Within moments the police are notified and the immediate area is canvassed. Shortly thereafter, on the World Wide Web, a new site appears featuring a live action scene of Danni, alone in an empty room with no food or toilet. She has only water and a small sleeping mat. With that precious little information to guide her, it becomes Deputy Chief of Detectives Polly Kelly’s responsibility to find the little girl before her abductors kill her or she dies of starvation.

Author Barbara D’Amato has done a superb job of combining a classic police procedural with a first class thriller. Help Me Please is a book best begun with enough time to finish in one sitting because it is very difficult to put down. The race to find the little girl before she starves, without alerting her kidnappers to any progress that the police are making is guaranteed to grab the attention of any reader.

The technical writing is precise and exact. The Chicago Ms. D’Amato describes really exists and the bits of city history that she throws in are an added bonus. As a police procedural, the methods described in this book ring true. The author’s description of the mechanics of setting up a web site such as the kidnappers have done is truly fascinating and in terms that a marginally computer literate person can understand.

The characters are wonderful. Their personalities are well developed and the interaction between various people makes for some interesting confrontations. Polly’s mother has recently come to live with her. Her mother is chronically depressed to the point where medication is of little help, so a restful night after a difficult day is rarely an option for poor Polly. Their exchanges, while outwardly amusing are actually sad. Polly’s dealings with her superiors and colleagues, as well as the FBI agent sent to help with this high profile case provide ample entertainment for those fans of character driven novels.

According to the author, the FBI and the police approach criminal case in different ways. It was interesting to note that while both agencies rely on computers for data processing and to some extent, collection, the method of interpretation of this data is quite different. In addition, the importance of the human mind in the equation of solving the crime plays quite a different role in the two agencies. Which is more appropriate or successful appears to be subject of some debate.

Despite the fact that police procedurals are usually, by nature, prone to violent scenes, Ms. D’Amato has managed to keep Help Me Please essentially free of such situations. Help Me Please is sure to satisfy readers eager to obtain factual tidbits as well as an entertaining story, and those people who enjoy character-driven books should be pleased as well.

--Andy Plonka