The Ransom-Maggie Price

The Ransom
Maggie Price
Harlequin Special Releases, Oct 2007, $5.99
ISBN: 9780373198900

It has been a decade since Kathryn Connor stepped on the family owned Cross-C Ranch in Texas, but with the death of her martinet grandfather she has come home accompanied by her five-year-old Matthew. However, she is hardly back when someone breaks into her home while she is sleeping and abducts Matt. The kidnapper leaves behind a cell phone with a text message warning her no cops and one million dollars in ransom or her child will die. She is frantic yet unsteady as she will learn later that her wine that she takes every night was drugged; Kathryn panics because her son needs medicine everyday to prevent his body from rejecting his kidney transplant.

Her ex-husband Devlin is overseas at a remote site on a film project so is difficult to reach him. Instead she turns to Clay Turner, whose parents were abducted in Columbia and knows first hand how to deal with a kidnapping although in his case doing everything right still failed to save the lives of his loved ones. He knows the person who snatched the child had intimate knowledge re Kathryn’s habits and he arranges for an expert negotiator to take charge. he knows his one regret in life was rejecting Kathryn’s love years ago and that still haunts him.

This is an exciting second chance at love romantic suspense thriller as Clay seeks redemption and Kathryn seeks the safe return of her beloved son. The story line is fast-paced with the clock ticking. Clay points out that the kidnapper obviously knows intricate details about mother and son, but fans will wonder how anyone would know so much since she just moved back for instance that she drinks a glass of wine each night. Still readers will appreciate the deep look at the desperate mom who knows she needs help (not everyone is Mel Gibson) as she drives this exciting tale.

Harriet Klausner