Kirkus Reviews:

Black-market adoption ring kidnaps a baby boy and nearly kills the gentle young woman who tries to stop them-in a first novel by short-story author George (THE MAN IN THE BUICK, 1999).
    Leaving the downtown Pittsburgh office of her marriage therapist, numb with grief and shock after another disastrous session with her ought-to-be-ex-husband, Marina Benedict runs into a man holding a four-month-old boy. Intuitively aware that something isn't right, she strikes up a conversation and has her impression confirmed by the man's odd answers. Fearing for the child's safety, she follows them to a bleak, deserted building, where she's captured and roughed up by the stranger and his accomplice. Fragments of the talk she overhears fill in some details: the pair kidnapped the boy on impulse when his mother left him unattended for a moment, but TV reports inform them that he is the son of rookie Pirates pitcher Ryan Graves, and now they plan to take the infant out of state. Before Marina can learn more, she's bound and gagged, shot in the head, and left for dead. Found by Richard Christie, the rugged detective investigating the kidnapping, she can tell him almost nothing. Graves hides Marina in a safe house, but one of the kidnappers comes back to stalk her. He belongs to a black-market baby ring, we learn, and he's determined to avoid taking the fall for this screw-up. The FBI and the police work night and day to solve the case and find the missing child, but there are few leads. Readers, however, know that a shady, two-bit lawyer has arranged an "adoption" for upscale couple Steve and Valerie Emmons; he handed over Baby Graves at a clandestine meeting in the middle of the night, and they asked no questions. The suspense comes from wondering not whodunit but how the indefatigable Christie will finally nab them all.
    A gripping thriller with real emotional power and remarkably subtle characterization.

Booklist:

[T]his engrossing thriller [is a] lyrically written and fascinating tale.

Washington Post:

[I]t is George's grasp of the human factor that makes her novel such a pleasure. She understands the detective's anguish as he contemplates leaving a wife he does not love and children he does love; she captures the pain of the baseball player and his wife as the loss of their baby rocks their marriage. And Marina Benedict, intelligent and beautiful, brave in confronting criminals but uncertain in the face of love, is a heroine to savor. This is a thinking person's thriller, written with skill, self-confidence and sensitivity -- a fine piece of work.

Entertainment Weekly:

George's off-beat thriller about an out of work actress who accidentally becomes involved in a high profile child abduction case boasts three ingredients too often missing from the suspense genre: irony, humor, and plausibly flawed, cliché-free characters. Marina Benedict may be young and beautiful, and the cop she falls in love with handsome (and married), but they've got beautifully delineated inner lives that are far from picture perfect. George is as concerned with the random relationships between her protagonists (and thugs) as she is with the investigation. A refreshingly un-gimmicky dénouement doesn't compromise these character-driven realities--or the reader's intelligence. A-
— Charles Winecoff

Glamour:

A pretty, baby-lusting actress whose marriage is on the rocks; a kind-hearted, workaholic cop; a set of new parents, the father a rookie pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates; and some cold-blooded, baby-stealing crooks. These are just a few of the players George expertly juggles in her gripping, romantic debut thriller, which kicks off when the actress, Marina, notices a mother and a baby, then moments later spots the baby with a suspicious stranger. You'll pant with every plot turn as you revel in George's sensual, often profound prose.

Pittsburgh Magazine:

Summer is close enough to take an early start on your beach reading with a new thriller involving an actress, a kidnapping and the Pirates. TAKEN ($23.95, Delacorte, hardcover), by Kathleen George of Pitt's theater department, pairs an unusual heroine with a thoughtful hero opposing some very well-drawn villains in a well-paced story that it would be a shame to give away. The plot is perfectly up-to-the-minute, the characters are engaging and the narrative will make it difficult to put down. Read it now before the pools open.
— Michelle Pilecki

Abilene (Texas) Reporter-News:

In this debut novel, acclaimed short-story writer Kathleen George brings to the reader . . . a mystery that is both complex and heartbreaking. TAKEN is fast-paced and original.
— Larry Lawrence, Book Editor