The Value of Life
by Andy Crowson
A 12 y/o boy is kidnapped - but the ransom price is left to his parents! Before he is returned (safely) another boy is taken. Then another. Rookie detective Joseph Lindahl is a psychology graduate and thinks he knows what the kidnapper wants - but colleagues are sceptical. The solution might please the press and embarrass a judge, but it it gets Joseph into trouble at Longmarsh Police HQAbby refuses to marry the monster to whom she is betrothed. As she flees, she meets a mysterious stranger at a wayside inn. His startling proposition will either save her, or leave her mired in scandal.