Customer Reviews

Steal Away

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Like most readers, I was attracted by the nightmare of a mother dealing with a stolen child. Several improbable plot devices (ESP and and the sperm donor dying of AIDS) made even this potentially gripping plot weak. But, what irritated me was the fragile mother who could not seem to be critical of her grossly philandering husband who has sex with her sister in the kitchen many times while she is upstairs. The mother does not even ask her sister to move out and barely reacts when she walks in on her husband and sister. She does say something to her husaband--his reply is that he is a "horny prick." Oh, well! Everyone in the book knows her husband and sister are having sex and when one character asks her why she sticks with him her answer is that marriage includes even the tough times. The husband never makes any effort to reform, shows her no respect and it is left unresolved. I'd prefer a stronger heroine.

Don't start reading Katherine Clark's STEAL AWAY if you have pressing responsibilities because you won't be able to put it down. Katherine's portrayal of a mother in search for her lost child is both chilling and believable, and the mother, Rachel, is very real--she's flawed, and she knows it, but nothing is going to stop her until she finds her son. The book pulls the reader back and forth between two compelling questions: why did David get kidnapped and will Rachel find him in time? It's great.

This was one of the absolute worst -- and most annoying -- cast of characters I've ever had the misfortune to stumble across. The heroine is a weak, 'poor me' whiner who I now firmly believe deserved everything she got just by virtue of her own 'talk-show mentality' choices. Her husband is a self-serving, egotistical, condescending jerk who's sleeping with his own sister-in-law in his own house, and his idiot wife can't even manage to summon enough outrage to stop petting his poor pounding forehead. By the middle of the book I was sincerely hoping that whoever stole the astoundingly unimaginative and inept kid would come back in the middle of the night and kill the whole family, just to put them -- and me, as the reader -- out of my misery. Have women's expectations really sunk so low that betrayals by husbands, sisters and mothers are considered the norm now and are perfectly acceptable quality traits in the hero? And that heroines are just as dense and pathetic at the end of the book as they are in the beginning? Ugh. A major exercise in frustration.

This is possibly the worst book I've ever read. I literally was skimming the pages 1/2 way through just to get to the conclusion. The female "heroine" is so weak kneed and pathetic it's amazing she can tie her shoelaces by herself not to mention track down her missing son! She kept complaining how everyone thought of and treated her as a crazy person and honey! if the loony bin fits...!

I realize this was a first book attempt and heaven knows I don't have the talent for writing but if you read this book just go in with eyes wide open.

This may be the most annoying book I've ever read. The main character, with whom the reader should at least sympathize, made my skin crawl. She represented every negative stereotype of women ever perpetrated. She is inept, ineffectual, irritating. She was so useless as a mother that I didn't care who kidnapped her son -- he'd be better off with anyone but her.

Her "poor pitiful me" demeanor, her delight in her own incompetence, her willingness to tolerate emotional abuse from her husband (abuse that, frankly, I wanted to inflict on her myself) made this reader hope that she would be done away with before the book's end.

I am amazed that a woman writer could and would create such a caricature of a character, much less hang a novel on an idiot like this.

The primary plot of Steal Away is compelling enough; the frantic and suspenseful search for a missing child practically turns the pages by itself. The real gem of this story, though, is Katherine Clark's use of powerful sub-plots. The characterization and relationships in this book are so dynamic and plentiful: Rachel's somewhat telepathic connection with her missing son; the adulterous liaison between Rachel's husband and sister; the underscored spark between Rachel and Detective Gallagher; The uninvited bond between Rachel and the biological father of her son...they go on and on. Obviously, the primary plot line demands resolution and gets it. Unfortunately, the sub plots are what really drive this book and hold the reader's focus - and demand resolution just as fervently, something Clark fails to deliver. I inhaled this book from the first page and had the impression at the end that my copy must be missing the last 15 or so pages! How can Clarke justify introducing such intricate relationships and parallel story lines, and then just leave the reader hanging on everything but the main plot - ironically, the one thread where the reader is likely to guess the outcome anyway!

Terrific! When some copyeditor wrote 'compelling' on this jacket flap, they weren't kidding. And a genuine cliffhanger ending. I enjoyed every page. Oh, and I liked the way the antagonists discovered the ... well, I'd better not say for fear it'll sppoil the story for other readers. Very clever. (Oh these antagonists are sooo devious.) Personally, I recommend that everyone in the USA and Canada read this book (other countries are invited, too) if they want a really super story with super-real characters. I liked Rachel, the protagonist and I think every reader will identify with her -- like her, root for her, want everything to come out all right. And there are other characters, some of whom I dislike (ranging from mild distaste to downright contempt) but this is what the author intended, so I guess that helped make it a better story.

A child is kidnapped. The mother is desperate to get her son back. She comes across as a ninny to me. The author tries hard to convey the emotions of her characters instead of letting the story tell it. The dialog seemed wrong at times and small mistakes in the flow of the story. I would never read a novel by Katherine Clark again. Stay away from Steal Away.

I first read this book because I like the author's mysteries under her nom-de-plume (Kate Flora) long before I had kids of my own and like some reviewers dismissed the 'psychic' feelings of the main character Rachel as literary hooey and an elegant plot device. Now a parent of two-year-old twins, I find the same feelings within myself and, when re-reading it on a sunny afternoon while the twins played, found myself shuddering and staring at every strange van in our neighborhood. In her non-literary former day job, I'm certain Ms. Clark had been exposed to every sort of child trauma and tragedy and she writes about them with the compassion of an insider to the human drama that unfolds. As I write this, I am remided of the two Amber Alerts that were issued within the past week and how every parent needs to be aware. But aside from the reality of what she writes, I found myself turning pages wanting to see what happens next and if all would end well (as it usually does in fiction if not in real life).

I love a book that scares me this way (knowing it's not true and it isn't happening to me) and Steal Away kept my eyes glued to its pages from beginning to end. These were real people in a really desperate situation. Well plotted, well drawn, just an excellent read. If you miss this one, you're really missing something wonderful.