Gripping European thriller, November 15, 2008. I bought this book on the strength of good reviews on the Amazon.co.uk website (the author is British), and I was not disappointed. For the US reader the attractions will be oodles of location detail (France, UK) and a cast of international characters whose lives (and cultures) converge on an inventive kidnapping plot. The writing is mature for what I gather is a first novel - La Carré with a hard-boiled linguistic dash of Crumley, and the humanity of James Lee Burke. The best thing I can say about The Price is that at the end I found myself hoping that Patrick Ross, one of several interesting and well drawn characters, would become the hero of his own series - a European Dave Robichaux, with a more cosmopolitan biography and perhaps a little less tortured, but just the kind of person you want to come back to. It's a good read - here's hoping for more!  R LOCKWOOD, MISSOURI