TAKEN: ROBERT CRAIS

Absolute fluff but a fast easy read between more serious tombs, like SEA OF POPPIES  and the biography of John Smith, founder of Mormonism.  In this book, two teens end up getting caught in the cross fire between Hispanic and Korean gangs, and the outlaw, the Palestinian.  They unfortunately end up witnessing a group of illegals being brought into the States, only to be stolen from their mules by the Palestinian.  Because the two are witnesses, they are taken as well, to be ransomed in a safe house.  Elvis Cole gets a call from the frantic girl's parents, ends up following the trail, from the Hispanics, to the Koreans, to finally, the Palestinian.  He calls on his two friends, Joe Pike and Jon Stone , former mercenaries.  This time Elvis gets taken as well, and it's up to Joe Pike to get him out of a warehouse, guarded by eighteen men, obviously not too many for Joe.  Needless to say, it ends well.  And I have had enough of these two for a while.  It's ready to be made into a movie though they will have to change the name as there is already a Taken II out, with Liam Neilson.  We do get a taste, quite bad, of some of the illegalities that seem to be going on with human trafficking of mostly Asians and Hispanics here in the States.  It's not a pretty picture, brutal and greedy, and I hope the picture Crais paints is an exaggeration though I fear it's not.