but I'm pretty sure that was by design, which is the beauty of the thing. This isn't so much a mystery as it is a richly-drawn tale of family drama, power and loyalty, with gripping suspense meted out in small, satisfying doses. Burke's excellent pacing gives away just enough at a time to build to the conclusion, and although you suspect the disturbing truth, you can't help but be shocked when it's finally spelled out.

Reviewed by J. B. Thompson, February 2007

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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