Sam Kettering is six years old, and hes been kidnapped. He escapes through a bedroom window when his kidnappers are arguing. He runs as fast as his little legs will carry him. He emerges from a wooded area right into the arms of sheriff Katie Benedict and her five year year old daughter Keely. Katie contacts Sam's dad, Miles Kettering, who immediately flies to Tennessee to retrieve his son. But the kidnappers are not giving up. They try several more times to take Sam. Even when the initial two kidnappers are killed, someone is still trying to get to Sam. With his friends Savitch and Sherlock, they discover one of the kidnappers sister lives not far from where Sam was being held. She is married to a self ordained profit who is preaching the word of God to the men of his congregation. Only men are worthy according to the good reverend. After so much violence and turmoil the two children have bonded and seem to be helping each other heal. Miles and Katie are reluctant to separate them.The second case being worked is a serial killer who is taking out high school math teachers. This second storyline seems a bit forced and more of a sidenote. I liked the main story quite a lot. The motive for the kidnapping is something I didn't see coming. You also don't catch on to just how far the person is willing to go to get Sam. And how crazy they really are.I liked the book. It was fast paced and kept you guessing.
I thought I would try another Catherine Coulter book as I did not like the 1st one I read (The Cove) and gave her another chance. Alas, I did not like this one either. There were too many plot inconsistencies; and I did not like the writer's style, especially the corny dialogue - people do not realistically talk to each other the way she portrays them, especially small children. The plot twists were unbelievable. There was also a series of endings and not one big one which tied everything together. The plot is this: Sam Kettering, a six year old boy, is kidnapped - he escapes - he is found running across a road with his kidnappers in pursuit by Katie Benedict, Sheriff of Jessboro, Tennessee and her five year old daughter Keeley. Sam's father, Miles Kettering, arrives in Jessboro with married FBI agents, Dillon and Sherlock Savich. The children bond. The kidnappers try again. Why do the kidnappers want this little boy so badly? The investigation leads everyone to a charismatic, intense evangelist, Reverend Sooner McCamy, and his totally loyal wife, Elsbeth. Katie falls in love with Miles. Someone burns down her house in a third kidnapping attempt. There is a subplot with the Savich team searching for a math teacher serial killer and a really minor subplot of a woman stalking Dillon in a health club. I would not recommend this book.
Blindside - FBI Triller #8 - Savich and Sherlock - (Katie Benedict and Miles Ketterling, plus Ben Raven) - Miles son is kidnapped and the brings in Savich and Sherlock. There is a Tennessee church involved with the death of math teachers.When six-year-old Sam Kettering is kidnapped and manages to save himself, everything's over, right? Not by a long shot.Sheriff Katie Benedict contacts Sam's father, Miles Kettering, ex-FBI agent, and he and Savich fly to eastern Tennessee to determine why Sam was kidnapped and brought to such an unlikely locale as Jessborough, Tennessee.The kidnappers just don't give up. They try again. The question remains: Why do the kidnappers want this little boy so badly? The investigation leads to a charismatic, intense, twenty-first-century Rasputin, Reverend Sooner McCamy, and his gorgeous, enigmatic wife, Elsbeth.As if the kidnapping case weren't enough, Savich and Sherlock are at the same time desperate to find the cold-blooded killer of three high school math teachers in the Washington, D.C. area.
—Pattianne
Sam Kettering is a six-year-old kidnapping victim - and his kidnappers just won't give up. After being picked up by Sheriff Katie Benedict, Sam's father Miles comes out to Tennessee to help solve the mystery of why these people want Sam so badly. The story is interesting and compelling.The characters, however, have the same major fault as the ones in Coulter's Riptide: they lack emotional depth. Miles is the protective male lead, and Katie is the strong female. They read much like cookie-cutter characters. There are a lot of cliches and predictable plot twists. Maybe I've read too many FBI thrillers/mysteries; I see a lot of the patterns after having read a dozen of them. The dialogue is a bit stilted and distracts readers from the story.I found the writing in this book to be of a higher quality than that in Riptide; Coulter's writing has definitely improved and I applaud her for that.
—Natalie Schriefer
I think Catherine Coulter is just not my style. The story is good enough, but she adds in other stuff I'm not interested in - like a weird sex room. Somehow this was a NYT Bestseller, so I guess other people like reading about it? Plus, it's the same old mystery-writer's formula: obscure the real reason for the murder, add in a side story, a romance, an odd background story, a suspenseful reveal, and done. How can enough people read these mysteries again and again and not realize they're enjoying a checklist?
—Tracy
