Kidnap: The Ransom Business

Veteran journalist and author Joseph C. Goulden offers a good review in the Washington Times of Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business.

In “Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business,” author Anja Shortland calls kidnapping “the trickiest trade in the world.” Thousands of persons are kidnapped annually, in many instances to be ransomed by employers’ insurance, a multimillion dollar annual business. And Ms. Shortland addresses the logical question: “Does kidnapping for ransom insurance encourage kidnapping? Would people be safer if insurance did not exist?”


At hand is a read that is both fascinating and terrifying — of innocent persons snatched off the streets and threatened with death unless someone pays for their release. Kidnapping is so prevalent in odd corners of the world that freeing of hostages has led to the establishment of “ground rules” that are generally obeyed both by villains and the ransom payers.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/may/5/book-review-kidnap-inside-the-ransom-business-by-a/