Icelandic Abduction
Author: Aaron Elkins
So I guess there are places where kidnap for ransom is big business. Not just for the kidnappers, but for companies that specialize in dealing with them. In Aaron Elkins’ 2011 thriller The Worst Thing, our protagonist is a very well versed, well-trained and highly respected expert in securing the safe return of kidnap victims. He also happens to have been a victim himself. Does that make him uniquely qualified or uniquely vulnerable?
Bryan Bennett works for a private company that provides manuals, training and other expertise to companies that want to be prepared in the case of a kidnap/ransom situation. Bryan as an individual has quite a few eccentricities – including his desire to remain behind the scenes only (never involved in hostage negotiations), not to travel by plane and never to eat a banana. Say what?
All of Bryan’s quirks are part of a long lasting legacy of PTSD stemming from his own kidnapping as a child. While it seems odd that he would pursue a career in this very niche field, he’s both terrified and fascinated by hostage situations. Fascinated enough to study them for a living and terrified enough to be plagued by severe panic attacks and associated phobias.
When we meet him, Bryan is being offered a chance to lead a seminar in Iceland. He doesn’t do seminars and he sure as hell isn’t flying to Iceland…except maybe he will. You see, he has a wife whom he adores. She loves to travel. He decides to gut it out. The experience turns (of course) dangerous and torturous for the panic plagued Bryan as he’s forced to face down his demons.
Nobody wants to get kidnapped in Iceland. Nobody.
The Worst Thing has an admittedly interesting premise and main character. Getting a peek into this guy’s head to see what motivates his behavior and figure out if he can manage his fears in a worst case scenario sounds like a good read. And in some ways it is. Author Elkins clearly has more than a passing familiarity with panic attacks – his descriptions are vivid and realistic. But if you’ve never had one, the emphasis on them throughout the book is probably going to bore you. If you have had one, those same vivid descriptions are like a primer for triggering another one. Either way, a reading experience designed to be thrilling doesn’t quite do its job.
The look inside a company that negotiates with kidnappers and trains people how to react to an abduction is interesting. But it’s also a little dry – and there’s a little too much exposition about the finer points. By the time we get to the heart of the action, we’ve had to wade through a lot of Bryan’s panic and a lot of information about kidnapping, ransom and how to professionally deal with both.
I also have issues with the last quarter of the book, which seems to be in a great hurry. So much so that all of the action is packed into too short a space and left short on details. What should be major revelations end up being little more than passing commentary.
I didn’t hate The Worst Thing. But I didn’t really like it, either. I can’t really recommend it to anyone. If you have panic attacks it’s too likely to be a trigger and if you don’t, you’re probably going to be bored silly by Bryan’s core issues. 2 stars out of 5.
— S. Millinocket
photo by Andres Tille
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