The child was taken in broad daylight, on a warm June morning, in a crowded shopping area in downtown Pittsburgh.
Marina Benedict first saw the baby with his mother. Then, just minutes later, she saw him again, in the arms of a man she was certain was not the child’s father. In a single life-altering act, Marina followed them. What happens next will plunge her into a mystery that is both heartbreaking and chilling. Within hours of the abduction, the city is galvanized by the story: a child, the son of a pitcher for the Pirates, is missing. And soon a community begins to unravel...Detective Richard Christie struggles with his own demons as he tries to solve a baffling mystery. And Marina Benedict, pulled from the safety of her ordinary life by a brutal crime, is at the center of the story. Because once, Marina tried to save a life and it changed her forever. Now she will risk her life again--for a child who is still out there somewhere, still in need of saving.
One minute aspiring actress Marina Benedict is admiring a baby in a stroller in downtown Pittsburgh, the next she's tracking a man she believes kidnapped the infant, in this uneven debut thriller. After leaving her marriage counselor's office, where she has just taken the first step toward divorce, Marina longingly admires a little boy whom she later sees in the arms of a seedy man on a bus. Suspicious, she follows them until she, too, is kidnapped by the man's cohorts. Through news reports, they learn that the baby is the son of a Pirates rookie pitcher, and Marina is shot and left for dead. Rescued by the police, she tries to help them find the baby, befriending the boy's mother and becoming more than friends with lead detective Richard Christie. As she convalesces, she uncovers an adoption ring that includes sleazy lawyer Manny; his amoral sister, Emelia; and Marina's former captors Joe, Vol, and Anton who do Emelia's bidding. Drama teacher George (The Man in the Buick and Other Stories) produces dead bodies and new clues, and keeps Marina one step ahead of the police and the FBI but this thriller romance isn't especially thrilling or romantic. George proves herself a rookie at establishing dramatic tension with her preference for psychological exposition over action at potentially climactic moments and with an overuse of theater images (a thief contemplating murder is like an actor contemplating a role in Lear). Chicago, Miami, New York and even Richmond, Va., boast popular female detectives; despite this novel's riveting premise, the position's still open in Pittsburgh. (May 15)Forecast: This generic thriller will do respectably but probably no better, though its effective cover showing the back of a man stalking a woman should draw browsers' attention.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
The promotion bills this first novel by short story writer George (The Man in the Buick and Other Stories) as a psychological thriller. "Psychological" is accurate, but "thriller" may be overstating matters a bit. The opening moments of suspense are overshadowed by psychological character studies, albeit intriguing ones. All of the elements revolve around the kidnapping, in Pittsburgh, of a baby boy named Justin. Justin's kidnapper is spotted and followed by Marina Benedict, whose efforts will force her to make some painful life decisions and push other characters to re-examine their own. Justin's parents, the primary investigator, and the kidnappers all have their stories told which is, unfortunately, to the detriment of the suspense. As the book reaches its climax, readers will be more involved with each character than with the kidnapping. Recommended for larger public libraries. Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Kathleen George is the best selling author of a series of thrillers set in Pittsburgh where she lives and where she is a professor of theatre at the University of Pittsburgh. Her fifth novel HIDEOUT (August 16, 2001) has won high praise already. Her fourth, THE ODDS, just now out in paperback, was a finalist for an Edgar® award for best novel of the year in 2010. She is also the author of the acclaimed novels TAKEN, FALLEN, and AFTERIMAGE, the short story collection THE MAN IN THE BUICK, and the 2011 edited collection of stories, PITTSBURGH NOIR. Early on George Pelecanos wrote "I look forward to reading anything Kathleen George writes." An Entertainment Weekly reviewer wrote of THE ODDS, "If anyone is writing better police thrillers than George, I don't know who it is."
She is married to writer Hilary Masters, who asked her out twenty years ago because he figured she, a theatre director, would be interesting--he was tired of being around writers. On the first date, she told him she had begun writing (or more accurately had taken it up again, having said from the time she was seven that she wanted to be a writer).
He thought, "Oh, no, not another one." But they had already hit it off and so it was too late. Now there are two of them in one household, shuffling around in sloppy clothes, coffee cups in hand, heading to paper, computer, typewriter.
"When I was eight, I took my accumulated miseries up to the attic," she wrote in "The Making of a Writer" "where I had discovered I could make an area, (a small stage set?) with table, chair, notebooks and pen, and suddenly my world seemed whole and good--a secret and a treasure."
*******Detailed media bio and photos:
Kathleen George was born in Johnstown Pennsylvania. As a child, she wanted to be a writer. She wrote stories and plays in high school and in her undergraduate years as a creative writing major at the University of Pittsburgh. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in Theatre (also at Pitt). By then she had made her home in Pittsburgh. For eight years she taught theatre at Carlow College, where she directed many plays. Then she accepted a teaching position at Pitt where she continued to direct and teach dramatic literature and playwriting; in the early 80s, she began to add fiction writing back into the mix. In 1988, she earned an M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing (also at Pitt!) on the side. She is a Professor in the Theatre Arts Department.
Book-length fiction publications are: THE MAN IN THE BUICK, a collection of stories, BKMK press, 1999; TAKEN, a novel, Delacorte 2001; FALLEN, Dell 2004; AFTERIMAGE, St. Martin's Minotaur 2007; and THE ODDS, St. Martin's Minotaur 2009. TAKEN has been translated into French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Danish, and Norwegian. In August of 2011, HIDEOUT, a fifth novel, will launch. She is also the editor of the 2011 PITTSBURGH NOIR.
George has been granted fellowships at artists' colonies, including the VCCA and MacDowell. Her short fiction has appeared in journals and magazines which include Mademoiselle, Cimarron Review, North American Review, New Letters, and Alaska Quarterly Review. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and one story was listed among the Distinguished in Best American Short Stories.
Her theatre publications are: Rhythm in Drama, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1980, Playwriting: The First Workshop, Allworth Press, 2008 (first in print with Butterworth (Focal Press) 1994), and Winter's Tales: Reflections on the Novelistic Stage, University of Delaware, 2005.
She has taught for Pitt in London and has served as faculty and as Academic Dean for Semester at Sea. She has directed for Pitt's mainstage and for the Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival productions which include The Rehearsal, The Country Wife, She Stoops to Conquer, The Winter's Tale, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear, A Flea in Her Ear, and Our Town. A number of these productions were listed among the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Ten Best of the Year. She has also produced and sometimes directed over sixty original plays written by her students.
I'm a lifetime reader. I read for my pleasure but also to recommend books to my busy children. So I read "Taken", totally involved in this new kind of heroine, this Marina of perfect integrity. I loved every word, every sentence, every page and naturally didn't want it to end (and can't wait for the next Kathleen George !). Passed it to my pregnant daughter and she was loving it so much that she told me she was reading it to her foetus. Next daughter read it and loved it and even the sons-in-law who never read fiction, broke down and read it too. This is an emotional reaction, unlike the book reviews we had to write for school. Others have retold the story - and there is a great story - I like the contagion of enthousiasm. I felt while reading it that I was living each moment with the characters, breathing with them, and Kathleen George actually breathes life into her characters. I'm very impressed and elated that writers can do this. May they continue for all eternity. I love Kathleen George ! She has a whole fan club in faraway Nice, France.
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Being a mystery buff, when I read the rave review for TAKEN..., I went out and bought it. I found TAKEN to be smart and suspenseful. It was definitely well-worth the money and something I plan to read again.
The novel is about a young woman, Marina Benedict, whose marriage is falling apart. She has always noticed babies, being childless herself, and on one particular day, she notices a baby that catches her eye. Later that day, she sees the same baby with someone who looks suspicious. She follows the kidnapper and the baby, and that's when you really can't put the book down!
George is an exceptional writer, and I look forward to reading more from her.
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Taken is a novel with a crime in it. Many crime novels are cold or cool, but this one is warm. You can feel the blood pulsing in the characters. Sometimes the emphasis is on what they are thinking and feeling instead of on immediate actions or a body count. It's a combination of a very high profile plot and a novel of interior life. I loved every word of it!
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First Sentence:
IF RICHARD CHRISTIE HAD SEEN HER STANDING ON SIXTH, IF he'd been driving his dusty blue unmarked Taurus, headed for a crime scene on the hazy, humid morning of June 26, would he have noticed her? Read the first pageKey Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Karen Graves, Commander Christie, New York, Ryan Graves, Artie Dolan, Mundy's Corner, Ralph's Discount City, Richard Christie, Rite Aid, Buddy Kinder, Darnell Flowers, Gateway Towers, Marina Benedict, West Virginia, Amy Bissinger, Clark Building, Detective Littlefield, East Liberty, Emelia Rodriguez, Emily Roderick, Janet Littlefield, North Side, Pine Street, State Police, Anne Pinkus
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