“A Decent Ransom is a page-turning drama laced with humor, intrigue, betrayal and manipulation, with more dark twists than an octopus playing Twister with an agitated lady squid. It’s like nothing I’ve read before. Switching between the well-developed characters, the story spools out gradually, teasing and taunting the reader, giving just enough information to hide the hook, and then the author reels you in for the sucker punch finale. Like the movies Babel and Crash, one of the great things about this book is the way the author skillfully connects her characters when you’re least expecting it, making for a story that you won’t want to put down...” Amanda Richards, Amazon reviewer

In her first adult novel, author Ivana Hruba tells the story of a kidnapping gone awry. I suppose saying so beckons a definition of a successful kidnapping, which would depend on one's perspective -- as either the kidnapper or the kidnapped. We have in "A Decent Ransom" the perspectives of both. It is perhaps, then, up to the reader to determine if the unusual twists in this particular kidnapping end well or not.

     "A Decent Ransom" is well written, fresh, fun, creative. Hruba knows what she's doing on a keyboard. Her characters have shape and color and voice. They are capable of pulling heart strings as well as tickling funny bones. It works. They work. And, that rare jewel too few writers wear? Hruba has it pinned front and center. She can tell a story and she can also tell it well (two markedly different skills). Sample this:

     The hundred-thousand-dollar question has the face of a sad clown balancing across a tightly stretched rope. One false step and ...

     "The boy is no fool. He waits patiently. Slumped in the corner like a bag of wet clothes, he evokes the smell of familiar things. Chopped garlic. Cold pie. Lonely old men. Pool shop owners dissatisfied with marriage. Burnt oil and burgers. Hair grease. Jasmine tea. And somewhere in between, there's Bid. Steaming like a bucket of warm pee in the hot, dusty weather, he pumps petrol. Up and down, the old fashioned way he cleans the windscreens. Smiling at the tourists but watching me. Always watching. His eyes like a fish's. His cheeks like an old woman's ass. His hands like a turtle's claws. And always I said no.”

     See what I mean? Bravo! Hruba plays on all the reader's senses and that's what makes a story memorable. Add a quirky storyline of kidnapped young wife, straying husband, simple-minded kidnapper, the used (or is she the user?) mistress, the abusive partner in crime, the oriental stripper, stir it up with intrigue and revenge, and you are in for a fun ride. As long as you can keep them all straight -- enjoy! Zinta Aistars, editor-in-chief, The Smoking Poet

Often forgotten are the many sides of the usual two-way interaction between kidnapper and kidnapped. Not so in Ivana Hrubá’s debut novel, A Decent Ransom. In 258 pages, Hrubá explores in poignant first person the worlds of 15-year-old Phoebus; anxiety-distorted housewife Kathy; Janelle, a young Chinese immigrant turned prostitute; and Rupert, Kathy’s womanizing husband.

Each chapter is told from the point of view of one of the primary characters. This practice carries the double-edged sword of preventing character fatigue which often plagues narratives using first person point of view, but runs the risk of confusion among the novel’s players as the author introduces them. Hrubá’s skill with characterization, however, assists the recognition of voice as fashioned here with Phoebus’ stutter: “I asked him his name. R-Rick-ky, he whispered, pronouncing the word reverently as if it were a new and precious thing.”

Hrubá takes on a fresh look at the prey-turned-predator concept and the dynamics between individuals struggling for a better life as plans unravel and worst fears come to bear, weaving the lives of all her characters, from Rupert’s reckoning, to Phoebus’ denouement as the unlikely hero, into a lithe web that illustrates how just one event can alter the destiny of others. A Decent Ransom’s sojourn into the world of an unscripted kidnapping sets a standard for thinking outside the often myopic view of commercial publishing.

Reviewed by Scott Bowen for Prick of the Spindle Literary Journal, February 2009

A Decent Ransom is a seriously clever book. I literally could not put this down. The plot in this psychological drama is seemingly simple - a beautiful mentally fragile woman is kidnapped for a ransom that never arrives, leaving the kidnappers out of pocket and with a serious moral dilemma about what to do with the girl. The twists that follow are truly surprising and unpredictable. Just when you think you've got it worked out, the action takes an unexpected turn; I can't reveal what happens without spoiling it - suffice to say nothing in this novel is as it seems. The characters are well developed and multi-dimensional; with the exception of the young boy Phoebus who is the quintessential hero in every sense, there isn't a clear cut villain or hero, which is what makes the story so real. The multiple perspectives work a treat. This is a thoroughly entertaining and engrossing read. B. Douglass