{"id":322005,"date":"2025-10-21T20:13:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/322005\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T20:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:13:11","slug":"cate-holahan-02-spins-a-suspense-novel-about-a-missing-teen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/322005\/","title":{"rendered":"Cate Holahan \u201902 Spins a Suspense Novel About a Missing Teen"},"content":{"rendered":"

The book:<\/strong> Alice Ingold is not just missing, she\u2019s been kidnapped. The story is all over the news. Instead of a ransom, her captors have a riddle that needs to be solved, transforming the investigation into a nationwide scavenger hunt being played by the entire country. Alice\u2019s parents Catherine and Brian are desperate to bring their daughter home, but they don\u2019t agree on the best way to do it. With each new clue, a complex picture of the crime develops. The Kidnapping of Alice Ingold\u00a0(Thomas & Mercer) is a twisty suspense novel about the hunt for a missing teen and America\u2019s obsession with true crime.<\/p>\n

The author:\u00a0<\/strong>Cate Holahan \u201902 earned her undergraduate degree from Princeton in politics and an MFA in dramatic writing from New York University\u2019s Tisch School of the Arts. She is a USA Today bestselling author and screenwriter and the author of six novels, including Her Three Lives and Dark Turns. She\u2019s also written two original movies, Deadly Estate and Midnight Hustle. A former journalist and TV producer, her work has appeared in BusinessWeek Magazine, The Boston Globe, and MSN Money, among other outlets.<\/p>\n

Excerpt:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Liza Ring<\/p>\n

The Day Before<\/p>\n

The ransom note promised to be the easy part. We agreed to keep it simple: a frank recap of what happened, followed by a single demand. This is what we did. This is what must be done to undo it. Period. No need to belabor the why. Any discussion of motive will have the press labeling our letter a manifesto, and manifestos are contrivances of incels and mass shooters, embittered idiots lacking ideas.<\/p>\n

Not us.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re thinkers. Plotters. Opposites of the easily amused, screen-addicted stereotype slapped on our generation like an expiration date. That cohort may have accepted the GoFundMe future our elders intend to leave behind. But our parents forgot sticking us in extra math classes and SAT prep courses. If nothing else, we\u2019ve learned the dire need to outthink the competition.<\/p>\n

Is it any wonder, then, that I\u2019m unsatisfied with our plan?<\/p>\n

I sit at the table, staring at blue lines segmenting yellow paper, my thoughts flitting from outcome to outcome, an Adderall-starved brain unable to adhere to a course of action. Surely more planning is required to guarantee success. Myriad decisions must be reexamined. Stress tested.<\/p>\n

The writing, for one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should type this. The cops can match my chicken scratch.\u201d<\/p>\n

He exhales. My boyfriend isn\u2019t performing exasperation so much as playing for time. He suggested handwriting for aesthetics rather than any concrete reason. The idea of going analog appeals to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrint servers keep records,\u201d he says, alighting on an argument. \u201cCops can trace it faster than handwriting, especially if you use your left like we discussed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Showing is better than telling. I pick up a pen with my nondominant hand and scrawl the first letter of a sentence. It\u2019s a D, though it looks more like a toddler\u2019s attempt at a triangle; Shel Silverstein\u2019s Missing Piece before hard knocks whittled it into the Big O.<\/p>\n

I tap the sad rendering. \u201cThey\u2019ll get an expert to say the spikes are signs of sociopathy.\u201d<\/p>\n

He smirks at me. \u201cThat\u2019s the least of what they\u2019ll say.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not wrong. Still, I rip the paper from the pad and crumple it in my fist, a meager show of power. I\u2019m stronger than a sheet of loose leaf, despite my knees shaking beneath the table. \u201cWe can\u2019t have the media sidetracked,\u201d I say, picking up my case. \u201cTyping makes it generic. And if we print off a library machine, they\u2019ll never tie it to us. This\u2019ll be a proverbial needle in a haystack.\u201d<\/p>\n

He grins. \u201cThat\u2019s an odd expression, isn\u2019t it? Needles in hay?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSorry. A decent job in this market.\u201d<\/p>\n

His mouth shrinks as he pulls a backpack off a neighboring chair. A flash of metal accompanies the zip of the fastener\u2019s teeth unlocking. For a nanosecond, I expect a gun.<\/p>\n

My laptop appears instead: a MacBook Pro with a quirky sticker in the corner to make it identifiable and less obnoxiously sleek.<\/p>\n

He opens the computer. \u201cSay we did type this thing. You don\u2019t think it\u2019s hypocritical?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one\u2019s advocating a return to the Stone Age.\u201d<\/p>\n

He ruffles the front of his dark hair. The desk light catches on red streaks, highlighting the green in his eyes. Those eyes! They impress me too much. Opalescent. Piercing. Valuing beauty is like fawning over inherited wealth. It bestows unearned credit on an accident of birth or, worse, the vain use of disposable income. Even so, the sight of him transforms my blood into champagne, fizzy, headed straight to my brain.<\/p>\n

His long fingers rest atop the keyboard. \u201cReady?\u201d<\/p>\n

My legs continue to bounce. Until today, everything\u2019s been hypothetical. Writing makes this real.<\/p>\n

I stand to steady my limbs, then lean over the back of his chair. He smells like my shampoo. When he emerged from the bathroom this morning, my towel wrapped around his torso, I briefly considered calling the whole thing off. Would it be so immoral to shack up together? Two bohemians unbothered by the outside world with no greater purpose than reveling in nature and each other?<\/p>\n

I knew the answer, and so did he.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike we discussed?\u201d He stares at me, unwavering. Cowardice is a luxury he\u2019s never been able to afford.<\/p>\n

I gulp down a breath. The blank document shines on screen. Its image blurs, replaced by a face. I see her pale cheeks. Her tears.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou alright?\u201d His brow furrows. Empathy. The better reason I fell for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause if you have doubts, I\u2019d understand. She\u2019s\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA spoiled trust fund baby without a clue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStill.\u201d<\/p>\n

I stiffen my spine. Dwelling on her doesn\u2019t make this easier. This isn\u2019t about her, anyway. It\u2019s far more about him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more abrupt, the more they\u2019ll understand we\u2019re not open to negotiation.\u201d I take another breath and point at the computer.<\/p>\n

He repositions his hands over the keys. \u201cWe should start with the date.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTomorrow\u2019s?\u201d The word comes out like a question.<\/p>\n

His typing answers it. I watch the month, day, and year materialize in the screen\u2019s right-hand corner:\u00a0September 9, 2025. Tomorrow, then.<\/p>\n

\u201cDear Mr. and Mrs. Ingold,\u201d I begin. \u201cWe took your daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Excerpted from\u00a0The Kidnapping of Alice Ingold by Cate Holahan. Copyright \u00a9 2025\u00a0Catherine\u00a0Holahan. Printed with permission of the publisher Thomas & Mercer an Imprint of Amazon Publishing.<\/p>\n

Reviews:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cCate Holahan is one of the best suspense writers working today, hands down, and The Kidnapping of Alice Ingold reaffirms that. Full of compelling characters and ingenious twists, this is the kind of book you clear your schedule for.\u201d \u2014 Rob Hart, author of Assassins Anonymous<\/p>\n

\u201cA timely, twisty page turner of a parent\u2019s worst nightmare and a future that should concern us all.\u201d \u2014 Robert Dugoni, author of Her Deadly Game<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The book: Alice Ingold is not just missing, she\u2019s been kidnapped. The story is all over the news.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":322006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1022,171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-322005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115413988553303539","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}