Thursday, December 06, 2007

Pg. 99: Mark Gimenez's "The Abduction"

The latest feature at the Page 99 Test: Mark Gimenez's The Abduction.

About the book, from the official website:
Ben Brice lives alone in the New Mexico wilderness, where he builds furniture and battles memories of Vietnam with oceans of Jim Beam. Miles away in Texas, his estranged son, John, an Internet geek-turned-billionaire, half-watches his daughter Gracie’s soccer game while on his cell phone. When her mother, Elizabeth, arrives, the coach reports that her “brother” has already collected Gracie. But she has no brother- the girl was kidnapped. The FBI gets called, as does Ben Brice. Though rebuffed by his family as a pathetic drunk, Ben hopes to help save his beloved granddaughter. With dozens of Feds and cops camped out in the house, the family offers a reward of $25 million. Then the cops, searching out known sex offenders in the area, find Gracie’s jersey and traces of her blood in the car of Gary Jennings, an employee of John Brice. They bring Jennings in, the case is closed, and Gracie is presumed dead. Ben, however, does not believe Gracie is dead, nor does he believe that Jennings is the abductor. After uncovering an FBI lead that placed two men with a blonde girl in Idaho, Ben and John decide to check it out. As the race against time continues, family secrets from their past make Gracie’s survival more uncertain than ever.
Among the praise for the novel:
"Caution: don’t start this book unless you have time to finish it - I could not put it down. After his excellent debut, The Color of Law, Gimenez just knocks it out of the park with his sophomore effort. The Brice family are a little more well-to-do than most; Elizabeth is a successful Dallas attorney, and her husband John is a computer nerd with a company that is about to go public and make him a billionaire. Their ten-year-old daughter Gracie is a budding soccer star and it is at her game that things go awry - Gracie is kidnapped while Dad is on the phone about his IPO and Mom is late coming from court. People may fear for their lives, but they really fear for their children’s lives, and these characters are so well drawn that it becomes incredibly easy to suspend your disbelief and get completely caught up in the story. I loved the tough-as-a-tiger mom, and the special bond between Gracie and her retired Green Beret grandfather was especially touching, all of which helped ratchet up the suspense even more. The Abduction is one of the best thrillers of the year."
--Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch

"There are times when life gets so overwhelming that even a good book can’t keep your mind from wandering. That’s when you need a super-riveting read like this to take you away. It’s a tale with a normally hard-to-take premise -- child abduction. But in the hands of bestselling author Mark Gimenez, it becomes a tale of humanity, heroism, and hope, with complex characters who jump off the page. Boy can this guy tell a story!"
--Bonnie Trachtenberg, Book-of-the-Month club

"John R. Brice should be on top of the world: he’s brilliant, has a beautiful family, and his company’s about to go public, which will make him a multimillionaire. But when his ten-year-old daughter is kidnapped, which exposes fractures in the Brice family, John would give it all up in a heartbeat to get her back. More than just a kidnap-for-ransom, though, Gracie’s abduction is part of a plot that threatens the White House. When the FBI and local law enforcement close the case, it’s John’s father, Ben, a Vietnam vet, who helps the Brice family unravel the long-held secrets that hold the key to Gracie’s return. In his dynamic follow-up to The Color of Law, Gimenez has written a startling, multilayered thriller in which complex characters and a fast-moving plot grab the reader immediately. Smart dialog and a spunky Gracie, who never loses her cool, make for a memorable read that twists and turns until the final, cinematic conclusion."
--Library Journal, starred review

"Another explosive thriller that is impossible to put down.... Plenty of twists and turns, and a plot that keeps you guessing right until the end. Definitely not one to miss."
--CrimeSquad.com/UK

"A cracking read."
--The Times (London)

Mark Gimenez is the best-selling author of The Color of Law.

Visit the official website for the novel and Mark Gimenez's website.

Watch a video of Gimenez discussing the main characters from The Abduction and the emotional process and research he underwent to tell this story.

The Page 99 Test: The Abduction.

--Marshal Zeringue