Kidnap: Five Lives are about to change ... forever

by Barbara Spencer

Children of powerful and wealthy parents are vanishing. It's serial kidnapping on an international scale ~ and the kidnappers are calling all the shots. It started in the UK with the disappearances of PJ Scott, only son of the world's highest paid film star, and Hunter Driscoll, whose Irish father is a high tech billionaire. Then it spread to the US and Europe, with no end in sight. Having eliminated the possibility of terrorists, and with no real clues, Scotland Yard is rapidly running out of options... And the clock is ticking.

340 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 26, 2016

About the author

In 1967, considering herself to be destined for a life of mediocrity, Barbara Spencer hi-tailed it to the West Indies to watch cricket, the precursor to a highly colourful career spanning three continents, in which she was caught up in riots, wars and choosing Miss World. She eventually settled in Somerset, to bring up a family, tap-dance and teach at the local swimming club. But, as her daughter says: 'teaching swimming and tap dancing does rather lack the wow factor, Mum.'
After a dozen books for children and YA's after another memorable visit to Amsterdam, Barbara changed tack and embarked on a series of books associated at various times with the city. Beginning with 'The Year the Swans Came' an historical romance, which was published in 2018. The Click of a Pebble, book 1 of the trilogy Children of Zeus, followed with Books 2 & 3, and finally the sequel to Swans: Sunset on Golden Wings in April 2021which links up the stories of all the characters and brings them all to a conclusion.

Reviews

[Jeanette Ford · Rating 4 out of 5]

victims of the kidnap. PJ, the son of the rich and famous actor Renton Scott, always at loggerheads with his father over money and is deeply unsatisfied with his life, gets kidnapped and, along with a young boy, finds himself imprisoned in the middle of a jungle, goodness only knows where. As time goes by, they are joined by two more boys and a girl, all of rich backgrounds. This terrifying situation brings together five youngsters who wouldn’t normally have associated with each other and together they face their situation, when, after a certain happening , it seems they are doomed to rot away where they are with no one knowing their whereabouts.
In the meantime, the police force of each child’s country has joined forces to find them but it seems they just can’t find the leads they need.
While the law-enforcers struggle to get a lead into whoever is behind the kidnapping, the five children have to deal with their situation. As they do so, they find that their outlooks on their individual lives are changing as they learn to help and support each other through their adventure.
I don’t want to explain the story any more than that; I don’t go in for ‘spoilers’, but I found this a fascinating read. The author shows great insight into the working of these young people’s minds and the changes that can take place through adversity.
The only criticism I have of the book is that the end was rather sudden and abrupt, I would have liked a little more. However, I have to say that, upon retrospect, the ending was probably right, and any further conclusions have to be made in the mind of the reader.

[Nikki Bywater · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five children are kidnapped, all have wealthy, powerful and influential parents. A serial kidnapper is on the loose and when news of an unaccounted for plane crashing reaches the families and police they must act fast to save the lives and to bring the youngsters home safe.

Told from both the captured youths and the police and families looking for them points of view this story builds into quite an adventure for the youngsters, who are used to living very privileged lives and now find themselves having to fight for their freedom and form a friendship bond with each other in order to survive.

I enjoyed the pace of the book and the chapters at times left me in suspense and made me want to read on and find out what happens. I found all the characters likeable and I found the storyline original, although I did find the ending a little bit abrupt and would have preferred a more neater ending, but I can see why the author chose to give it the ending she did and it does work.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel is very, very British. Some of the terms and references are unfamiliar to me. And perhaps this is a British thing, but the story seems very underdeveloped. Throughout the story, significant facts and events are glossed over or omitted altogether. It's just presumed that some things happen without much mention or description. The ending is worst. It's exceedingly abrupt, leaving the story very much unfinished.

Nano Nagle's British accent is appropriate and she makes an effort to give distinctive voices to the characters, but in some cases, her distinction isn't quite sufficient, making it difficult to follow some dialog.

In all, this was a less than satisfying listen.

NOTE: I received a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for this unbiased review.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

“This audiobook was given by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom.”

When children of very wealthy families are kidnapped from different parts of the world, they are taken to a secret remote location. Circumstances cause them to forget their privileged lives and join together to fight for their freedom and survival. There are stories lingering behind the main storyline, that keeps the listener thinking. The ending almost seemed rushed................or maybe not. I will look for more from this author.



The narration was well done.The characters were well portrayed. The voicing was easy to listen to.

[Cyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note: In exchange for an unbiased review, the author, publisher, and/or narrator were kind enough to provide an audio version of this book at no charge via AudiobookBoom.

This novel was pretty decent. It fell a little short at the end, though, with how abruptly things came to a close.

The narrator (Nano Nagle) did a good job at distinguishing the voices and on the narration/exposition parts of the story.