Synopsis
How do you escape a man who believes he owns you?
Sophie Steele’s life is ruled by fear. Her husband, Ben Steele, tracks her phone, her bank accounts, her every move. His position as part-owner of a successful surveillance and investigations company gives full rein to his controlling instincts.
When Ben allows Sophie and their son, Benji, to travel interstate to visit family without him, she hopes he’s trying to change. But when he continues to monitor and manipulate her from afar, she realises she no longer wants to live the lonely life he’s forced upon her. As her determination to leave him grows, she develops a much-needed friendship with Lee, an attractive Taekwondo instructor who promises to help her however he can.
But even thinking about leaving Ben is dangerous, and it quickly becomes apparent how far he’ll go to keep her under his control.
How can she escape a man who has the means to hunt her down no matter where she hides? Is the chance of freedom worth risking her and Benji’s lives?
A powerful blend of deceit, manipulation, and intrigue, Captive will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final, shocking revelation.
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Review
I have read several books by this author, but this one is on a different level than the other books! Told from three points of view – Sophie, Ella, and Cathy, each story blends in with the others with a final culmination at the end. It reflects how easy it could be for someone to be taken in by a master manipulator.
Sophie is one of the main characters. She is stuck in a loveless relationship and actually an abusive one. Her husband, Ben, thinks that he owns her and is in control of everything. He doesn’t trust her and is always checking her phone for messages, calls, and search history. He tracks her wherever she goes, either via the phone or a smartwatch. To top it off, he has security cameras installed inside the house and watches her constantly. Warning lights were going off in my head with every turn of the page based on his actions.
Ella is young and naive, and she believes that Ben loves her and fears for his safety from Sophie. She should have been on guard when he said not to mention him to anyone. However, she has blind faith where he is concerned, until it lands her in hot water.
This thriller had me turning pages as fast as I could. Would Sophie and her son Benji get away from Ben? Would Ella see through his manipulations? Would Ben get what was coming to him?
I appreciated that the author shared resources within the pages on how Sophie could leave Ben for a better life. Sophie even has a couple of new friends who try to help her escape to a better life. Luckily, Ben doesn’t cut her off from these friends. Perhaps because one of them has a boy that is Benji’s age and a new friend for him. Despite all of Ben’s faults, there is no doubt that he loves his son.
If you enjoy psychological suspense/thriller novels, this is a good one to read. If you have any triggers regarding abuse, it may not be the best choice for you.
We give this book 5 paws up.
About the Author
Cally Jackson grew up in the small country town of Gatton. After deciding at 17 that a Hollywood acting career was sadly out of reach, Cally turned to a career in professional communication with fictional writing as her labour of love.
Cally’s passion for fictional writing first emerged in grade two when she got in trouble for penning her own tale instead of copying directly from a story book as she was supposed to be doing – it was a handwriting exercise, after all.
Cally’s first novel, The Big Smoke, was published in 2012. A decade and two children later, Cally has released her second novel, The Ripple Effect.
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ML Condike’s novel, The Desk from Hoboken, is the first in a genealogy mystery three-book series. She also has short stories published in five anthologies. ML Condike completed Southern Methodist University’s Writer’s Path in Dallas in 2019 and is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime North Dallas, Granbury Writers’ Bloc, and Key West Writers Guild.
Paulette Kennedy is the bestselling author of The Witch of Tin Mountain and Parting the Veil, which received the prestigious HNS Review Editor’s Choice Award. She has had a lifelong obsession with the gothic. As a young girl, she spent her summers among the gravestones in her neighborhood cemetery, imagining all sorts of romantic stories for the people buried there. After her mother introduced her to the Brontës as a teenager, her affinity for fog-covered landscapes and haunted heroines only grew, inspiring her to become a writer.
Award winning author, Shelly Frome is a member of Mystery Writers of America, a professor of dramatic arts emeritus at UConn, a former professional actor, and a writer of crime novels and books on theater and film. He also is a features writer for Gannett Publications.
Mark A. Gibson is a physician who practices Cardiology in the mountains of rural North Georgia. He was raised on a small farm in upstate South Carolina—the last postage-stamp sized sliver of a much larger parcel granted to the family by a land grant from King Charles II in 1665—and may or may not have once gotten in trouble for digging up his mom’s calla lily bed in search of the family’s long-lost charter.
Dr. Cynthia Jacobs Carter works in philanthropy at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. She is the author of the National Geographic books Africana Woman: Her Story Through Time and Freedom in My Heart: Voices from the National Slavery Museum, which was nominated by the NAACP Image Awards for Best Literary Work. Cynthia’s gift for storytelling brings alive the Black female experience for women of all ages. Having six granddaughters helps inspire her to celebrate young women. Holding a doctorate in educational leadership and a master’s degree in international education from George Washington University, Cynthia has connected especially with young women as an instructor and lecturer in Africana Women’s studies at GW and Georgetown Universities. While working in philanthropy at Howard University, she was curator for the exhibition “Women of the African Diaspora,” which toured the White House, the World Bank, and George Washington and Georgetown Universities. Cynthia serves with several local and national organizations and their boards, including The Links, Incorporated. As a development officer she has grown philanthropic programs at Africare, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, and at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, where she founded the Harriet Tubman Legacy Society.
Ruth Chamblee is a publishing and marketing professional who leads the Content Marketing Strategy & Promotion team for National Geographic Kids Books. Her early career included brand management marketing at Richardson-Vicks, a division of Procter and Gamble, and membership marketing for the Smithsonian Institution Books and Recordings divisions. For more than three decades she has designed and carried out multifaceted strategic marketing initiatives for countless National Geographic books, and her guidance has helped bring new voices to and fill key niches in the children’s book market. She is a board member of the Children’s Book Council and Chairman of the Board for Every Child a Reader. Her vision for I Am, I Can, I Will arose from her realization that knowing and honoring our ancestors can contribute to self-awareness, self-empowerment, and self-love for her, her daughter, and all little Black girls.
Award winning author Khanh Ha is a nine-time Pushcart nominee, finalist for The Ohio State University Fiction Collection Prize, Mary McCarthy Prize, Many Voices Project, Prairie Schooner Book Prize, The University of New Orleans Press Lab Prize, Prize Americana, and The Santa Fe Writers Project. He is the recipient of the Sand Hills Prize for Best Fiction, The Robert Watson Literary Prize in Fiction, The Orison Anthology Award for Fiction, The James Knudsen Prize for Fiction, The C&R Press Fiction Prize, The EastOver Fiction Prize, The Blackwater Press Fiction Prize, The Gival Press Novel Award, and The Red Hen Press Fiction Award.
