Paradise Lost

This gripping suspense novel opens with the kidnapping of two women from a Santa Barbara spa—college student Holly Constantine and famous actress Vanessa Wyatt. The captors promise not to harm the women and to free them as soon as their demands are met. Holly's mother, a brittle Hollywood lawyer, gets busy trying to raise the ransom ($8 million, to be used, say the kidnappers, for the opening of three public parks), and local cop Suzanne Mathis, aided by agents from the FBI, searches for the bad guys while also trying to curb a blood-thirsty press. Cannon (Open Season on Lawyers ) does a good job depicting emotional complexities, from fraught mother-daughter relationships to Holly's lack of self-esteem. Shifting third-person points-of-view will keep readers on their toes and allow them to get inside the mind of cop, victim and kidnapper alike. Agent, Jane Chelius . (Sept.)