![]() First edition cover art | |
Author | Lois Duncan |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | |
Publisher | Doubleday |
Pages | 172 |
OCLC | 1286149 |
LC Class | 66013196 |
Ransom (reprinted under the title Five Were Missing) [1] is a 1966 thriller novel by Lois Duncan. [2] [3] Its plot follows a group of children who are kidnapped and held hostage on a school bus. It marked Duncan's first foray into the suspense and thriller genre, and was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award. [4]
Marianne Paget, Bruce Kirtland, Glenn Kirtland, Jesse French, and Dexter Barton, students in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are abducted on their school bus by a gang of kidnappers. The criminals demand $15,000 ransoms for each child, which their respective parents scramble to produce. Meanwhile, the five high schoolers attempt to find a way to escape the situation themselves. The high schoolers are forced to work together to escape, and while doing so, some relationships are created, while others are destroyed.