Starred review from June 9, 2014
Bestseller Cain (Let Me Go) introduces a truly compelling new heroine, Kit “Kick” Lannigan, in this stellar first in a new thriller series. Kick made national headlines when she was kidnapped at age six and again when the FBI rescued her five years later. But being in captivity, even with a relatively benevolent kidnapper, took its emotional toll, and the now 21-year-old Kick, who lives in Portland, Ore., is obsessed with child abductions. In particular, the disappearance of Adam Rice and Mia Turner piques her interest—and triggers her guilt for the role she once played in ensuring the anonymity of a vast ring of child pornographers. When the mysterious John Bishop, a former arms dealer turned private security man, asks her to help find Adam and Mia, Kick knows she can’t say no. Kick has little to go on, except her ability to see the situation through the eyes of the children. Readers will want to see a lot more of the feisty Kick. Agent: Joy Harris, Joy Harris Literary Agency.
Starred review from August 1, 2014
Abducted by a child pornography ring when she was 6 and held captive for five years, Kick Lannigan, 21, has turned herself into a lean, mean fighting machine. When a boy named Adam is reported missing, she springs into action to save him. The first book in a new series by Cain captures the age of the Amber Alert with hard-edged insight. All these years removed from her ordeal, Kick is the most viewed subject on porn sites. Still struggling with psychological baggage, she's dedicated herself to martial arts and marksmanship (she packs a Glock). She also is working at perfecting skills her abductor taught her, including picking locks. When the mysterious John Bishop, a wealthy former gun dealer working with the FBI, drops into Kick's life and demands that she go with him to the site of the latest abduction, she fiercely resists. But she slowly learns to trust him. Except for her tech-geek friend James, with whom she was held captive, she doesn't care about anyone else. Her mother, who wrote a best-seller about her daughter's abduction, is still milking the story as an expert on TV. With Bishop, a taciturn stud with his own painful secrets (and a private plane and helicopter at his disposal), Kick returns to places she was held as "Beth." Her unnerving confrontation with her abductor exposes a horribly complicated relationship. Distinguished by a wealth of details about how child porn rings operate, this is a gripping thriller in which Kick must apply everything she's learned, and things she's forgotten, to survive again.An unsettling, near-perfect effort by Cain (Let Me Go, 2013, etc.) that leaves you eagerly awaiting the next installment.
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March 1, 2014
Cain forsakes (at least temporarily) her "New York Times" best-selling thriller series starring Archie Sheridan and Gretchen Lowell for a new series featuring Kick Lannigan, abducted at six, rescued at 11, and as an adult helping on a missing child case.
Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from May 1, 2014
Cain has a new publisher and a new series, and even those fans most devoted to the Archie Sheridan and Gretchen Lowell novels will find plenty to race their pulses when they encounter Kick Lannigan, a woman on a mission. Part Lisbeth Salander and part Susan Ward, the punky reporter from the Sheridan-Lowell novels, Kick is a 21-year-old martial-arts expert who was abducted from her Seattle home at age six and rescued five years later, but not before being forced to star in a series of kiddie-porn videos still the rage on the underground Internet. Now Kick is obsessed with tracking other abducted children, especially two who have gone missing in the last three weeks. She reluctantly joins forces with John Bishop, a shady vigilante of sorts, who believes Kick knows more than she thinks she does about where the missing kids might be. Always a master at ratcheting up tension, Cain keeps the narrative in overdrive from beginning to end, slowly releasing tidbits of information from Kick's repressed memories of her abduction (and the weird father-daughter relationship that developed between her and the now-jailed predator who took her), while allowing the psycho behind the recent crimes to circle ever closer to Kick and her friend James, also an abuse victim. The subject matter is uncomfortable, even stomach-churning at times, but Cain manages to deal sensitively with her material while still allowing Kick's character to emerge with multifaceted humanityand even snatches of humor. Above all, though, this is an edge-of-the-chair thriller, and Cain negotiates the twists and turns with finesse while keeping her foot firmly on the gas pedal. Excruciating yet always compelling.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Cain's best-selling credentials are impeccable: her books have made multiple trips to the NYT best-seller list, been translated into 24 languages, and been named to NPR's top 100 thrillers of all time. Her new series won't do anything to diminish that record.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)
May 1, 2014
Cain, best known for her compelling Archie Sheridan/Gretchen Lowell thrillers (Heartsick; Let Me Go), turns her hand to a new series and a new protagonist. After years of being held prisoner by a pedophile, Kick Lannigan spends her time researching cases of missing children and obsessively practicing martial arts. She is recruited, somewhat against her will, in a daring plot to locate and rescue a kidnapped child. Kick's knowledge might be the only thing that can save the missing boy. VERDICT Kick is a gutsy kick-ass heroine doing her best to build a life for herself, while understandably haunted by her tragic past. She makes plenty of mistakes and isn't always likable, which makes her come across as very real. This book is nearly as dark as Cain's other titles, although not quite as graphic. Fans of psychological suspense and flawed characters will enjoy getting to know Kick. [See Prepub Alert, 2/10/14.]--Laurel Bliss, San Diego State Univ. Lib.
Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.