KATIE ROSE FOWLER showed up on Jake Thomas' doorstep one fateful day. Jake was recently widowed, retired and disillusioned with life when the ebullient eight-year-old blonde and precocious girl barges into his reclusive life, at first aggravating the grumpy old man, and eventually over a period of years capturing his heart. When she is abducted from a nearby house on his street while babysitting at the age of 15, Jake, in a race to rescue her, goes from a prime suspect to leading his own investigation. With help from a local newsman and some unusual allies, Jake reignites the fire of an earlier incarnation as a veteran bulldog reporter to identify and find the kidnapper before Katie Rose comes to serious harm. The strong bond formed over those years pays off just when it appears that the mystery of her disappearance, her whereabouts and the identity of her abductor seems unsolvable. (The first book in a seven-part series.)