Simon Fisk was a US Marshal bringing fugitives to justice who had fled internationally. When his six year old was kidnapped and presumed killed and his wife had committed suicide as a result, Simon changed careers and went into private business recovering children who had been kidnapped in custody disputes. After recovering a boy in Bordeaux in Good As Gone by Douglas Corleone, Simon is stopped by the French police who blackmail him into investigating the kidnapping of Lindsay Sorkin from a Paris hotel or face jail for recovering the boy in Bordeaux using less than legal methods.
The similarities to his own story with his daughter Hailey ten years earlier are striking, and they both repel him from even wanting to try to take on the case – part of why he only went after children kidnapped in custody cases – as well as forcing him to see himself in the parents’ situation. He reluctantly agrees to investigate the case in the short term, just to prove that he can’t be a help.
Using all his expertise from years of tracking fugitives as a US Marshal and recovering children, Simon actually does start to find clues that the French police had missed. He figures out how the girl was taken and begins the painstaking task of figuring out who might have taken her.
Every layer that Simon uncovers shows yet another layer below with more bad guys who’ve gotten involved. There are nonstop twists and turns in this race against the clock to recover Lindsay Sorkin before she becomes yet another statistic like his own daughter, on whom he’s never fully given up.
Along the way, he meets an ally in Ana, a Polish lawyer who works for a man Simon wants to talk to as part of the investigation. She is drawn into the hunt for Lindsay and provides her own strengths and aid, not just a woman wringing her hands and insisting she wants to be a part of it.
The book descends into hells I wish didn’t exist in this world, and Simon and the contacts he calls upon delve into shades of grey in the methods they use to gain the information they need. Regardless, Simon and Ana are fascinating characters with depth to them that helps keep the pages turning.
Granted, much of the book is a little far fetched. Simon’s ability to find that first clue and somehow manage to tease each link into yet another lead to track down the kidnappers is a little far-fetched, but you expect that to some degree in a thriller like this. I was hooked on this quick read, and I anticipate that this will become a series focused on Simon Fisk and, of course, Ana.
Written by Michelle whose greatest fear is that someone would kidnap her own children. Knowing she can’t live her life in fear, she doesn’t. See what she does with her energy instead of focusing strictly on the negative via her blog Honest & Truly! or follow along with her on Twitter where she is also @HonestAndTruly.