We join Emma and Zach on the first case they worked on
together – a string of dead children and another boy who appears to fit the
pattern has gone missing
A child is in danger – FBI agents Emma and Zach need to
find him and save him.
I was actually surprised that I liked this book. The
supernatural elements are really light throughout, we have an introduction in
the beginning and the conclusion is much more leavened by it, but most of the
book could happily have been replaced by two humans in a non-supernatural world
and the plot would have kept working. Normally that would put me off – but this
really worked.
I think it worked because the very essence of the
frustration and the fear of looking for a lost, possibly dead, child really
came through. The leads they chase that go nowhere, the desperation for any
clue, the need to go back over old ground again and again and again and
constantly hitting dead ends and false leads. There’s no real eureka moments,
and the woo-woo can only get you so far, can only help you so much. Most of it
is slog, reading the notes, questioning the witnesses, questioning them again,
and again, going back over the files again, chasing up every tiny possibility –
endless slog
That doesn’t sound appealing – but it is. It’s very real
and really well written to convey all this slog with added frustration and fear
over the stakes and the heavy emotion of the grieving, angry families who, yes,
do lash out and are falling apart and often aren’t facing any kind of happy
ending.
And, ultimately, it’s the slog that pays off. Not the
woo-woo (though it helps), but doggedly going back over the ground until a
connection is found. I like it, I like that magic isn’t used as an excuse to
replace investigation or ignore investigation or completely render the
gruelling slog of police work completely irrelevant. It means the characters
are still professionals who are doing their jobs well BECAUSE they can do their
job well and are willing to work hard and go the distance – not just because
they have woo-woo and can just show up and spill powers everywhere and call the
job done.
The book is prequel short story – picking up on events alluded
to in
Cursed. It’s not necessary to
read the main plot line (I think), but it does add some context to that often
mentioned first meeting between them which fills in a lot of the background.
There’s sexual tension thoughout the book, but Emma is
also an extreme professional – which I appreciate a lot. After all, a child is
missing, other children are dead, time out for a roll in the hay is not what
the mission calls for. Not only that, but she’s very good at setting boundaries
with Zack and repeatedly telling him when he steps out of line and treats her
as a date or an attractive woman rather than a police partner. She doesn’t need
him to hold her chair for her at dinner, she doesn’t need him to tip the staff
at the hotel for her. She’s very clear every time he treats her differently
than if she were a male FBI agent – she’s not his date, she’s a fellow
professional, he needs to step back
Of course, sex still happens at the end, we knew it would since it was mentioned in Cursed, and it doesn’t get in the way of the plot.
I also like how Emma feels the need to speak out about misogynist language Zach uses against another woman – and they don’t allow the fact that woman IS an awful person be sufficient reason to let it slide. Yes, she’s awful, yes, she’s mean. No, that doesn’t mean “bitch” is going to be used. In a genre that has a lot of female characters willing to cut any other women dead around them, I appreciate it when it’s avoided EVEN WHEN a lot of readers would be happy to put down the language as “deserved.”
The novella has some minor racial inclusion - there’s a
Latino character and a Black man, neither hold major roles though.
I think Captured
manages to hit the ideal for a novella for me. It has enough information and
development to actually inform and add to the greater series, while at the same
time not being so essential that someone reading the series really has to have
read the novella – since many people (myself included) often skip the short
stories in a series. It was a nice balance to hit, it’s worth reading, but you
don’t have to. But, personally, I’d highly recommend you do.
