Kidnap

by Philip McCutchan

A failure at being a thief, Ernest Blundy gets involved with a scheme to kidnap a millionaire's son, but finds himself in deep trouble when the plan backfires.

257 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1993

About the author

aka Robert Conington Galway, Duncan MacNeil

Philip McCutchan (1920-1996) grew up in the naval atmosphere of Portsmouth Dockyard and developed a lifetime's interest in the sea. Military history was an early interest resulting in several fiction books, from amongst his large output, about the British Army and its campaigns, especially in the last 150 years.

Reviews

[Mrs J · Rating 3 out of 5]

A comic kidnap caper

Mr Blundy and his wife get involved in a kidnap. Completely inept they reveal who they are and other important identifying factors. The plan doesn’t go well and the victim appears to gain the upper hand.
Extremely verbose the narration spins out the story. With stereotypes and two characters I didn’t really connect with there was some dark comedy and some sadness. I did cringe from very early on with some of the obvious mistakes and naïvetés.

[Carol Holder · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a humorous story that had me laughing out loud about Mr Blundy and his wife Ag who was responsible for kidnapping Harold Barnwell. It was good reading but sad that Ag aunt died also Mr Blundy. Enjoyable

[Gordon Johnston · Rating 2 out of 5]

The darkly comic tale of the world's stupidest kidnapers. A petty criminal tries to make a big score but is so far out of his depth that the chances of success were always near zero. The characters are not particularly likeable and the narrative is pedestrian

[Carla O]

This was hard to get into, but after persevering, I did enjoy the story-line. I did not like any of the characters, which made it harder to read. I have a low tolerance for stupidity. The ending was very satisfying.