Taken

This is acclaimed novelist Edward Bloor's most commercial novel to date. The plotline involving a kidnapped girl and a botched ransom drop is absolutely riveting and should make this a major player in the retail market. Bloor has layered in themes of social justice, racism, and classism, making this an effective social satire as well as a thriller, which educators and librarians will appreciate, too.

Charity Meyers has only 12 hours to live.

By 2035 the rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer, and kidnapping has become a major growth industry in the United States. The children of privilege live in secure, gated communities and are escorted to and from school by armed guards.

But the security around Charity Meyers has broken down. On New Year's morning she wakes and finds herself alone, strapped to a stretcher, in an ambulance that's not moving. If this were a normal kidnapping, Charity would be fine. But as the hours of her imprisonment tick by, Charity realizes there is nothing normal about what's going on. No training could prepare her for what her kidnappers really want . . . and worse, for who they turn out to be.