The Stolen Ones

De: Owen Laukkanen

Narrado por: Edoardo Ballerini

The blistering new novel from the author of the multi-award-nominated The Professionals - "Laukkanen is one of the best young thriller writers working today" (Richmond Times-Dispatch).

When you've got nothing left, you've got nothing left to lose. Cass County, Minnesota: A sheriff's deputy steps out of a diner on a rainy summer evening, and a few minutes later, he's lying dead in the mud. When BCA agent Kirk Stevens arrives on the scene, he discovers local authorities have taken into custody a single suspect: a hysterical young woman found sitting by the body, holding the deputy's own gun. She has no ID, speaks no English. A mystery woman. The mystery only deepens from there, as Stevens and Carla Windermere, his partner in the new joint BCA-FBI violent crime task force, find themselves on the trail of a massive international kidnapping and prostitution operation. Before the two agents are done, they will have traveled over half the country, from Montana to New York, and come face-to-face not only with the most vicious man either of them has ever encountered - but two of the most courageous women. They are sisters, stolen ones. But just because you're a victim doesn't mean you have to stay one.

©2015 Owen Laukkanen (P)2015 Recorded Books

Such a good story

Truly a good story, glad I did not pass this one suggestion on deal of the day up.

Of Minnesota, Mayhem and Murder

I so wanted to like Owen Laukkanen's 2015 "The Stolen Ones" much more than I did. It's mostly set in Minnesota, and there's a whole side plot involving camping up by Walker, MN. I remember "going up north" with my family, my dad driving a rusting green and white VW bus, smoking a cigarette with one hand, periodically shifting gears with the other, with us unbelted kids bouncing around in the back the like dryer sheets . Walker was almost at the lake.

Laukkanen's got an ear for upper Midwestern dialogue. He's a graduate of the University of British Columbia, and I'm pretty sure Canadians think that Minnesota is a fourth territory. I like his main detectives, Carla Windermere and Kirk Stevens. Windermere's a strong character, but she has her flaws - and that makes her more intriguing. She's someone you want to get to know because she's fiercely professionally competent, but kind of a mess personally. Windermere's not a trope.

That raises the problem I had with the other characters: they're cardboard cutouts, flat paper dolls with no depth, especially the victims Windermere and Stevens are seeking. I realize that the teenage sisters who are the Stolen Ones were written naive, but innocence shouldn't equal idiocy. It did in this book. At first, it was annoying. Eventually, I wanted to reach into the book and tell both of the kidnap victims to "Pull yourself together. Think!" That's not really a great reaction for characters who are supposed to be sympathetic, that you're supposed to like and root for. I wasn't wild about Stevens, either. He had about as much depth as Keanu Reeves did playing rookie FBI Agent Johnny Utah in "Point Break" (1991). Easy on the eyes, sure, but Reeves is a plank, and so is Stevens.

Why did I listen all the way through to a book who had several characters I didn't like? Well, it was a good plot and I developed a liking for one of the villains who did some pretty heinous things. I hoped he'd get killed, but still . . . That's a neat trick for a writer to pull off. And, before I wrote this review, I coincidentally ran across another book in the series on sale in print - and I bought it. I'm willing to spend more time with the characters, and in a world of hundreds of thousands of books, that says something.

I hadn't heard Edoardo Ballerini as a narrator before, and he was mostly okay. I did think his Ukrainian accent sounded more like Russian - which is a problem because there are Russian characters in the book who sounded the same.

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Fast pace book lots of twist an turns...

If you could sum up The Stolen Ones in three words, what would they be?

Great Police Drama

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Stolen Ones?

Most memorable is when the Dragon gets Catarina.

Which character – as performed by Edoardo Ballerini – was your favorite?

Stevenson was my favorite character. Juggling his job with personal matters at home.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, I hated to have to go to bed and wait to listen to the second half in the morning.

Well constructed and well performed store

I enjoyed the dialogue through out. And I appreciated the timeliness of a book on this topic.
Well done book.

Great story-with a small complaint

Great story!!!! Kept me listening. Really could have done without so much profanity-turned me off more than once.