Shannon Kirk’s debut novel, The Method, won the 2015 National Indie Excellence Award for suspense and now you can read it to find out what all the fuss is about. Optioned for a major motion film and set to be translated into multiple languages, The Method is a kidnapping story unlike any I’ve ever read…

 

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The Method by Shannon Kirk

Illustrated by: N/A

Series: N/A

Published: March 2nd 2017, Sphere

Edition: Paperback

Length: 336 pages

Narrated By: N/A

Genre: Thriller, Suspense, Mystery, Crime

Where Did I Get It? I was kindly sent a copy in return for taking part in the Blog Tour.

Blurb: You’re sixteen, you’re pregnant, and you’ve been kidnapped.

If you’re anyone else you give in,but if you’re a manipulative prodigy you fight back in the only way you can. You use what you’ve been given against your captors.

You have only one chance to save your life and that of your unborn child. You’re calculating, methodical, and as your kidnappers are about to discover, they made a big mistake in abducting you.

The Method is what happens when the victim is just as cold as the captors. For fans of Steig Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander, Karen Slaughter and Lisa Gardner, The Method turns the girl-in-jeopardy genre on its head.

Opening Line(s):

I lay there on the fourth day plotting his death. Compiling assets in a list in my mind, I found relief in the planning…

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My Review: I’ve read a few novels that involve abductions of girls and the subsequent events, but none of them have ever been like The Method. At first I expected it to be a bit like The Lovely Bones where you learn that the main character is an existential existence trying to find peace after their death or release from their ordeal – I realised very early on that it was going to be nothing like that. At all.

The pregnant sixteen year old girl who gets abducted off the street on her way to school by a sweaty man in an old converted van, is not your average sixteen year old by a million miles. She may be pregnant young, but she is not stupid. She is in fact, a science prodigy with a calculating, methodical mind and no single move she makes in captivity is done without reason.

Her clinical logic is chilling and it would be easy to find her almost robotic if it weren’t for her overwhelming love and protectiveness towards her unborn child. This makes you like her, even though she herself confesses to be somewhat bordering on being a sociopath.

Her voice is not the only side of the story you hear, you also follow FBI Agent Roger Liu as he desperately tries to track down a young pregnant girl who was snatched off the street leaving nothing behind but a single shoe.

Agent Liu and his partner ‘Lola’ piece together evidence and follow various leads, desperate to find the girl before it is too late for her and her baby. They have arrived too late, too many times in the past and are determined not for it to happen again.

The two narratives run in tandem, which keeps the pace of the book going well where it could have easily become stagnant if only told from the perspective of the captive who very rarely leaves the room she is being held in. It also has you inwardly screaming for the FBI agents to move faster or connect the dots that you know are there but they haven’t seen yet.

Full of tension and suspense, The Method keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout and I was reluctant to put it down because I desperately wanted to know what happened next. You know there is something coming but you aren’t quite sure when, or if it is going to work out.

Shannon Kirk’s legal background shines through and keeps the characters feeling grounded and believable, from the FBI, to the captors and the random members of the public that witness events. Everything feels like it contains a grain of truth beneath the story.

I haven’t read a book quite like The Method before and I really enjoyed the twist on the damsel-in-distress stories you usually get. In this book the damsel is most definitely scarier than the dragon!

My Rating: 4.5/5*

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Get yourself a copy of The Method here

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