Elizabeth Lowell The Wrong Hostage

The Wrong Hostage

Elizabeth Lowell

Morrow, Jun 2006, $24.95

ISBN 0060829818

Recently divorced from billionaire Ted Franklin, California State Judge Grace Silva is called by their son's school because their teenage son Lane is being held prisoner at his exclusive Mexican prep school that caters to the ultra wealthy. The ransom demand is simple, cold-blooded killer druglord Hector Rivas Osuna demands that Ted return the millions he stole from him with interest or Lane dies.

While the clock ticks away a frantic and stunned Grace tries to call Ted, but he has vanished. Desperate and knowing that if she handed over the demanded loot her son will probably die anyway as a warning to Ted and others, Grace turns to another former spouse, kidnap specialist Joe Faroe, who no longer does that work ever since a rescue failed to save the victim. However, this case is personal and not just because he was Grace's husband before Ted, but because he also may be Lane's biological father; ergo Joe enters the fray.

This action thriller focusing on a mother's worse nightmare, a dangerous event happening to her offspring, is made fresh by the deep look at the Mexican drug trafficking. The action-packed storyline is fast-paced but character driven as fans will feel Grace's fears and anguish as she turns to Joe as her only hope; though he has his troubles too. Elizabeth Lowell provides a terrific tense tale that grips readers from start to finish (set aside plenty of time as this is a one sitting read).

Harriet Klausner