Review: The Dispatcher by Ryan David Jahn

  • Paperback: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin ((December 27, 2011)
  • ISBN-10: 0143120700
  • Source: Publisher

Seven years ago, the daughter of Texas police dispatcher Ian Hunt was abducted while he and his wife were out to dinner. The abduction destroyed his family; he and his wife are no longer together. He hasn’t spoken to his son, responsible for his sister’s well-being that evening, in some time.  Four months previously, they finally declared Maggie dead, burying an empty coffin.

One day, however, he receives a phone-call from Maggie, now a teenager. She’s able to give her father a brief description of her abductor before she is ripped from the phone. Not nearly enough to make an arrest but certainly enough to re-open the investigation.

When the bodies of several young girls are found on the property of a local man, the local police finally has the leads it needs to generate a full-scale investigation. Ian can’t lose his daughter again, so he takes off on his own on a cross-country chase after the local couple responsible for Maggie’s abduction.  He abandons everything, including the law, to get his daughter back.

The Dispatcher is a chilling, absorbing, addictive read. The desperation this poor father has to find his daughter is heart-wrenching. He feels that in losing his family already he has nothing to risk, nothing to lose. There is a bit of violence so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this book for the weak-stomached.  But if you want an engrossing, heart-pounding, fast-paced, crime novel? The Dispatcher is the book for you. Highly recommended.

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7 Responses to Review: The Dispatcher by Ryan David Jahn

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