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The Abduction
by
Mark Gimenez
Ben Brice lives alone in the New Mexico wilderness where he battles memories of Vietnam with oceans of Jim Beam. Miles away in Texas, his estranged son, John, an Internet geek-turned-billionaire, half watches his daughter Gracie’s soccer game while conducting business on his cell phone. When her mother Elizabeth arrives, the coach reports that her uncle has already collect...more
Hardcover, 512 pages
Published
August 28th 2007
by Vanguard Press
(first published 2007)
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4.5 Stars is more like it.
This book was absolutely smashing. The story had so many angles popping out from everywhere but in the end everything connected so well with each other. The pace and writing used to dangle a little bit in-between but the great plot made up for most of it.
I really liked the way Giminez had planned out the story, giving flashes of the gruesome past in the beginning of every chapter.
Also, I really appreciate the way life of a retired Army colonel was shown. War only dest...more
This book was absolutely smashing. The story had so many angles popping out from everywhere but in the end everything connected so well with each other. The pace and writing used to dangle a little bit in-between but the great plot made up for most of it.
I really liked the way Giminez had planned out the story, giving flashes of the gruesome past in the beginning of every chapter.
Also, I really appreciate the way life of a retired Army colonel was shown. War only dest...more
This was an outstanding story. Last year I read his Color of Law and thought it was great. It was different. It was a lawyer story but it was really about redemption. So is The Abduction. Ben Brice served in Vietnam. A Colonel by the time he was done. But the war destroyed him. He saw things and had to do things that shattered him. He lives in isolation, drinking himself to death. The only light in his life is his 10 year old granddaughter, Gracie. They have a bond that is an inexplicable as it...more
The Abduction by Mark Gimenez was an enjoyable book to read. It was very action packed, but I thought it took too long for the action to really take off. There was action in the beginning, which made me hopeful that the whole book would be filled with action, but none more really came until the end. However, when the action took off, it REALLY got me hooked. The book was filled with action, but I think Mark Gimenez tried too hard to put a good love scene in it. Those scenes just seemed awkward t...more
I just found a new author to indulge in. Not sure how many books he has published but I can see why they call Gimenez the next John Grisham.
I enjoyed how he gives you two sides of the same reality and does it so well that both sides seem correct. The main theme is the Vietnam war and the damage in done to the Colonel. You get views from those who were there and who saw it to be wrong. Those who tried to do something about it and failed but felt they did the right thing anyway. Those who went fo...more
I enjoyed how he gives you two sides of the same reality and does it so well that both sides seem correct. The main theme is the Vietnam war and the damage in done to the Colonel. You get views from those who were there and who saw it to be wrong. Those who tried to do something about it and failed but felt they did the right thing anyway. Those who went fo...more
The sophomore effort of Mark Gimenez, following The Color of Law, is something completely different. Ben Brice did not survive the Vietnam War well. He lives alone after his wife left him due to his drinking. Now he lives outside of Taos, NM, making beautiful, artistic furniture and slowing drinking himself to death. Near Dallas, his granddaughter, Gracie Ann Brice, is a lively 10-year old, in love with Orlando Bloom and a great soccer player. One day, after a soccer game, Gracie Ann is kidnappe...more
This is a real page-turner, though not for those that can't stand to read about a child in danger. The child is 10 year old Gracie Brice--a spunky soccer star who is taken from her soccer field after a game. Her father--an dot com billionaire--was chatting on his cell phone at the time. Her mother--a high powerd attorney--was late to the game but is quick to take charge once she arrives and finds out what happened. The FBI and local police investigate--but it is Gracie's grandfather, ex vietnam...more
The Abduction (underlined) is a wounderfull book with fascinating trists and turns. The Abduction (underlined) is a great book! A soccer star, Gracie, is kidnapped by a man with a snipper tattoo, a army tattoo that is the same as her grandpas. The police believe she was abducted for randsom, because her father was about to be a very rich man, but after a few days of waiting for a phone call they relize they don't want money. The father and grandpa, Ben, are doing everything they can to find Gra...more
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They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but the cover of The Abduction was what actually gripped me to it in the first place. I guess somewhere in there, all of us are, subconsciously, affected by the cover page of a book. The book was lying in the "Returned" pile of books in the library and as soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to read it. The author surely does not disappoint. The book is gripping till the very end, from the cover page to the last page. The author reveals the secrets...more
Too bad "0" isn't an option. What a piece of junk. I understand that this author has another, successful, book. I suspect he wrote this one at the age of 12 and then dusted off and had it published in order to ride on the coattails of that success. The plot is juvenile, predictable, and completely unbelievable. The characters are so stereotypical as to be laughable, and the cliches are just plain annoying. The only reason I finished this book is that I was stuck in a situation where no other rea...more
This book markets itself as a sensitive portrayal of a little girls abduction from a wealthy family.... the fear and the shock as the assumed ransom demand never comes and her clothing turns up in a registered sex offenders truck is well depicted and well written - expertly told from multiple viewpoints and from inside the characters minds the story churns at your nerves with a very real sense of unease. Mistaken identity increases the emotional impact - but thats over by the 1st half of the boo...more
Caution: don't start this book unless you have time to finish it - I could not put it down. After his excellent debut, The Color of Law, Gimenez just knocks it out of the park with his sophomore effort. The Brice family are a little more well-to-do than most; Elizabeth is a successful Dallas attorney, and her husband John is a computer nerd with a company that is about to go public and make him a billionaire. Their ten-year-old daughter Gracie is a budding soccer star and it is at her game that...more
Feb 21, 2008
Annie
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
thriller readers
Recommended to Annie by:
another book group
Heard about this on my book lovers site for us old folks! hee hee It turned out to be pretty good.
Ben Brice lives alone in the New Mexico wilderness where he battles memories of Vietnam with oceans of Jim Beam. Miles away in Texas, his estranged son, John, an Internet geek-turned-billionaire, half watches his daughter Gracie's soccer game while conducting business on his cell phone. When her mother Elizabeth arrives, the coach reports that her uncle has already collected Gracie. But Gracie has n...more
Ben Brice lives alone in the New Mexico wilderness where he battles memories of Vietnam with oceans of Jim Beam. Miles away in Texas, his estranged son, John, an Internet geek-turned-billionaire, half watches his daughter Gracie's soccer game while conducting business on his cell phone. When her mother Elizabeth arrives, the coach reports that her uncle has already collected Gracie. But Gracie has n...more
This is a really good read but there was a little too much emphasis on the Vietnam war which, unfortunately, I had to speed read through. However, on doing this I realised I had missed a valuable clue and had to go back and read it all!! Gracie, the little girl who is abducted, is a lovely child as is her grandad, Ben who I would like to save me in a crisis, I have to say; he's a great character! The mother, however, is a most cold and calculating person and the twist near the end I never saw co...more
Ben Brice is a drunk living alone in the New Mexico wilderness, where he custom builds furniture and battles memories of Vietnam with oceans of Jim Beam. Miles away in Texas, his estranged son, John, an Internet geek-turned-billionaire, half-watches his daughter Gracie's soccer game while on his cell phone. When her mother Elizabeth arrives, the coach reports that her "uncle" has already collected Gracie. But Gracie has no uncle--she was kidnapped.
This book deals with the abduction of a nine-year-old girl from a soccer field. Her grandfather, a much-decorated Vietnam vet who has banished himself to a solitary drunken life in New Mexico, comes to the rescue. He and his granddaughter, Gracie, have an almost mystical bond with each other. I enjoyed the book, but there were just too many coincidences.
Riverting read. Couldn't put it down. The pace was pulsating from the first page. Reaffirmed that over-confident people are often compensating for something or another that they'd like to forget or hide. Loved Ben, the grandfather as well as John, the stereotypical geek-Dad who rose up to the occassion when needed the most to by his daughter, Gracie.
I almost sat this book down because of the rather slow start, but kept at it and soon found myself engrossed in this well written book of the abduction of a young girl.
Gimenez slowly brings to light the reason for the abduction by revealing the cast of characters past lives and how they come to inter-twine with each other. A good read.
Gimenez slowly brings to light the reason for the abduction by revealing the cast of characters past lives and how they come to inter-twine with each other. A good read.
It's dark and twisted, but a page-turner with heart. Like most thrillers, it's a little too violent for me in places, but I understand that goes with the territory, unfortunately. But, unlike some, it doesn't go OTT. It's also full of character and coincidence, two of my faves. It also made me cry a couple of times, so I obviously cared.
This book started off a car at a drag race. All the motors running at full speed waiting to take off and be the first at the finish line. From the opening of the book its not stop action. I found myself reading at stop lights, in traffic and any moment I could the book was in my hand. And although I love to read... in the car is not my thing. I just couldn't help myself. This intricate story about a young girl kidnapped right from under her dad's nose keeps the reader on edge. The reader feels a...more
this is my second mark gimenez book.. i do like them.. my only complaint is... he is really wordy... i find myself skipping over some for just plain.. i will try another of his books, as i read he gets better and better.. i started with his first book he wrote.. so fingers crossed!!!
Jun 02, 2008
Ashley
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
mature teens (gross imagery) and adults with a fasination in war
Recommended to Ashley by:
my grandpa
Shelves:
by-mark-gimenez
The Abduction by Mark Gimenez is about a ten-year-old named Gracie who gets abducted by after her soccer game.
But whats strange is that Ben Brice, Gracie's grandfather, has a close and rather strange bond with Gracie... close enough to discover where the abductors (yes, two men!) and her are.
But believe me--- there are many twists in this book. For example, why does Gracie's grandfather and one of the abductors have the exact same VIPOR tattoo?
Read and all your questions will be answered expe...more
But whats strange is that Ben Brice, Gracie's grandfather, has a close and rather strange bond with Gracie... close enough to discover where the abductors (yes, two men!) and her are.
But believe me--- there are many twists in this book. For example, why does Gracie's grandfather and one of the abductors have the exact same VIPOR tattoo?
Read and all your questions will be answered expe...more
I thought the book was outstanding. This is the 3rd Gimenez book I have read and liked them all. When you read as many of these types of books as I do, some things you can guess at...but this book had enough twists and turns to keep me riveted.
Great story about family and redemption though a disappointing departure from Gimenez's typical legal thriller. It wasn't quite what I expected but turned out to be a great story with very real characters that you are immediately drawn to.
Apr 04, 2008
David
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Thriller fans
Gimenez has written a neatly tied-up thriller that pokes fun at the amount of coincidence he uses throughout the book. The plot is wildly imaginative and provides plenty of drama, laughs and chills. Ten-year old Gracie Brice is kidnapped after her afternoon soccer game. Her brainiac father was more focused on his upcoming IPO and failed to keep tabs on her after the game. Gracie's former-Green Beret grandfather, recently more an alcoholic than anything else, senses the trouble she's in and leave...more
This is one of my favorite thrillers. Gimenez knows how to create compelling tension and his characters are still with me, years after I've read it. If you like action, believable plots and flawed, human characters, get this book!
A rather predictable thriller. Ben Brice, a haunted Vietnam vet searches for the person or persons who abducted his granddaughter.
Spoiler alert: The girl is recovered safe and sound and the bad guys get their comeuppance in the end.
Spoiler alert: The girl is recovered safe and sound and the bad guys get their comeuppance in the end.
A great story that kept me reading to the end, but i had a sense throughout that it was quite the polished article. The story and writing kept me hooked but i think it needed a little more editorial work before being published.
Would say indeed an exceptional book though not like his other legal thrillers, but still captivating with suspense, action and twists at the end. Totally worth reading especially the bit of philosophy at the end.
An absolute wish-I-had-the-time-to-read-it-all-in-one-sitting book! The characters are well thought out and richly crafted...I couldn't help but care what happened to them as the book grew more intense.
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Mark Gimenez left a major Dallas law firm in order to start his own solo practice and to write. He lives in Texas with his wife and two sons.
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