Reference Reviews

Doug’s Student Reference Room

Kidnapping. Jan Burns. 104 p. Farmington Hills, MI: Lucent Books. ISBN 13: 978-1-59018-989-4; ISBN 10: 1-59018-989-2. $32.45.

Another in Lucent’s high-interest Crime Scene Investigations series, this volume captures young readers’ attention from the start by describing the Lindbergh case, and pointing out that despite prodigious amounts of evidence, the case was not solved as quickly as it should have been because the investigation was not well controlled from the start. This introduction sets up subsequent chapters, which cover a host of procedures for determining whether a kidnapping has occurred, methods of collecting evidence, locating the victim and profiling of kidnappers. The final chapter recounts disturbing examples of unsolved kidnappings. Color photos and illustrations, bright graphics and sidebars and prominent subheads make the format easy to navigate. A brief bibliography and index are included. This volume is highly recommended for school and public libraries for pleasure reading or research grades six through nine.
—Doug Achterman