"Without the rocks, the stream would lose it's song." Proverb

U.S. District Judge, Diane Manchester is abducted just prior to her determination on the case against a Colombian drug lord. Complicating matters is that Diane is age forty-three and eight months pregnant with her first child.

Max Freeman, private investigator, and former Philadelphia cop, works for Diane's husband, Billy, a black lawyer from Philadelphia who preferred to remain behind the scenes, juggling law and investment work.

No words are uttered by Diane's abductors. Her head is covered and she can't see  the people who are holding her captive.

Officials are perplexed because there is no follow-up ransom demand. Since Diane was working on the case of the Columbian drug lord, Max speculates that it might have a connection with that.

With funds and input from Billy, Max looks into Diane's prior cases. Billy gives Max the details of the most likely cases where Diane sent a person to prison and now that person's sentence is over and they might be free from prison and want a revenge kidnapping.

The premise of the story is sound but Diane isn't permitted to talk to the people who abducted her, and they don't talk to one another in her presence.  Author Jonathan King fails to create a sympathetic character. Even though Diane is past her eighth month in pregnancy and worried about her child, the reader will find it difficult to relate or sympathise with  her or her wealthy husband.

One minor character, one of Diane's abductors, is a young woman and she feel remorse for abducting Diane.
This character is sympathetic as we share her thoughts as Diane attempts to communicate with her about the baby.

The middle section of the story was slow and the conclusion was a surprise, perhaps too much so without sufficient foreshadowing.  I enjoy the work of Jonathan King and will look forward to his next novel.