‘The Kidnapper’s Word’ by E.J. Wood

Synopsis

AN ABDUCTED CHILD. AN INNOCENT DINNER PARTY.

When nine year old Emily disappears, Detective Chief Inspector Clarence Landon knows time isn’t on his side.
It’s the 1960s. Child abductions are rare.
Her mother, Ava blames herself. What mother would leave their child alone?
Behind twitching curtains, an unsettling truth of what happened is revealed. A story of family secrets and a chilling tale of deception is unraveled.
What would you be capable of when pushed to your limits?

My Review

If there’s one thing that I like doing, it’s discovering new authors and E. J. Wood is certainly a new author for me.  I read the synopsis for ‘The Kidnapper’s Word’ and it certainly sounded like the fast paced, police procedural type of read that I particularly enjoy.  So without further ado, I grabbed my Kindle, grabbed a cup of tea and settled down for an interesting afternoon of reading.  Overall I did enjoy reading it but more about that in a bit.

I was drawn into this story from the very first word on the very first page.  The story takes place during the 1960s and features a new detective pairing of Landon & Burke.  I found it nigh on impossible to put this book to one side for any length of time.  My Kindle wasn’t exactly glued to my hand but it might as well have been because it travelled everywhere with me.  I couldn’t bear to miss a single second of the story.  The crime intrigued me and I was interested to see in which direction the story was going to take me next.  I had my own theories as to what was going to happen so of course I had to keep reading to see if I was anywhere near the truth or if I had completely the wrong end of the stick.  All too quickly I reached the end of ‘The Kidnapper’s Word’ and I had to say farewell to the new detective pairing of Landon and Burke.  I found ‘The Kidnapper’s Word’ to be a gripping and tense read, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

‘The Kidnapper’s Word’ is well written.  E. J. Wood certainly knows how to grab the reader’s attention and draw them into what proves to be one hell of a story.  For me, the story started with a bang, it hit the ground running and maintained a fast pace throughout.    Reading ‘The Kidnapper’s Word’ felt like being on a scary and unpredictable rollercoaster ride with several twists and turns along the way.  I love the way in which this author makes the reader feel as though they are part of the story themselves and at the heart of the action.

I do have to say that there are a couple of accuracy errors within the story that are important in themselves but which don’t have any great impact on the story.  The story is set in the 1960s and makes reference to the Sex Offenders Register.  The Sex Offenders Register only came into being in 1997 following a change to the law so wasn’t around in the 1960s.  I also felt that some of the language used in the story wouldn’t have been used in the 1960s- words such as ‘perp’, which is a fairly modern American term and not really a British term.  Like I said, two little blips, which whilst important in themselves don’t make a lot of difference to the overall enjoyment of the story.

In short and overall I did enjoy reading ‘The Kidnapper’s Word’ and I would recommend it to other readers.  I will certainly be reading more from this author in the future.  The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 4* out of 5*.