Kidnapped by Jan Burke

Review by Gloria Feit

 

The name of the murderer in Kidnapped, Jan Burke's wonderful new novel in the Irene Kelly series, is made known to the reader in the book's first sentence, as Cleo Smith has just killed Richard Fletcher as the book opens.  But lest you think there is no suspense in the ensuing pages, think again.  Though we know the name, the identity and the "why" of the murder s another matter entirely.   And the murder is just for openers.  At the same time Richard is killed, his four-year-old daughter, Jenny, disappears.  A year later, Mason, one of Richard's sons, is tried and convicted of the murder, and sentenced to prison; Jenny has never been found, although her mother is convinced she is still alive.

 

The Fletchers are a well-known family in and around Las Piernas, CA.  The patriarch, Graydon Fletcher, and his late wife adopted twenty-one children over the years, as well are raising others as foster children, and many of their offspring have done likewise.  Fairly self-sufficient unto themselves, they keep their children close, limiting their interaction with other children, establishing private schools which most of the children have attended, or home schooling them.  The members of the Clan, as some of them refer to the family, include members of most of the professions: doctors, lawyers, dentists, accountants, a policeman, etc., so they can rely on their own for most of their needs.

 

Five years after the Fletcher murder and kidnapping, Irene Kelly, reporter on the Las Piernas News Express and wife of a homicide detective in the Las Piernas Police Dept., has just written a major story on missing/kidnapped children (discovering in the process that nearly 800,000 children were reported missing in just a recent one-year period in the United States-a staggering number).    Meeting one of the many members of the Clan, Caleb Fletcher-who is convinced of his brother's innocence-Irene agrees to help him in his ongoing search for the truth, and for his missing sister.  The search takes Irene into unexpected discoveries, in the process putting her in danger.  She learns that, as one character says, "It has always been about the children."

 

I had one problem with this book:  when the identity of the murderer is made known, it required a big suspension of disbelief on this reader's part – the revelation was fascinating, but somewhat implausible, as was the character itself.   That notwithstanding, the book is very well-written and suspenseful, and another enjoyable entry in this series.

 

Recommended.