Stolen in the Night [Kindle Edition]

Patricia MacDonald (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A child abduction with elements of the Elizabeth Smart case triggers this pallid romantic suspense novel from Edgar-finalist MacDonald (The Unforgiven). When she was nine, Tess DeGraff witnessed the knifepoint kidnapping of her teenage sister, Phoebe, by a wild-eyed man with a ponytail who warned her that breaking her silence would lead to her sister's death. Phoebe's abused corpse was found shortly afterward, and a local sex offender, Lazarus Abbott, was executed after Tess described the abductor and pointed to him in court. Two decades later, DNA evidence exonerates Abbott, and Tess becomes vilified in Abbott's New Hampshire home town, leading her to some awkward amateur sleuthing to uncover the truth. Her implausible relationship with Ben Ramsey, the attorney representing the Abbott family, fails to distract readers from identifying Phoebe's real killer, hidden by only a scant handful of red herrings. (Sept.)
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From Booklist

Having witnessed her teenage sister's violent abduction from their tent at a remote New Hampshire campground, 9-year-old Tessa DeGraff is the only person who can identify Phoebe's rapist and murderer. Relying heavily on the strength of her eyewitness account, police arrest a local man, Lazarus Abbott, who is tried, convicted, and executed for the crime. All this took place before DNA testing became commonplace, and now, 20 years later, Abbott's family wants their belief in his innocence verified. When the lab results prove them right, Abbott's family sets out to exact revenge upon Tessa and her young son, Erny. Determined to find out what really happened the night her sister was killed, Tessa finds an unlikely ally in Ben Ramsey, the Abbott's idealistic young lawyer, and an unexpected enemy in one of the town's most prominent citizens. With an intuitive and sympathetic heroine, inventive and unanticipated plot twists, MacDonald's captivating mystery is a buoyant blend of sweaty-palms suspense and you-go-girl adventure. Haggas, Carol

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 485 KB
• Publisher: Atria Books; 1 edition (September 4, 2007)
• Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000W5MI4E
• Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mystery in a sleepy New England town, October 29, 2007

By 

Marie Anne A. "Mary" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stolen in the Night: A Novel (Hardcover)

Death comes like a thief in the night, the saying goes! And, it is true for Phoebe DeGraff, a thirteen year old who is abducted, raped, and murdered on a family camping trip. Her sister, Tessa, witnesses her sister's abduction. Older brother Jake has skipped out on his sisters to attend a dance in town. Mom, Dad, and baby Sean are sleeping in another tent. Tessa identifies the killer, who is executed ten years after the crime. And now, it seems that the DNA tests prove that the killer wasn't the killer, after all. What will Tessa do now?

Stolen in the Night discusses all the "things" that were taken from the DeGraff family the night of Phoebe's murder. Jake loses his happiness; instead, he becomes angry and guilty. Tessa has gnawing feeling to love and be loved; she adopts a young boy, Erny (Air-knee). Rob DeGraff dies from the stress of his daughter's death. Dawn DeGraff eventually moves to the town where Phoebe was murdered; there, Dawn tends the inn that housed the DeGraffs during the trial.

Tessa's sense of closure is stolen the day she learns that her sister's killer is innocent. Tessa is determined to find out the truth about her sister's death. She immerses herself in the details of the village residents. She does her research on the crime. Along the way, she helped by many people: Ben, attorney; Aldous, retired police chief; Ken, former inn owner; Julie, nurse and sister-in-law; Channing, newspaper owner. Tessa's sense of safety is stolen in the darkness that envelopes her world as she becomes the criminal in this decades old case. She deals with threats, insults, and harassment. Her world is turned upside down as people break her trust. Will Tessa come out of the dark? Will she find closure admist the confusion and pain?

The climax is a disturbing metaphor of being stolen in darkness. Very powerful, very scary.

Tessa is a likeable character. We know all that we need to about her. Tessa's motivations are revealed little by little throughout the story. Sometimes we won't agree with Tessa's actions, such as the condo incident or the John Deer cap. Through it all, we support her because we know her. We also understand her family's heartache.

This is not a contrived, simplistic mystery story. It's filled with a few twists and turns and a surprise ending. I highly recommend it!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars interesting, November 11, 2007

By 

A. mccormick (Okla city ok) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Stolen in the Night: A Novel (Hardcover)

the story line was good but I
did a lot of skip reading. chapter after chapter of junk words like who was wearing what...how their hair looked, etc. what took 307 pages to write could have been done in 200 pages.

1.0 out of 5 stars such bad writing, November 1, 2011

By 

book lover (Westwood CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stolen in the Night: A Novel (Hardcover)

Seriously - I thought this book was awful - very poor plots, hardly any believable....I listed to it as a book on tape, maybe it wasn't so noticeable on a written page but why oh why does the author insist on finishing almost all lines of dialogue with the person's name???

"Yes" said Tess
"I know" said Sam
"Thank you" said Tess

We get it - we can follow dialogue - especially stuff as simple as this....I don't think I would ever read anything else by this author. So many better writers out there.....