Book ~ "Say Nothing" (2017) Brad Parks

From Goodreads ~ Judge Scott Sampson doesn’t brag about having a perfect life but the evidence is clear: A prestigious job. A loving marriage. A pair of healthy children. Then a phone call begins every parent’s most chilling nightmare. Scott’s six-year-old twins, Sam and Emma, have been taken. The judge must rule exactly as instructed in a drug case he is about to hear. If he refuses, the consequences for the children will be dire. 

For Scott and his wife Alison, the kidnapper’s call is only the beginning of a twisting, gut-churning ordeal of blackmail, deceit, and terror. Through it all, they will stop at nothing to get their children back, no matter the cost to themselves ... or to each other.

Scott and Alison seem to have it all ... great jobs, a nice farmhouse and six-year-old twins.  But that all suddenly comes to an end.  Just before Scott is to preside over a case, their children are kidnapped.  If Scott rules the way he is told, the twins will be returned to them.  Scott does as he's told, against his better judgement and to everyone's surprise, but the kidnappers renege on their promise and Scott finds out the real reason his children were kidnapped.

I liked storyline of this book.  There were lots of possible "whodunnits" and we don't find out who is behind it all until the end.  I enjoyed the writing style ... at times it was funny and sarcastic.  It is written in first person perspective in Scott's voice but also in third person perspective from the kidnappers' point of view.

I found at times, though, there was too much information ... the details of the court cases was too much, especially the last one.  There were a lot of characters involved in this case that I started losing track of who they were.  Plus it got too political at times (as a Canadian, I didn't understand the American system).

I saw the ending coming and had hoped it wasn't going to go that way.  I wasn't crazy about the ending.

I've read all of Brad Parks' books in the Carter Ross series and liked them.  This was a stand alone book.