The Stolen Ones

By: Owen Laukkanen

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

The blistering new novel from the author of the multi-award-nominated The Professionals - "Laukkanen is one of the best young thriller writers working today" (Richmond Times-Dispatch).

When you've got nothing left, you've got nothing left to lose. Cass County, Minnesota: A sheriff's deputy steps out of a diner on a rainy summer evening, and a few minutes later, he's lying dead in the mud. When BCA agent Kirk Stevens arrives on the scene, he discovers local authorities have taken into custody a single suspect: a hysterical young woman found sitting by the body, holding the deputy's own gun. She has no ID, speaks no English. A mystery woman. The mystery only deepens from there, as Stevens and Carla Windermere, his partner in the new joint BCA-FBI violent crime task force, find themselves on the trail of a massive international kidnapping and prostitution operation. Before the two agents are done, they will have traveled over half the country, from Montana to New York, and come face-to-face not only with the most vicious man either of them has ever encountered - but two of the most courageous women. They are sisters, stolen ones. But just because you're a victim doesn't mean you have to stay one.

©2015 Owen Laukkanen (P)2015 Recorded Books

Such a good story

Truly a good story, glad I did not pass this one suggestion on deal of the day up.

Of Minnesota, Mayhem and Murder

I so wanted to like Owen Laukkanen's 2015 "The Stolen Ones" much more than I did. It's mostly set in Minnesota, and there's a whole side plot involving camping up by Walker, MN. I remember "going up north" with my family, my dad driving a rusting green and white VW bus, smoking a cigarette with one hand, periodically shifting gears with the other, with us unbelted kids bouncing around in the back the like dryer sheets . Walker was almost at the lake.

Laukkanen's got an ear for upper Midwestern dialogue. He's a graduate of the University of British Columbia, and I'm pretty sure Canadians think that Minnesota is a fourth territory. I like his main detectives, Carla Windermere and Kirk Stevens. Windermere's a strong character, but she has her flaws - and that makes her more intriguing. She's someone you want to get to know because she's fiercely professionally competent, but kind of a mess personally. Windermere's not a trope.

That raises the problem I had with the other characters: they're cardboard cutouts, flat paper dolls with no depth, especially the victims Windermere and Stevens are seeking. I realize that the teenage sisters who are the Stolen Ones were written naive, but innocence shouldn't equal idiocy. It did in this book. At first, it was annoying. Eventually, I wanted to reach into the book and tell both of the kidnap victims to "Pull yourself together. Think!" That's not really a great reaction for characters who are supposed to be sympathetic, that you're supposed to like and root for. I wasn't wild about Stevens, either. He had about as much depth as Keanu Reeves did playing rookie FBI Agent Johnny Utah in "Point Break" (1991). Easy on the eyes, sure, but Reeves is a plank, and so is Stevens.

Why did I listen all the way through to a book who had several characters I didn't like? Well, it was a good plot and I developed a liking for one of the villains who did some pretty heinous things. I hoped he'd get killed, but still . . . That's a neat trick for a writer to pull off. And, before I wrote this review, I coincidentally ran across another book in the series on sale in print - and I bought it. I'm willing to spend more time with the characters, and in a world of hundreds of thousands of books, that says something.

I hadn't heard Edoardo Ballerini as a narrator before, and he was mostly okay. I did think his Ukrainian accent sounded more like Russian - which is a problem because there are Russian characters in the book who sounded the same.

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Fast pace book lots of twist an turns...

If you could sum up The Stolen Ones in three words, what would they be?

Great Police Drama

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Stolen Ones?

Most memorable is when the Dragon gets Catarina.

Which character – as performed by Edoardo Ballerini – was your favorite?

Stevenson was my favorite character. Juggling his job with personal matters at home.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, I hated to have to go to bed and wait to listen to the second half in the morning.

Well constructed and well performed store

I enjoyed the dialogue through out. And I appreciated the timeliness of a book on this topic.
Well done book.

Great story-with a small complaint

Great story!!!! Kept me listening. Really could have done without so much profanity-turned me off more than once.

nothing special

ehhhh, it was ok. I'm glad I didn't pay full price for it. But I did listen to the whole book.

Good characters, well developed

This was a very interesting and compelling listen. The only problem I had was at the beginning when Edoardo Ballerini's voice and delivery threw me back to Matthew Corbett's world in Colonial America. I was immediately confused about the time period. The confusion passed, and Ballerini delivered an excellent reading.

Entertaining

Kept my interest through out. Dialog got a little cheesy, and the narrator had a strange delivery at times. All in all a good story, a little unblieviable at times but it's good simple entertainment.

Laukkenan is getting better and better...

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Absolutely. This is truly a thriller, The third in the series, featuring the team of Kirk Stevens and Carla Windemere. This time they get involved in the horrific crime of human trafficking. Women from Eastern Europe are dazzled by lies about America, and then they are stuffed into the huge containers that are the freight of international ocean liners. There is one bucket for a container full of women, who are now being kidnapped, as the ship travels over the Atlantic with 95% of their cargo legitimate, and one container that is full of frightened women, living in darkness, and headed for a horrendous fate in the United States. This is great material, and the characters are fully human.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes. I've already given a brief synopsis of the plot, but listening to ten or more hours of the good guys chasing the bad guys is pure thrill, and listening to it being read by Edoardo Ballerini is a pleasure almost unmatched in audiobooks. The domestic lives of Stevens and Windermere are believable and completely un-contrived (if that is a word). The bad guys are disgusting vermin whom you just love to hate. It works.

Which scene was your favorite?

There are many fine scenes. The goriest, if that is what rings your bell, is the scene in which the bad guys are being chased all around Newark Airport, in their car. You have to listen to it to believe it, but you will.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I didn't have an extreme reaction. There wasn't any crying, but there probably was some snickering at Windermere's whip-like personality. She cuts down men ruthlessly, demonstrating how wicked a woman has to act in order to get respect in the world of law enforcement, particularly at the level of the FBI.

Any additional comments?

This series is fun, and it shows great promise. Laukkenan is very inventive, and there is nothing far-fetched or phony about his fertile imagination. I can sense that he is plotting out several of the books which are to come, and I, personally, can't wait. What a gas.

Cramming a Pound Into a Half Pound Can

On balance The Stolen Ones (TSO) was diverting. Ballerini's gentle voice though may have been a tad more, um, contrapuntal than the harsh storyline demanded. Still the lead characters are engaging - but so much of the plot is... Well getting hit on the noggin' by say a falling safe is improbable, getting hit multiple time? Bad plotting. You REALLY GOTTA' suspend your disbelief to imagine that so many coincidences could happen to let BCA agent Kirk Stevens who sidekicks the extraordinarily gorgeous FBI agent Carla Windermere, solve this tale of kidnapped Rumanians.

Still, I listened to the entire thing, and you probably will as well if you've spent a credit on TSO...