Call Mama

Book excerpt: Following the abduction of 15 year old Lucy Mears, her mother Brenda, a self made business woman, President of Mears Empire expects a ransom demand. Weeks go by, and when no such demand materialises, alarm bells ring for family and friends. The investigators realise that normal criminal motives have been replaced by more worrying and potentially sinister motivations. Attention changes rapidly from one character to another, focusing on present and former employees of Mears Empire, to the household staff, to Lucy's music tutor and to complete strangers caught up in the mystery of a child's abduction, while all the time the perpetrator of the crime remains undetected. The terrified child and her strange captors encounter countless difficulties and unimaginable dangers as they journey across several states of America to their ultimate destination where their mysterious purpose is finally revealed. 'Call Mama' explores the extremes of human nature and the corrosive nature of revenge. It is an examination of our humanity, the good, the bad and the really ugly in a very human story of crime, in which two prominent detectives, Tony Harvey and Carole Carr almost lose their careers. A crime with tentacles with the potential to reach almost to the White House and throwing the Presidential election into turmoil.