{"product_id":"the-captive-isbn-9781641298711","title":"The Captive","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom a new voice in horror comes a satirical \u003ci\u003eRosemary’s Baby\u003c\/i\u003e for our conspiratorial present in which anti-capitalist activists unwittingly unleash terrifying demonic forces when they kidnap a pregnant heiress.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom Ned Beauman, the Man Booker Prize–longlisted author of \u003ci\u003eThe Teleportation Accident \u003c\/i\u003eand Clarke Award–winning author of \u003ci\u003eVenomous Lumpsucker\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor months, Luke and his underground revolutionary group have been planning their biggest operation yet: kidnapping 23-year-old Adeline Woolsaw. They don’t want a ransom—they want to expose the Woolsaw Group, the source of Adeline’s parents’ enormous wealth, a vast yet largely anonymous company that runs everything from military bases and mental hospitals to commuter trains, call centers, and prisons.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut the revolutionaries get a shock when they bundle Adeline into their van. She’s about to go into labor. And she may not object to being kidnapped, if it allows her and the baby to escape her despotic parents.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt quickly becomes apparent that this is no ordinary child. He’s capable of setting off deadly weather events and summoning plagues of vermin. And that’s just the beginning. Luke discovers that Adeline’s parents engineered the pregnancy as part of a dark bargain with an ancient evil of nearly limitless power. Now the Woolsaws and their henchmen will stop at nothing to get the infant back, so they can establish an infernal new kingdom on Earth with their grandchild on the throne.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKit Burgoyne (pen name of Booker–listed author Ned Beauman) is a ruthlessly funny new voice in horror: witty, appalling, and as adept at skewering today’s plutocratic overlords as he is at conjuring our most primeval nightmares.\u003cu\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eThe Captive\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCrimeReads Best Horror Fiction of the Year\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A thrilling, gory tale with comic details (‘next to her daughter, everything else in the universe is just hair-clippings and pencil shavings’) and a cosmic worldview (‘large concentrations of wealth are like deformations in space-time: they warp reality around them’).”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Minnesota Star Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Ned Beauman, writing here as Kit Burgoyne, is a clever writer whose previous work has made free with genre conventions and who isn’t afraid to be funny . . . He is, as I say, having fun – and the reader of this accomplished and super-readable romp has fun too.”\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What would happen if Rosemary’s baby belonged to Patty Hearst? An absolute blast (in more ways than one). I tore through this devilishly delightful, razor-sharp treat and enjoyed every minute.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Jennifer Thorne, author of \u003ci\u003eDiavola\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Enthralling, terrifying and endlessly surprising.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—M. R. Carey, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Girl with all the Gifts\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Sharp, bleak, funny, and disturbingly prescient, \u003ci\u003eThe Captive\u003c\/i\u003e is a pitch-black blast of evil unpredictable fun.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Justin Taylor, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eReboot\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] witty supernatural thrill ride . . . Burgoyne keeps the action brisk and the repartee sharp in the ensuing game of cat-and-mouse . . . This refreshingly modern spin on the infernal child theme deserves to stand beside such genre classics as \u003ci\u003eRosemary’s Baby\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Omen\u003c\/i\u003e.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"The Captive\u003c\/i\u003e is a dark yet affecting novel of both intense horror and high drama.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eManhattan Book Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Captive\u003c\/i\u003e is exactly the offal-plastered zinger I was desperate for it to be. Humorous and absurd—almost theatrically so, but weighted enough with grim reality to keep the laughter jagged in your throat—\u003ci\u003eThe Captive\u003c\/i\u003e is both a riot and a reckoning.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—FanFiAddict\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Ultimately, Kit Burgoyne’s \u003ci\u003eThe Captive\u003c\/i\u003e is not simply another clever, tense thriller; it plunges headlong into fanaticism, power, and that uneasy place where you begin to question if the good men and the evil guys are actually all that different . . . Thought-provoking.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Bestsellers World\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eRosemary’s Baby\u003c\/i\u003e, but make it Patty Hearst! Come for the set-up, stay for the garden party. You’ll know it when you see it.\"\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—CrimeReads\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cu\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePraise for the author’s novels published as Ned Beauman\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Wonderfully outlandish.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Wildly inventive.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Gobsmackingly clever.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Uproarious.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Endlessly witty and furiously inventive.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“One of the foremost satirists of his generation.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Times \u003c\/i\u003e(UK)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eKit Burgoyne\u003c\/b\u003e is the horror fiction pen name of Ned Beauman, who was named one of \u003ci\u003eGranta\u003c\/i\u003e’s Twenty Best Young British Novelists in 2013, and is the author of \u003ci\u003eBoxer, Beetle\u003c\/i\u003e (winner of the Goldberg Prize for Outstanding Debut Fiction); \u003ci\u003eThe Teleportation Accident\u003c\/i\u003e (longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and winner of the Somerset Maugham Award); \u003ci\u003eGlow\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eMadness Is Better than Defeat\u003c\/i\u003e; and \u003ci\u003eVenomous Lumpsucker\u003c\/i\u003e (winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award). He has written for \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, and the \u003ci\u003eLondon Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives in London. \u003ci\u003eThe Captive\u003c\/i\u003e is his first novel as Kit Burgoyne.\u003cb\u003eChapter 1\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFour paces. That’s their window to take her. When she’s coming down the front steps of the clinic, that’s too early: the steps have cast-iron railings on either side, so they won’t be able to get behind her. And once any part of her body is inside the Land Rover, that’s too late: the open door will be in their way, and if she manages to hook herself onto some part of the interior, like maybe she wraps her arms around a headrest, then it’s a tug of war. So all they have is the four paces between the steps and the kerb. It’s no time at all. But if they miss that window, if she slips back into the building or the car drives away with her inside, they will never get another chance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcross the road from the clinic, Luke is kneeling by his bicycle pretending to tighten the spokes with a wrench, and he’s wearing the full kit—spandex trousers and jersey, gloves, helmet, sunglasses, anti-pollution mask—in the hope that anyone who sees him will think, “Yeah, that looks like exactly the kind of nerd who would park up in the middle of Marylebone to tune his bike like it’s a fucking viola.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlso, the mask hides his face. The problem is, it’s not ideal for taking deep calming breaths. He keeps telling himself that cyclists wear masks like this while they’re huffing and puffing up hills, so objectively they can’t be that bad, but all the same he feels like he’s trying to breathe through a face full of cavity-wall insulation. The only way this could get worse would be if he puked into it before he could get it off, which unfortunately feels like a genuine possibility, because Luke is the most nervous he has ever been in his life. He cannot imagine any happier news right now, any more wonderful gift, than the operation suddenly being called off. Even though this is what they’ve been working towards for months.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt’s 11:46 a.m. He glances up and down the street. On the outside, most of these posh Georgian townhouses look just how they must have the day they were built, but on the inside they have some of the most advanced medical technology in the world; apparently there’s a surgeon here who will give you VR goggles when you come for your consultation so you can see what your breasts will look like after he’s finished. What surprised Luke when he first came to Harley Street was that even the most exclusive clinics have their waiting rooms right at the front, in what would once have been the drawing rooms, so anybody can peer inside. In fact, the townhouse opposite is the only one on the whole row with frosted glass in its tall sash windows.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSince then he’s been on several more scouting missions, so he knows the street’s rhythms. The little half-hourly swells of patients arriving for their appointments. The couriers picking up blood and sperm samples. The delivery vans, like the one idling on a yellow line about four doors down—except that one isn’t actually a delivery van . . . \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe hears a door open. Looks up.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA bodyguard is coming out of the clinic. Bullet-headed in a grey suit.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd behind the bodyguard, there she is. Twenty-three-year-old Adeline Woolsaw, brown hair pinned up, grey leggings, baggy beige jumper. For months now this woman has been the centre of his universe but this is the first time he’s ever seen her in the flesh. As if he’s an adoring fan waiting at a stage door.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFour paces.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLuke rises, grabbing the flash-bang from the bike’s pannier. With his free hand he wheels the bike at high speed towards the Land Rover, exactly as he’s rehearsed a hundred times. A second, older woman is coming down the steps, Adeline’s governess or chaperone or assistant or whatever she is, as the bodyguard opens the car door.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLuke pulls the pin of the flash-bang with his teeth and tosses it onto the pavement at Adeline Woolsaw’s feet.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt looks like nothing much, just a white plastic cylinder the size of a can of deodorant. They sourced it from a guy who has blown up a lot of buildings: his day job is pyrotechnics at a VFX company. He warned them that a flash-bang isn’t nearly as potent outdoors as it is in a confined space. But it doesn’t need to burst anyone’s eardrums. It just needs to buy a few seconds.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe bike clatters to the ground as Luke turns his back on the Land Rover, squeezing his eyes shut and clapping both hands over his ears, tight enough to make a seal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut the detonation is still so loud that when he takes his hands away his ears are ringing and his guts are ringing too.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAdeline and the bodyguard and the assistant are all standing there like swatted flies, lolling, helpless. As the delivery van pulls up beside him, Luke lifts the bike up by the frame and pitches it with all his strength at the bodyguard. The bodyguard, who never saw it coming, is knocked over sideways.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe side door of the van slides open and out hops Rosa, who wears a surgical mask and a hoodie with the hood up. Together they grab Adeline Woolsaw, Rosa taking her by the left arm, Luke by the right—so he’s touching her, he’s actually touching her, this person who until now was only ever really an abstraction, a distant planet. As they drag her into the back of the van, she doesn’t resist at all. In fact, she even ducks her head a little bit, as if to make it easier for them. Which has got to be the shock, Luke thinks. At the same time, he’s starting to register that she’s sort of the wrong shape—\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut then, before they can slide the door shut, the assistant or governess or chaperone wraps both her arms around Adeline’s left leg. Luke never imagined that instead of the bodyguard, who is only just getting up off the ground, their biggest obstacle would be this little middle-aged woman in a tweed suit. But she has a death grip on Adeline’s calf, so for a moment it really is the tug of war they were determined to avoid.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Just fucking punch her!” Rosa says.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe problem is, Luke has never in his life punched anyone in the face. His first kidnapping has come before his first proper fight. Which sounds ridiculous, but it’s true. And so, presented with this woman who looks like somebody’s mum, he hesitates.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRosa handles it instead. She jabs the assistant right in the eye. The assistant staggers backward, releasing her hold on Adeline. At last Luke and Rosa are able to slide the van door shut.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd now Luke becomes aware of two things that he very much was not expecting.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe first is that Adeline Woolsaw is pregnant.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen she was coming down the stairs her midsection was hidden from view by the bodyguard in front, and during the struggle just now he was too busy to really clock it. But she is pregnant. Heavily pregnant, in fact. Huge under that baggy cashmere jumper.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd the second thing is that she’s shouting, “Go! Go! Come on! Go!” Urgency in her voice. Desperation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs if she wants them to get away.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs if she doesn’t realise she’s being kidnapped.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs if she thinks she’s being rescued.","brand":"Hell's Hundred","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233637183717,"sku":"NP9781641298711","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781641298711.jpg?v=1767738598","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-captive-isbn-9781641298711","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}