Holt deftly avoids prurience or gratuity while conveying the horror of walling, waterboarding, and similar practices, and Mia is refreshingly resourceful throughout her ordeal. They enlist Daniele Barbo, Carnivia’s reclusive mastermind, to help find Mia. Holly Boland suspect the abductors have powerful, hidden supporters with another agenda. While the kidnappers claim the “non-torture” will cease when Americans halt construction on a nearby military base, Carabiniere Capt. Videos soon appear on -a cyber-Venice in which carnival masks hide identities and ethical boundaries collapse-showing Mia undergoing CIA-sanctioned “interrogation” techniques. My copy of The Abduction is an Advanced Reader Copy, provided free of charge.The disappearance in Venice of 16-year-old Mia Elston, an American officer’s daughter, kick-starts Holt’s enthralling second Carnivia thriller (after 2013’s The Abomination). I am really looking forward to reading the third book in the trilogy – but I am not looking forward to the end of their stories! It’s such a refreshing change from plodding procedurals and predictable detective stories and I have been recommending this one to everyone. This is what I love the most about this series! No matter where the story starts, it take you places you had no idea were even on the map.

There are interesting tendrils – a secret society, hacked email, disturbing documents found in the Vatican archives.

It’s a chilling plan and since the kidnappers are online, it is going viral all over the globe.Īnd then, just like the storyline in The Abomination, the story veers off into entirely new territory. There is no ransom demand, but there is a video – a very strange video – and eventually, the kidnappers’ plans become clear. Her name is Mia and she is the daughter of a US Army officer. The novel starts with an erotic swingers event at an upscale nightclub, which is a great way to begin a story! A young woman is abducted – a teenager who should definitely not have been at this party. These characters are so very different and it is really interesting to see the way they interact. There is tension between Tapo and Boland, as well as an entirely different sort of tension between Boland and Barbo. Tapo has filed a sexual harassment suite against her former lover, Colonel Aldo Piola – and good for her, because the resolution of their affair was really unfair for her. The Abduction focuses again on the unlikely trio of detectives: Venetian police captain Kat Tapo, Second Lieutenant Holly Boland, and reclusive genius Daniele Barbo. It wasn’t long ago that I reviewed The Abomination, which I thought was a terrific mystery, so I was eager to see where the story went next. I was thrilled to receive a copy of The Abduction by Jonathan Holt, the second book in the Carnivia trilogy.

The abduction jonathan holt