The Stolen Ones

Edoardo Ballerini's performance of this thriller is like watching a tightrope walker working without a net. You can see that the balance is perfect, and yet you can't tell why it works. Assured and quiet, Ballerini rolls out the story, simply paying attention to the meaning and diction of every word, the pacing of every sentence. Young women from Eastern Europe, promised "modeling" jobs in America, are betrayed, then packed in containers like animals and delivered to really nasty sex slavers. One girl escapes, but, as authorities race against time to save more, she won't cooperate because the traffickers still have her little sister. The higher the tension on the page, the more effective Ballerini's no-drama delivery becomes. And he does a killer Romanian accent. B.G. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine


Edoardo Ballerini's performance of this thriller is like watching a tightrope walker working without a net. You can see that the balance is perfect, and yet you can't tell why it works. Assured and quiet, Ballerini rolls out the story, simply paying attention to the meaning and diction of every word, the pacing of every sentence. Young women from Eastern Europe, promised "modeling" jobs in America, are betrayed, then packed in containers like animals and delivered to really nasty sex slavers. One girl escapes, but, as authorities race against time to save more, she won't cooperate because the traffickers still have her little sister. The higher the tension on the page, the more effective Ballerini's no-drama delivery becomes. And he does a killer Romanian accent. B.G. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

January 26, 2015
Early in Laukkanen’s savage, cathartic fourth series crime novel (after 2014’s Kill Fee), Cass County (Minn.) sheriff’s deputy Dale Friesen notices a truck towing a container in a diner parking lot. His suspicions aroused, Friesen orders the truck’s driver to unlock the container door, and two dirty young women try to flee, but only one escapes. Friesen is shot dead, and later Irina Milosovici, a Romanian sex-trafficking victim, is found next to his body holding his gun. Kirk Stevens, of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and his FBI task force partner, Carla Windermere, investigate. Stevens is sure Irina didn’t kill Friesen. Irina is determined to save her younger sister, Catalina, from the clutches of the sex traffickers. Meanwhile, Andrei Volovoi, orchestrator of the slave ring, and his menacing partner, known only as the Dragon, prepare to teach Irina a lesson. Laukkanen deftly mixes sharp social criticism with bleak white-knuckle suspense. Agent: Stacia Decker, Donald Maass Literary Agency.