Thomas Cook - Taken

Three people know the truth.
Three families will be changed forever.

In the last days of World War II, a strange phenomenon saves a doomed Air Force pilot named Randall Keys - and plunges him into torment.
In a place called Roswell, New Mexico, a man named Owen Jones is drawn to a bizarre crash site in the desert, and into a government cover-up.
And in a remote Texas town, a lonely woman named Sally Marsh finds a stranger hiding in her barn, and reaches out to touch him.

As the lives of three people are changed in an instant and the consequences are played out over three generations of harrowing encounters and unexplained events. While the government lies, and nation doubts, three families know they have been touched, know that something has been taken from them... something that will change their lives forever.

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In 1945 Russell Keys and his aircraft crew almost died after a direct hit. They didn't understand why they woke up in a wheat field - unharmed.
He doesn't know he had his first alien encounter - neither does he know that his son and his son's son will suffer the same haunted life like he's gloing to live.

In 1947 Sally takes in a stranger she found in her barn. There seems to be something about him that makes her fall in love with him but he has to leave soon. But before he leaves Sally learns, that he's not from our world. He leaves her pregnant with a child.
Sally doesn't know her son and his daughter will live a haunted life as well.

At the same time several people in Roswell called in to notify authorities of strange light sightings. A flying saucer is found with five seats. In it four gray aliens. The soon leading Captain Owen Jones is laying the path for the investigation. Neither does he know that his whole family and descendants will suffer from the same obsession.

Over a period of 50 years these families are haunted by aliens. Taken out of their life whenever they are in danger or when the aliens need them for more experiments.
The three families aren't the only ones taken. Around the world people are taken every once in a while. Sometimes they aren't bothered for years,sometimes they are all taken at the same time. Only to come back without any memory of the past hours.

What is their goal and is the last offspring of two taken human's the answer to all the suffering ?

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What I liked about the book during the first half was it's fast paced plot. Jumping from one character to the other I always felt I want to know what's going on with the character in the chapter before. This feeling lasted until the second generation died. After that I grew a bit tired to the whole scenario.
The characters became a bit mushy and I'm happy to finally have this book finished. Not much highlights in a story which should have been much more dramatic.

Rating:

Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Dell (October 29, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 044024126X
ISBN-13: 978-0440241263