Taken - Softcover

George, Kathleen

3.41

323 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0440236614 ISBN 13: 9780440236610

Publisher: Dell Pub Co, 2002

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Marina Benedict, a young actress, witnesses what appears to be the kidnapping of a baby in broad daylight and suddenly finds herself joining forces with lonely, world-weary police detective Richard Christie to find the missing child, the son of a rookie pitcher for the Pittsburg Pirates. A first novel. Reprint.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

"Gripping...a tough and tender thriller."
--Perri O'Shaughnessy
"You'll pant with every plot turn as you revel in George's sensual, often profound prose."
--"Glamour
"A first-class novel...plenty of suspense."
--"The Washington Post
"Taken is a tough and tender thriller by a writer who knows the world of the heart as well as the world of crime. Kathleen George takes the reader on an intense, suspenseful ride in which even evil has a human face. This is a moving, gripping and mutilayered story in which the search for love touches everything, even grief for a lost baby. Ms. George's spare but eloquent style does justice to the important topic of the adoption industry in the U.S."
-- Perri O'Shaughnessy, author of Move to Strike
"Taken is that rare thriller that gives as much weight to its characters and prose as it does to its ticking time-bomb plot. The story drew me in, but it was the author's fallible, very human cast that kept me coming back for more. I look forward to reading anything that Kathleen George writes."
-- George P. Pelecanos, author of Right as Rain
"Taken is wonderful -- tautly constructed, complex. The criminals are as interesting as the heroes."
-- Nicholas Pileggi, author of Wise Guys

"In the row in front of her sat a man and a baby.
If she hadn't looked, if she had sat in the front of the bus, so many things might have been different.
She looked, as she always had (on planes, in doctors' waiting rooms, anywhere), toward the sound of a child. In the man's lap was a boy in blue overalls and a T-shirt that was a sea of sailboats.
"Oh, hello!" she said. "There you are again!"
For a moment there was stillness.
It seemed the man would turn to her, but he moved his shoulder forward to shield the baby.
Marina's gut reacted long before her mind did. Her stomach dropped. A moment's vertigo seized her.
Some other child, she told herself. The man is simply being protective. She looked again.
And the baby looked at her, studied her, making his little thoughtful faces.
No, this was the same child.
She leaned forward. She thought, " What am I doing? My life is falling apart, why court someone else's problem."
The boy began to cry....
"

"From the Hardcover edition."

"Taken is a tough and tender thriller by a writer who knows the world of the heart as well as the world of crime. Kathleen George takes the reader on an intense, suspenseful ride in which even evil has a human face. This is a moving, gripping and mutilayered story in which the search for love touches everything, even grief for a lost baby. Ms. George's spare but eloquent style does justice to the important topic of the adoption industry in the U.S."
-- Perri O'Shaughnessy, author of Move to Strike

"Taken is that rare thriller that gives as much weight to its characters and prose as it does to its ticking time-bomb plot. The story drew me in, but it was the author's fallible, very human cast that kept me coming back for more. I look forward to reading anything that Kathleen George writes."
-- George P. Pelecanos, author of Right as Rain
"Taken is wonderful -- tautly constructed, complex. The criminals are as interesting as the heroes."
-- Nicholas Pileggi, author of Wise Guys

In the row in front of her sat a man and a baby.
If she hadn't looked, if she had sat in the front of the bus, so many things might have been different.
She looked, as she always had (on planes, in doctors' waiting rooms, anywhere), toward the sound of a child. In the man's lap was a boy in blue overalls and a T-shirt that was a sea of sailboats.
"Oh, hello!" she said. "There you are again!"
For a moment there was stillness.
It seemed the man would turn to her, but he moved his shoulder forward to shield the baby.
Marina's gut reacted long before her mind did. Her stomach dropped. A moment's vertigo seized her.
Some other child, she told herself. The man is simply being protective. She looked again.
And the baby looked at her, studied her, making his little thoughtful faces.
No, this was the same child.
She leaned forward. She thought, What am I doing? My life is falling apart, why court someone else's problem.
The boy began to cry....

From the Hardcover edition.

About the Author:

Kathleen George, a director and theater professor at the University of Pittsburgh, is also the author of The Man in the Buick, a collection of stories. Her fiction has appeared in many publications, including North American Review and Mademoiselle. Taken is her first novel.
From the Hardcover edition.

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