In the year 2000, Allison Leahy is the U.S. Attorney General; she's also the Democratic nominee for president. Her Republican opponent is Lincoln Howe – a Colin Powell wannabe. Although the race is close, Alison has an edge until she agrees to meet Howe in a debate.

During the debate, Alison takes the moral high road and refuses to answer a question about whether she's been faithful to her husband during their marriage. She considers the question to be a non-issue and an invasion of privacy. When Howe answers the question, his ratings in the polls surge.

Just when things are looking bad for Alison's campaign, they get worse. A few days before the election, Howe's 12-year-old granddaughter, Kristen, is kidnapped. Unbearable memories of her own daughter's kidnapping eight years ago – a case that was never solved – come back to haunt Alison.

As the country's top law enforcement officer, she wants to take charge of the investigation. Especially after FBI agent Harley Abrams convinces Allison there might be a link between the two kidnappings and that the person responsible must be involved in either her or Howe's campaign.

Allison's campaign manager, Lincoln Howe and the President of the United States all want Allison to stay out of the investigation. But Allison feels that her experience with her own daughter's kidnapping will help solve the crime.

Although the plot in Abduction has a number of twists and turns, the characters just don't strike any chords. Alison is a woman who cries but is really tough. Howe is a tough man who cries. Neither character is consistent and neither is ever fully realized.

Even worse, the twelve-year-old granddaughter speaks like the Attorney General, who speaks like the uneducated kidnappers. It's difficult to understand or accept the characters in Abduction as unique individuals from different walks of life when they all sound as if they went to law school – and the same law school at that.

--Judith Flavell