WHEN SHE'S GONE

Is the mysterious past of a wealthy family’s bodyguard behind the kidnapping of their teenage daughter?

Bodyguard Ara Zuyev brooks no interference in running the security team for the Boone family. Employees follow her directions, no questions asked. But she’s thrown off guard when her role switches from protector to detective after her teenage charge, Sam Harper, goes missing. The daughter of Holly and the stepdaughter of billionaire Oliver Boone, Sam is a budding troublemaker, and interspersed chapters show that her kidnapping is actually her own plot to defraud Oliver out of millions. But Ara doesn’t know that. Neither does Luke Patrick, the FBI agent dispatched to investigate Sam’s disappearance. Given Ara’s role as bodyguard and her coincidental absence at the time of Sam’s abduction, Luke’s suspicions immediately fix on her as his prime suspect. It doesn’t help that there’s so little information available about Ara’s past, though she claims there’s nothing worth knowing and certainly no connection to Sam. Meanwhile, Sam’s plan to get revenge against Oliver takes a dangerous turn when one of her co-conspirators turns actual kidnapper, trading Sam to threatening men who may not release her even if the ransom’s paid. Sam’s safety seems completely reliant on Ara’s ability to use what she knows about Sam’s life to connect the dots and convince Luke to investigate her hunches rather than Ara’s own background.

A straightforward, fast-paced series kickoff in which character development is limited to whatever qualities most directly drive the plot.