A Descent into Madness

CAPTURED
Neil Cross
Open Road Media
January 27, 2015


Captured by Neil Cross opens with Kenny Drummond learning that he has late stage brain cancer with only a few weeks to live. Kenny is in his youngish middle-age and has been eking out a living as a downmarket portrait painter. Despite being somewhat of an odd duck, brought up by a father who was more than a little mad, Kenny has a few friends and to all appearances has led a relatively blameless life. Chief among those friends are his ex-wife, Mary, and her husband; and a retired policewoman, Pat. Kenny's reaction to his diagnosis is to make up a short list of people, only four in number, who he feels he has let down in some way in order to make amends. Mary tops the list, followed by two people involved in a somewhat obscure incident from years before. Last on the list is Callie Barton, a girl who was kind to him when he was in middle school. He skips over Mary entirely, not even telling her about his diagnosis, and clears everything with the second two in short order. When it comes to Callie Barton he hits a snag. Callie disappeared without a trace years before. Her husband was chief suspect but the police were never able to gather evidence to charge him with anything. Kenny decides that he has to make the husband admit the crime as a way to make amends to Callie. What follows is pretty graphic violence, Kenny's swift deterioration and an excess of collateral damage.

I knew that I would find it difficult to review Captured and have been mulling it over for several days. The book itself moved along very quickly and kept me turning the pages to see what might happen next. Cross has the ability to develop character with a minimum of description, probably a function of his successful writing career for television. I was bothered that I could only come up with Kenny's disease to explain his actions. With the exception of Mary, his reasons for making amends to the people on his list seemed minor and in the case of Callie, non-existent. I know that brain cancer can and does cause major behavioral changes but Kenny is surely extreme. He creates more damage in the few days covered by the novel than he appears to have done in his previous life altogether. I found this lack of any other cause rather unsatisfactory, but others might not. I would recommend Captured for fans of psychological thrillers with a decidedly British flavor.

Thanks to netgalley.com and Open Road Media for an advance digital copy in return for an honest review.

RATING- 3 Stars