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If you are of a sensitive disposition, this is not for you. Ryan David Jahn digs deep into the psyche of redneck America and unearths a grisly tale that could so easily be fact – remember Jaycee Lee Dugard, kidnapped and held captive for 18 years. Jahn brings it all out, the ignorance, the hopelessness of small town existence, the drink-fuelled casual violence, the petty disputes. This is a realistic and brutal look at a lifestyle America would like to pretend does not exist. Former LA Cop Ian Hunt is a 911 dispatcher in a small Texas town. At the end of a shift he takes one more call – from his daughter Maggie, kidnapped seven years before and now officially declared dead. She manages to give her father a brief description of the man who has taken her, but not his name, before the she is cut off. While county and town police forces bicker over jurisdiction, Hunt, who has spent those seven years in a limbo of self-blame and despair, sets out to find her. The readers are given the information he seeks. The kidnapper is an unstable, heavy drinking janitor whose only redeeming characteristic is that he has genuine feeling for his equally inadequate wife who has never got over the death of her own child. In a warped attempt to compensate, he has kidnapped before. His victims, who matched the age his own daughter would have been, have either died or have been killed in violent fits of alcoholic temper. Maggie has been held in a darkened cellar, brutally punished when she offends. Her terror is heartbreaking and she has only kept herself sane through the invention of an imaginary friend and her unshakeable belief that one day she will be reunited with her father. As the investigation progresses, the identity of the kidnapper begins to emerge. In an orgy of violence the man shoots his way out, taking his bemused wife and Maggie, and heads for a hideout in another state. Hunt, shot through the lung, discharges himself from hospital and sets out in pursuit. He will get Maggie back at all costs and is prepared to take the law into his own hands to do so. "There was a time, and not long ago, when he would not have been capable of doing what he plans on doing here tonight, if he has to, but that time has gone, a small moment in his past that gets smaller as he moves further from it and into the future." That sentence sets up a denouement of graphically described violence as the second part of the story becomes a classic chase across the bleak landscape of America's southwest, the gritty settings effectively mirroring the emotions and thoughts of the characters. This is a real 'can't put it down' page turner – the relentless violence alone forces you to read on, let alone Jahn's cleverly crafted insights into the minds of his principal characters. Its only drawback is an open ending – it all smacks too much of a Hollywood script, probably with Bruce Willis in the lead role. But despite that, his is a truly dark and disturbing book that reflects some of the problems affecting American society and one which further establishes Jahn's reputation as a compelling and controversial writer. §John Cleal is a former soldier and journalist with an interest in medieval history. He divides his time between France and England.
Reviewed by John Cleal, September 2012
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