A wave of babynappings has terrified parents from San Diego to Portland. And when the Pied Piper--named for the penny flute he leaves in the cribs of his victims--claims his first Seattle infant, the investigation draws in homicide detective Lou Boldt. Assigned temporarily to Intelligence so he can spend more time with his kids while his wife is hospitalized for chemotherapy, Boldt's role is to keep the FBI out of the Seattle Police Department's way. But FBI special agent Gary Flemming is a tough adversary--so tough it almost seems as if he's intentionally sabotaging the SPD's investigation. Then the Pied Piper snatches Boldt's own daughter, promising that unless Boldt throws both the Feds and the SPD off his trail he'll never see his child again. Caught between his professional obligations and his fear for Sarah's life, Boldt launches his own private manhunt with the help of John La Moia, his replacement in homicide, and police psychologist Daphne Matthews, his closest friend in the department. They form a sub rosa task force under the noses of the Feds and the SPD, and soon discover how the Piper has managed to stay a step ahead of the police, elude capture, and find his small victims. The chase moves from Seattle to Portland to New Orleans, culminating in a thrilling denouement in the daffodil fields of Washington's Skagit Valley. Combining strong characterizations with an impressive command of both policing and pacing, Ridley Pearson, author of Chain of Evidence and Beyond Recognition, delivers another sure winner in this outing for Lou Boldt. --Jane Adams


From Publishers Weekly
A serial kidnapper called the Pied Piper?the villain of Pearson's ingenious, fast-moving 11th thriller?has targeted Seattle, and newly promoted Lieutenant Lou Boldt (last seen in Beyond Recognition) is called in on the case by John LaMoia of the Seattle Crimes Against Persons unit. Boldt, whose wife, Liz, is undergoing chemotherapy, soon discovers that the Pied Piper has managed to target families, steal children and vanish from city after city seemingly at will, although the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent Gary Flemming, has been chasing the serial kidnapper across the country for months. And it looks like the same thing will happen in Seattle, especially when vital information is withheld by the FBI in a turf battle with the locals. But just as Boldt starts asking the right questions, the Pied Piper abducts his daughter, Sarah. It's twists like this that fuel the rest of the novel as Pearson tightens the screws on Boldt as he tries to find his daughter and prevent another kidnapping. The plot begins simply and becomes wonderfully complex, stretching from Seattle to New Orleans; while the lucky car accident that helps break the case wide open is somewhat facile, the work of Boldt and an expertly drawn supporting cast of characters will hold the attention of readers. As will be clear even to neophytes, Boldt's relationship with forensic psychologist Daphne Matthews, and the ongoing affair between two members of the task force, point to a lot of history between these characters, none of it confusing for first-timers, who may be tempted to pick up earlier novels to see whether they're all this good. $250,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club selections; author tour. Agent, Al Zuckerman. (Aug.) FYI: A mass market edition of Beyond Recognition will be published simultaneously.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Dale Hull's warm, slightly gruff tones complement this tense thriller about Seattle Police Detective Lou Boldt's search for a serial kidnapper who moves from city to city without capture. The apparently motiveless kidnappings are terrifying parents of young children, and, as the search intensifies, Boldt is drawn into the center--as a victim. Hull adeptly handles the emotions of the police, the parents, and the children, and subtly establishes vocal personalities for the varied cast of characters. His ability to switch mood and move the narrative through the fast paces required by the story keeps the listener as invested as Boldt in solving the puzzle. M.A.M. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Pearson fans better prepare themselves for another excruciating ride on the most elaborate suspense rollercoaster on the market. The Lou Boldt^-Daphne Matthews novels remain unparalleled in their masterful mixing of endlessly fascinating forensic detail, human drama, and airtight plotting. This time, recently promoted Seattle Police Lieutenant Boldt and forensic psychologist Matthews attempt to catch the Pied Piper, a kidnapper who snatches infants from their cribs and leaves a toy flute as his calling card. Moving from city to city up the West Coast, the Piper has completely confounded both the FBI and local police. Boldt quickly learns how he's done it: by kidnapping one of the cops' kids and forcing the crazed parent to torpedo the investigation if he wants to see his child alive. Boldt is the latest victim, forcing him to abandon his all-consuming dedication to police work in the interest of his little girl: "The truth, which Boldt held as an absolute, was suddenly a product of context. One could distort it, bastardize it, destroy it as one saw fit. The Pied Piper had not only stolen his daughter, he had stolen his life." That's typical of Pearson: never satisfied with one-dimensional suspense (Is there a bad guy behind that next tree?), he always delivers internal conflict as well as external drama, the psychological suspense of Ruth Rendell melded to the plot-driven tension of John Grisham. It's a can't-miss combination, as Pearson's track record proves. Bill Ott


From Kirkus Reviews
Seattle cop Lou Boldt's been promoted to Lieutenant and shifted from Homicide to Intelligencebut all the changes don't protect him from the most painfully intimate contact with a kidnapper of small children. The Pied Piper, who restricts his prey to infants and leaves a signature pennywhistle in each empty nursery, has been plying his trade for long months up and down the West Coast before he snatches little Rhonda Shotz from her babysitter. And Gary Flemming, the bullying Seattle FBI agent, has been tracking him without success. Now that Boldt's been yanked from his wife Liz's side (she's hospitalized with lymphoma) and put in charge of the task force his own captain has formed, the usual jurisdictional sparks are bound to fly. This time, though, the sparks are as hot as the fires in Beyond Recognition (1997). Just as Boldt and his teamhis successor at Homicide, Sgt. John LaMoia; forensic psychologist Lt. Daphne Matthews; Scientific Investigation Director Bernie Lofgrin; and the scaldingly resentful FBIbegin to comb far enough through the scant physical evidence to link the Pied Piper to a low-rent shamus and a bustling methamphetamine lab, the Piper snatches Boldt's own daughter Sarah to insure that he keeps the task force muzzled. Consumed with grief and guilt, Boldt's still sharp enough to see that the Piper's been getting information from inside the task force. His only option is to work against his own team, running his own secret investigation while spreading disinformation that'll keep the Piper contentunless the inside informant realizes what Boldt's doing. Slowly, slowly, Boldt moves from following the Piper to anticipating his next move, as the scene shifts to New Orleans, where the police ``emphasize relationships over the letter of the law.'' Though the Piper, once revealed, scarcely seems monstrous enough to have caused the cast members so much heartache, Pearson proves once again that he can put together a big-scale, big-time police manhunt better than anybody else in the business. ($250,000 ad/promo, including mass-market Beyond Recognition; Literary Guild selection; author tour) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Ridley Pearson is a thriller writer with a bite. His novels, from Probable Cause to Beyond Recognition, carry the requisite killers, victims, smart cops, bad cops, forensic investigations, and other police procedural hallmarks to ensure a major readership, but what he also brings to the genre is a powerful talent for writing suspenseful scenes, in rapid-fire succession. I've been hooked on his stuff since Under Currents, and not one of his novels has been disappointing to me.

The Pied Piper is simply drawn, and yet I was completely entangled in its story line. Pearson is truly a master at work as he details the ins and outs of police work on a crime scene and sets up the mystery at the center of this delightfully entertaining thriller.

And yeah, it is a roller coaster, make no mistake. Hang on for dear life and just go with the suspense. It rarely gets better than this.

The setting is Seattle, and a woman is edgy as she and her husband board a special dinner train as a way of celebrating their anniversary. It's the first time she's left her two young children behind, and she feels trapped on the train, unable to check on their babysitter. When she finally calls from the train, there's no answer.

What a neighbor has already discovered is the babysitter knocked out cold on the floor, and the children gone. In the baby's crib is a small plastic flute. This is the hallmark of the Pied Piper, a kidnapper or ring of kidnappers who take children.

Before the parents even have a chance to leave their train, the police and detectives are swarmingoverthe small suburban home. Pearson fans will enjoy seeing the entrance of Lieutenant Lou Boldt as he joins his colleagues at the scene of the crime to try and piece together what happened and possibly find out why. Soon, his partner-in-investigations, forensic psychologist Daphne Matthews, joins him. Other faces familiar to Pearson fans also emerge, but Lou and Daphne definitely take over. Immediately they go to work to learn anything they can from possible witnesses. This is not the first kidnapping for the Pied Piper. Whoever has committed these acts has been terrifying communities for six months, and with diabolical brilliance. The FBI and police itself have been used by the Pied Piper, and their fumblings only served to allow this kidnapper to continue on his deadly course.

Daphne and Lou must work together to track the Pied Piper before another child is taken. And when another child is taken, it is too close to home for Lou Boldt.

This is a fast-paced psychological thriller that has blockbuster written all over it. Ridley Pearson has a real knack for keeping the action going through the various layers of his plot, and while some of the action might be predictable, it is never slow-going, and always fascinating. Lou Boldt and Daphne Matthews are wonderful detectives to follow as they — and we — find out more about the Pied Piper and the fate of the children he snatches.

For those who love masterful suspense and high-octane thrills, The Pied Piperis up there with the best of Ridley Pearson. Recommended.

Douglas Clegg

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The press is calling him the Pied Piper because infants have disappeared from San Diego to Seattle with only a penny flute left in the crib. With all signs pointing to a black market adoption agency, Boldt and Matthews must break the brilliantly conceived network of abductions that has shattered lives and terrorized communities. With few leads and no witnesses, Boldt and Matthews must battle not only the overwhelming odds, but the involvement of federal law enforcement driven by a news-hungry press and nervous politicians. The more deeply they probe the more elusive the truth seems - evidence is being stalled, paperwork misplaced, witnesses overlooked. Why, when so much is at stake?

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

A serial kidnapper called the Pied Piper--the villain of Pearson's ingenious, fast-moving 11th thriller--has targeted Seattle, and newly promoted Lieutenant Lou Boldt (last seen in Beyond Recognition) is called in on the case by John LaMoia of the Seattle Crimes Against Persons unit. Boldt, whose wife, Liz, is undergoing chemotherapy, soon discovers that the Pied Piper has managed to target families, steal children and vanish from city after city seemingly at will, although the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent Gary Flemming, has been chasing the serial kidnapper across the country for months. And it looks like the same thing will happen in Seattle, especially when vital information is withheld by the FBI in a turf battle with the locals. But just as Boldt starts asking the right questions, the Pied Piper abducts his daughter, Sarah. It's twists like this that fuel the rest of the novel as Pearson tightens the screws on Boldt as he tries to find his daughter and prevent another kidnapping. The plot begins simply and becomes wonderfully complex, stretching from Seattle to New Orleans; while the lucky car accident that helps break the case wide open is somewhat facile, the work of Boldt and an expertly drawn supporting cast of characters will hold the attention of readers. As will be clear even to neophytes, Boldt's relationship with forensic psychologist Daphne Matthews, and the ongoing affair between two members of the task force, point to a lot of history between these characters, none of it confusing for first-timers, who may be tempted to pick up earlier novels to see whether they're all this good. $250,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club selections; author tour. Agent, Al Zuckerman. (Aug.) FYI: A mass market edition of Beyond Recognition will be published simultaneously.

AudioFile

Dale Hull's warm, slightly gruff tones complement this tense thriller about Seattle Police Detective Lou Boldt's search for a serial kidnapper who moves from city to city without capture. The apparently motiveless kidnappings are terrifying parents of young children, and, as the search intensifies, Boldt is drawn into the center—as a victim. Hull adeptly handles the emotions of the police, the parents, and the children, and subtly establishes vocal personalities for the varied cast of characters. His ability to switch mood and move the narrative through the fast paces required by the story keeps the listener as invested as Boldt in solving the puzzle. M.A.M. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

Vanessa V. Friedman

Despite the book's intricate plot, Pearson's wooden characters may make you wish you hadn't paid the Piper. -- Entertainment Weekly

Kirkus Reviews

Seattle cop Lou Boldt's been promoted to Lieutenant and shifted from Homicide to Intelligence, but all the changes don't protect him from the most painfully intimate contact with a kidnapper of small children.

The Pied Piper, who restricts his prey to infants and leaves a signature pennywhistle in each empty nursery, has been plying his trade for long months up and down the West Coast before he snatches little Rhonda Shotz from her babysitter. And Gary Flemming, the bullying Seattle FBI agent, has been tracking him without success. Now that Boldt's been yanked from his wife Liz's side (she's hospitalized with lymphoma), and put in charge of the task force his own captain has formed, the usual jurisdictional sparks are bound to fly. This time, though, the sparks are as hot as the fires in Beyond Recognition (1997).

Just as Boldt and his team, his successor at Homicide, Sgt. John LaMoia; forensic psychologist Lt. Daphne Matthews; Scientific Investigation Director Bernie Lofgrin; and the scaldingly resentful FBI, begin to comb far enough through the scant physical evidence to link The Pied Piper to a low-rent shamus and a bustling methamphetamine lab, the Piper snatches Boldt's own daughter Sarah to insure that he keeps the task force muzzled. . . . . Slowly, slowly, Boldt moves from following the Piper to anticipating his next move, as the scene shifts to New Orleans, where the police 'emphasize relationships over the letter of the law.' Though the Piper, once revealed, scarcely seems monstrous enough to have caused the cast members so much heartache, Pearson proves once again that he can put together a big-scale, big-time police manhunt better than anybody else in thebusiness.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING