STOLEN

From the start, listeners know that 16-year-old Gemma survives her ordeal at the hands of her kidnapper; after all, she’s telling the story in the form of a letter to him. Emily Gray’s narration is as arid and desolate as the Australian Outback where Ty hides Gemma. But Gray cannot overcome the story’s lackluster writing and dubious premise. Where does Ty, a young Australian man abandoned by his family, get the wherewithal to stalk a British teenager around the globe for years before he finally grabs her? What could have been a fascinating psychological examination of Stockholm syndrome is, instead, an improbable, tedious tale in which the kidnapper is more sympathetic than the victim. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2010]