Never Wave Goodbye

April 19, 2010
Magee fails to deliver on the promising setup of his debut, a contemporary thriller. Soon after oncologist Lena Trainor packs her nine-year-old daughter, Sarah, off to summer camp, loading her into a van with the camp logo and signing release forms with official letterhead, a second camp van pulls up at Lena's Pelham, N.Y., home, and she realizes her child has been abducted. The kidnappers make off with three other children in Westchester County through the same ruse. Wracked with guilt and concerned about her husband's suspicious absence, Lena joins with the other victimized families to figure out their best strategy for a happy outcome. Magee shifts among the perspectives of the parents, the missing children, and the kidnappers, but doesn't manage to make any of the characters particularly engaging. A twist involving the fate of one of the kidnappers reduces the suspense, while the revelation of the person behind the sophisticated plot is a letdown.

The suspense begins when four children are kidnapped on their way to summer camp. Shortly after the children are abducted, the parents are contacted with ransom demands, and the story quickly takes off. Narrator Tavia Gilbert's dialogue and pacing are superb, easily adding to the tension created by Magee's story. Character voicing, however, is largely hit or miss as some characters prove to be more distracting than believable. Even with this slight weakness, the narration is a true complement to the book. J.R.G. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine