The Prisoner

BA Paris Hodder & Stoughton, £16.99

You can rely on BA

Paris for a wham-bam opening and her sixth thriller kicks off with narrator Amelie being abducted from her bed in the middle of the night.

Amelie and husband Ned, son of a billionaire businessman, are spirited away to the abductors’ base, and a ransom payment is demanded.

It soon becomes clear that not everything in their marriage is rosy – in fact, Amelie seems more scared of Ned than of the kidnappers.

With his family in no hurry to pay for Amelie’s return, she plots her escape.

This tense storyline alternates with the slow-burning narrative of how Amelie came to marry Ned, her playboy boss, before uncovering some of his disturbing secrets.

Paris skilfully stitches together domestic noir with a kidnap thriller and the result is a gripping read.