OF THE hellishly high numbers of children who are abducted globally every year, few ever return home. One does in Hunt's novel. The action opens in an austere 1980s Ireland. Katie Jones is snatched while she plays on a south Co Wicklow beach. Fast forward to 2006: a woman taxis into a quiet Dublin estate, knocks on a door and blows the brains away of the man who opens it. Is she the same Katie Jones? Opening steps of an escalating thriller.

For the preceding 26 years, Katie's mother prayed her daughter's life was spared.

Sometimes, though, it's better not to have your prayers answered. Given the claims following the recent abduction of Madeleine McCann about the southeast of Ireland being a favourite place for kidnappers to traffic children through, this is a remarkably prescient read.

Paula Spencer By Roddy Doyle Vintage, 17, 277pps

FOLLOWING her thuggish husband's death at the hands of the gardai when he botched a bank job, Paula is no longer 'Walking Into Doors', but turning in on herself. Eleven years have passed since the cops shot Charlo (who should have been shot at birth) and Paula is pushing 50 and trying to stay off the bottle. Her son is pushing drugs. Her daughter is still wetting the bed. Another son is thrown out of school. Nicola, her other daughter, offers help and a line of hope not dope to Paula. Paula is getting by, hour to hour, and the experience for the reader is not exactly uplifting. Her internal dialogue is even more agonising for the reader.

And that is the problem. Dodgy business, this, giving the reader access to an inarticulate person's thoughts. Paula is inarticulate and then some. Whole sections of the book read like an 'English for Albanians' tutorial.

Sea Angling in Ireland By John Rafferty Mercier Press, 20, 220pps

THE press release accompanying Rafferty's book claims it is an "ideal companion for any fishing trip". This is advice to be ignored.

Take this little gem onto your typical fishing craft and it will finish up as Rubby Dubby: ie, fit only to be thrown overboard. In layout it is a minor work of art. The printing and binding and photographs are exquisite. The advice is priceless. And just as priceless, essential advice about safety at sea. Rafferty casts his net wide. The razor sharp spine of the thornback ray is best handled with asbestos gloves. We are told a 200-pound blue shark breaking surface is a sight that will stay in the memory. It would, that. A very beautiful book. As sweet as a turbot and almost as rare. It will add to the reader's learning and the angler's cunning.

The Berlin Games: How Hitler Stole the Olympic Dream By Guy Walters John Murray, 10.99, 368pps

WHEN Germany was awarded the Olympics in 1931, it was a nation on life support, with only a faint grip on democracy. When Hitler came to power in 1934, he was against hosting them because they were "an invention of the Jews and the Freemasons". In time, he was brought around to believe Germany's successful hosting of the games would prove his fascist regime an example for others to follow. Walters blows this absurdity to hell, where the regime belonged. Jews could not swim in public pools because they would "infect the water". They could not belong to equestrian clubs because the horses would be tainted. When the black Jesse Owens lifted 200m gold, the Germans stood to cheer. Hitler was said to have puked.

Alternatives to Sex By Stephen McCauley Granta, 11, 289pps

LIKE a lot of comedians, McCauley takes his subject matter seriously. In what is worthy of a Woody Allen movie plot, William Collins, colourful homosexual, is determined to bring order into his life. He has to do something. Rather, he has to stop doing something: having nocturnal liaisons with strangers he contacts online and with whom he later has anonymous sex. These men have submissive names (Carlo) and butch names (Hank). Now he will clean up his act, set out on a 'Spiritual Quest'. A quest to be taken without sex. A comedy of manners, which, if made into a movie, would be an admirable vehicle for Steve Martin.