As you're reading Ransom, you do get the feeling that
yet again, Danielle Steel is trying to find some new
magic to maintain her readership and capture their
interest...give them reason to keep hanging on. Does
she succeed? Not quite, but she doesn't fail
entirely.
Ransom is one of the first times that I can think of
(after reading all 60 of her books) that she attempts
a bit more of a calculated and complex storyline—merging 3 into one. She does ok at this; the central
storyline is about a family who's near poverty after
the father lost his millions in the stock market and
committed suicide—leaving the mother and her 3
children on their own. And with all of that to
handle, the change from living as millionaires to
saving every penny and selling off all of their
belongings; now they have to handle the threat that
someone is out to commit a crime against the family—in walks "hero cop" to try and save the day. While
the police are trying to prevent the kidnapping of
the children, we see the criminals set out to commit
the crime, not knowing the family is no longer rich—they're after 100 million dollars.
Of course, like any Danielle Steel book there's a bit of
romance, but actually not too much compared to the
suspense that she tries to create. She really does
make an effort to make this book different from her
others and she half-succeeds. Yes, I enjoyed the
stories and the ending. I even liked the characters,
but as with reading many of her newer novels, I just
felt like the old magic was missing. This book is not
my favorite of hers, not up to par with her previous
books, Heartbeat, No Greater Love or Jewels. However,
it's not her worst either. While it may not be fair
to judge this book against others of hers that are my
all-time favorites, I do cut her some slack.
