THE KIDNAPPING OF SUZIE Q.

A taut, realistic thriller from Waddell (Tango's Baby, 1995, etc.) featuring a feisty, thoughtful heroine. Suzie is kidnapped in a botched supermarket hold-up in rural Northern Ireland. Kept by the three young criminals—Gerard, Dodie, and Leo—because Leo, the leader, mistakenly believes she can identify him, she is imprisoned in a freezing stone hut near an abandoned quarry while her keepers try to figure out what to do with her. She details her ordeal while also depicting her family's harrowing days and nights trying to avoid the media and pry information out of the patronizing police. Considerably more intelligent than her captors, Suzie not only relates the events, but keeps up a running commentary on her own actions and motives, as well as those of the kidnappers, police, and everyone else involved. The terrifying events, the incisive and dispassionate analysis provided by the victim/narrator, the alternating structure, and the recognition of the darkly humorous absurdities involved combine to keep the suspense high, the action gritty, and the novel as realistic as tomorrow's headlines. (Fiction. 14+)