The Abduction by Mark Gimenez
Okay, good, thick and satisfying book – my only gripe with it is the cover. The cover shows a little blonde girl in a dark coat standing looking helpless in dark woods, but the abductee in the book, Gracie Brice, albeit a blonde, ten-year-old girl, is never the weak or helpless kind. In fact, she’s the tough, no-nonsense star of her school’s soccer team, dreaming of maybe being the next Mia Hamm, when she’s not dreaming of a country music career. When she’s abducted, she’s still in her soccer uniform, after a game her father is ineptly videotaping, and her mother has missed – as usual.
Her parents are the nerdy, socially awkward but brilliant John Brice, whose software company will make him a billionaire in a few days, and the beautiful, smart, tough-as-nails Elizabeth Brice, attorney you never want to oppose in court. Or anywhere else, for that matter. She is a former US Attorney, and fled to Dallas, TX and marriage after a case gone horribly wrong ten years before. Gracie’s little brother, Sam, and grandmother Kate – Ben’s wife though they have been separated for years – are left to try and cope with the whirl of Press, law enforcement and even psychics who descend on the town and the family.
But when Gracie is abducted, the person she immediately thinks of who will find her is her grandfather, Ben Brice, a Vietnam Vet, former POW, Purple Heart recipient, obvious PTSD victim and reclusive drunk.
To all this add a vendetta, a White Supremacist plot, and family secrets that John never knew existed, and you have a fascinating book. Everything ends up tying together in ways that were not apparent at the start – and how the tangled mass of events is resolved is very well played as well.
Excellent book, and a real page-turner. And while Gracie is at one point running through trees, it is not a dark forest, it’s a snow-covered mountain, she’s not wearing a black heavy coat and she never stands helplessly still. I do so hate when the cover artists hasn’t read the book.
Ignore the cover – they changed it for the paperback, but still got it wrong – her uniform was blue, not red – but read the book if you like a good mystery, and aren’t squeamish, as Ben still relives the Vietnam War in his head every time he closes his eyes.