THE ABDUCTION
Mark Gimenez
Vanguard Press
Thriller
ISBN-10: 1593154631
ISBN-13: 9781593154639

• About the Book
• Read an Excerpt
• Author Interview -- September 7, 2007

If you have a son or daughter, then you are going to race through Mark Gimenez’s THE ABDUCTION as if his or her life depended upon it. We’ve all been there. You’re at a busy public gathering, you turn your head for a second, and --- poof! --- your child, the center of your universe, has disappeared. A hole opens up in your stomach and every bit of you pours right into it. You start calling, and in a few seconds (which at the time feels like hours), you see them, smiling and oblivious to the fact that you were on the edge of a heart attack.

In THE ABDUCTION, such a thing happens to John Brice, a Bill Gates clone who is on the verge of taking his software company public in a move that will make him insanely wealthy. Gracie, his 10-year-old daughter, is a soccer prodigy, an absolute marvel on the field, and is spark-plugging her team along the way to another title. John, meanwhile, is attempting to divide his time between watching Gracie and closing the deal over the phone. Of the two items competing for his attention, guess which gets the bigger part? It’s not the one running up and down the field who, we quickly learn, adores her father.

By the time John’s business dealings have wrapped up, he at once will be rich and in the middle of a nightmare beyond his imagination. And Gracie’s mom? Elizabeth Brice, referred to as “attorney at large” by John, isn’t even there. She’s busy with a highly successful legal practice, and by the time she reaches the field, it’s game over --- not only for the soccer match, but also for Gracie. The young girl is gone, abducted by persons unknown, with the odds of finding her alive rapidly dwindling with each hour that passes by. A suspect is apprehended fairly quickly but denies any knowledge of the kidnapping. Which isn’t enough to save him. Or Gracie.

Despite her hapless parents, Gracie does have an ace in the hole: Ben Brice, estranged father of John, Vietnam War hero, alcoholic, and grandfather of Gracie. Ben has been living quietly in isolation, building custom furniture by day and drinking himself into oblivion by night. A stand-up guy who self-medicates against what he experienced in Vietnam, Ben is Gracie’s only hope. Engaging in an uneasy truce with his son, Ben relies on his combat sense, a near-lifetime of good and brave acts paid forward, and a partly instinctive, partly psychic link with Gracie to travel halfway across the country to find his granddaughter and bring her back after she is unofficially given up for dead.

THE ABDUCTION is much more than a scaled-down version of Commando, however. While stuffed to its considerable brim in action, it is as much about relationships as strategy. Gimenez skillfully weaves the interactions between John and Elizabeth through the narrative while creating a tantalizing mystery --- the “why” of Gracie’s abduction --- that will keep you guessing until almost the very end. There are secrets and excitement and just about everything you would ever want from a reading experience.

   --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

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