Customer Reviews

Stolen (MIRA)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Six months has passed since New York Legal Aid attorney Amanda Davies ended her relationship with New York Gazette reporter Henry Parker because he chose work over her. Since getting a job on the newspaper, his life turned hectic and dangerous but not just for him; anyone close to him including Amanda (see THE MARK).

However, the investigative reporter puts his personal life on hold again when he is given an incredible exclusive. Five years ago, then six year old Daniel Linwood was kidnapped; the case went cold until now. Suddenly eleven years old Daniel has come home. He remembers nothing as to where he has been, what happened to him, or even how he ended up back at his family's house. Henry interviews the child, but learns nothing about the mystery from the kid. He and Amanda soon learn that other children have been abducted and ultimately returned. As they dig deeper, an unknown adversary is willing to kill the nosy journalist and his former girlfriend to prevent the truth from surfacing.

The latest Henry Parker investigative tale is an exciting whodunit as the hero and his ex girlfriend team up on the case. Henry is terrific as his inquiries leave him confused with more unanswered questions; his first hand account enhances his bewilderment and that of the audience as the motive is just out of reach. However, it is his sort of schizoid personality that makes him a superb character as he is a classic New York City cynic on the job and a closet romantic in his home. Fans will appreciate this entertaining suspense thriller with the right touch of sexual tension to augment a fine read.

Harriet Klausner

Author Jason Pinter steers Henry Parker down a slightly different road in "The Stolen", the third book in the popular series about an investigative journalist who tends to become dangerously involved in the stories he is reporting. Here Henry runs into less action and derring-do than normal (although there are still ample quantites of both), and becomes more deeply entrenched in mystery and in the work of straightening out his private life.

The mystery is a real corker. A young boy, taken from his family, suddenly shows up years later with no memories of where he has been, what he's been doing, or who kidnapped him. Henry soon discovers a pattern involving other children who disappeared without a trace, and then eventually turned up, seemingly unharmed but with their memories erased. The course of the investigation reunites him with his ex Amanda, a child welfare advocate whom he had dumped out of concern when one of his previous cases put her in physical peril. The solution of the puzzle leads both Henry and Amanda into more danger than they have previously encountered, and prompts them to reassess the feasibility of their relationship.

Pinter is a very talented writer who has a way of hooking his readers into each new story within the first paragraphs, and then stringing them along - willingly and pleasurably - until the last page. He does have one problem that becomes obvious in this particular novel, and only gets worse throughout the next several books in the Henry Parker series. Pinter needs a more diligent proofreader. One page 183 of "The Stolen", he writes: "There were three doors, both closed." Huh? Such gaffes tend to disrupt the flow of the story, destroying the exciting pace that Pinter has worked so hard to establish.

I'm one who very much appreciates those books which are true literature, but I can also appreciate and enjoy the pulp like page turners. Jason Pinter's books come closer to the latter category. I was itroduced to his books and his character, Henry Parker, in THE FURY which was very much the page turner, and then read the first book, THE MARK, another page turner. THE GUILTY was a slow down, and this book also is slower than THE MARK and THE FURY, but has more depth with the continuing characterizations of Paulina Cole and Jack O'Connell along with the progressive story of Henry and Amanda. The plot again is based on a very improbable, not totally plausible, premise, but one which is highly entertaining and while short on high voltage action should keep most readers engrossed.I do suggest reading these stories in order so that you're aware of the main charcter's growing maturity along with the developments in Pauline Cole's and Jack O'Connell's characters.

A young boy mysteriously reappears five years after being kidnapped from his parents home with no memory of the lost time, and reporter Parker soon realizes that something else, something larger, is afoot. THE STOLEN is a little different from the first two Pinter thrillers (THE MARK and THE GUILTY), and in my opinion the differences makes it the strongest of the trio. Pinter tones down the flying bullets and foot chases from his first two books (which were entertaining, but maybe a smidge over the top) and concentrates on more of a slow burning mystery with ramifications that strike at the heart of broken families, community, and of course Parker and his friends and loved ones. Henry is not a perfect hero, he's made mistakes in nearly every aspect of his life (sometimes maddeningly so), but this is refreshing and more realistic than some of the Captain America dopplegangers in the genre. This is a very good entry in one of the better new crime series to come along.

THE STOLEN is the third book of the Henry Parker series. While I feel all three books were equally good for storyline, the strong suit of the books are the characters. THE STOLEN was a bit predictable but I am glad I read it and I will continue to read books by Jason Pinter.

I got the book as promptly as I ordered it and found it in the exact order as advertised. I will get a lot of use out of this book!

This is the third novel in the great Henry Parker series, you can read it as a standalone story, however major parts of the first two novels' plots are given away by Parker's narration in this (the same thing also happens in his second novel the Guilty), those two books are great reads so grab a copy of The Mark, read it first, then grab a copy of The Guilty before reading page one of this one.

In the Stolen, Parker is told to drop everything and head to Hobbs County where he will be conducting the exclusive interview of the year. Parker will be interviewing Daniel Linwood, a boy who was abducted five years before turning up at his parents' house unaware the five years had gone by. This is no Flight of the Navigator alien abduction novel, Parker learns from going over the tapes of his interview that Daniel unconsciously knows he was held captive with at least one other boy. Parker also wonders why and is infuriated by the fact the police don't seem to want to know, that his editor has told him to drop the story after pressure from the politician who has been instrumental in fixing up Hobbs County from the crime cesspool it once was, to a great family friendly community it is today. Parker is sure Daniel is not the only victim, and is prepared to put his life on the line once again to get to the truth and to save whatever other child victims are out there.

The Stolen is a good fast paced read, however it is a little predictable and seems to wrap up very fast as if there was a looming word count that couldn't be exceeded. I also found the chapters narrated from the abducted victim's point of view, Daniel's siblings opening chapter, along with the ones narrated by Reggie Powers, especially his prison flashback ones, to be a lot more interesting than Parker's narrations. I would have liked to have seen more of those chapters and more from those characters.

The Henry Parker novels are great don't have to think too much ways to past the time. I've ordered the next in the series which is The Fury and recommend if you haven't already done so that you order a copy of the first instalment, The Mark.

"The Stolen" is the fifth Henry Parker novel I have read by Jason Pinter--following The Fury, The Darkness, The Mark, and The Guilty. Like the others, I ripped through this 333-page thriller in record time.

As usual, Henry digs deep into his stories as a reporter for the New York Gazette and unravels the threads leading to the spool of bad guys, putting his life and those around him in danger.

In this novel, Wallace Langston assigns Henry to write a story about 10 year old Daniel Linwood. Presumed dead, Danny shows up at the front doorstep of his parent's (Randall and Shelly) home, 5 years after being kidnapped with absolutely no memory of his life or where he had been during that time.

While interviewing the child Henry noted that on several occasions Danny used the words "his brothers," yet he only has one brother, James and one sister, Tasha. That coupled with his idol, the legendary Gazette anchor Jack O'Donnell's opinion that his story barely scratched the surface of the real story and several other events like the uncooperative Hobbs County Police Department, Democratic New York Senator Gray Talbot's interference and connections between Danny's Pediatrician (Dr. Dmitri Petrovsky) and a previously kidnapped child returned years later made Henry roll up his sleeves and dig for the real story.

Parker teams up with the estranged love of his life New York Lawyer, Amanda Davies of the New York Legal Aid Society to unravel this case as sparks fly and bodies mount.

I rated this as a 5-star novel, like all Jason Pinter's thrillers I have read because I enjoyed it from beginning to end and had trouble putting it down, however; the storyline was not as well put together as his other four great novels. Nevertheless, it was still a thrilling book full of drama that kept me frantically flipping pages to the end.

If you like fast-paced suspense thrillers, you will enjoy this and the author's other Henry Parker novels.

I liked this book more than the first two. While reading the book I couldn't help but think of the circumstances surrounding the abduction of Elizabeth Smart years ago and the recent reunion of Jaycee Dugard with her family. I did see the plot twist in this book coming and was hoping that Pinter didn't introduce the twist in a cheesy fashion. Fortunately Pinter was able to work his magic throughout the book and for that I think that this is the best of the series so far.

For a thriller, this was pretty boring. I'd already figured out the guilty party and their motivation by time the book was 100 pages old. The fact that there were no twists the rest of the way through didn't keep me from zipping along, but it did cause me to skim, skim, skim. Jason Pinter has created a very good protagonist in Henry Parker, but he's got to come up with something better in terms of plot development. It is possible for a newspaper reporter to break news without having his life on the line, and I'm sure Pinter can come up with a better thriller next time out.

Recommended, but not as good as the first two in the series.