24 hours by greg iles

The Summary (Goodreads):

24 Hours begins with the perfect family. On the perfect night. About to be trapped in the perfect crime.

Will and Karen Jennings are a successful young couple with every reason to celebrate. From modest beginnings they have built the life of their dreams. Will has a thriving medical practice, and stands at the threshold of a great fortune. Karen has designed a magnificent house to shelter them and the five-year-old daughter they love beyond measure. But they are about to be tested in a way they could never imagine.

They have been targeted by John Hickey, a genius who has found the key to one of the oldest crimes in the world - Kidnapping. Hickey has turned the crime inside out, creating an unbreakable knot of technology and terror that no man can unravel. In twenty-four hours of hellish precision, he squeezes a family's pressure points, extracts the ransom, and vanishes into thin air, leaving the hostage alive but the family too shattered even to call the police. Five times he has executed his plan, and not once has he been caught. He is unstoppable. Untouchable.

But this time Hickey wants more than money. This time he is driven by the pain of his own family tragedy, one he lays at the door of Will and Karen Jennings. He means to avenge it in his own terrible way and disappear forever. He has reckoned every factor but one: Will, Karen, and Abby Jennings share a love that only the closest families know, and from that love grows a formidable strength.

Though miles apart, the brilliant physician, the protective mother, and the resourceful child struggle against the clock to thwart the madman who threatens their family, and to reunite at last. They have twenty-four hours to succeed where others have failed. Twenty-four hours to cut the unbreakable knot. Twenty-four hours to live or die.

My Thought:

This is actually his first book that I ever read. The story is well written, fast paced, with some twists that literally make you sit up and can't stop reading. Work for me at least. A story of a kidnapping fought with a family's love and determination, with his usual ability to tap not only into the hearts and minds of his heroes, but also into the hearts and minds of his villains, making you shudder with his realism.

A movie was made of this book, starring Kevin Bacon and Charlize Theron with different title; Trapped. The young daughter of a successful doctor and his wife kidnapped. The head kidnapper stays with the mother, while the knockout female kidnapper's wife stays with the doctor (who is at a convention) until daylight, when he can access his bank account to get the money. The kidnapper didn't know that the child is diabetic, so his careful plans must be changed to keep the girl alive until the money can be collected.

Greg Iles is a great writer and this is the most cinematically dramatic of his books. There are some harrowing scenes that are visually pretty darn crazy. You can see why they made a movie of this one. I ensure you both of the book and the movie are great and has it's own uniqueness, with incredibly suspense!

I think Greg Iles is a guaranteed delight. Have you ever read his books?

My Rating: 4.5/5