I have sent multiple requests to the author asking them to remove my full name from this book’s website due to safety concerns and instead use my review alias. All of these requests being ignored so the only thing left for me to do is delete my review here and on Goodreads.

This book was a bit of a disappointment to me. Most of the information and tips are very common sense ideas that anyone would already know. It also spends a lot of time discussing international kidnapping, not US based kidnapping and how to survive it. It was decently written, just too focused on international travel kidnaps for my taste.

Surviving Kidnappers: Precautions, Influence, Strategic Tools is an excellent book for anyone who worries about being kidnapped.

From 2013-2018 I traveled to all 54 African countries, including all the ones where kidnapping is a serious risk. Although I took precautions, I wish I had read this book before my trip. Unfortunately, it just came out so I missed out. But you can benefit from it now.

The book teaches you how to prevent a kidnapping in the first place. For instance, whenever getting into a taxi (or any car), take a photo of the license plate (and the driver) and then email it a friend. Tell the driver that you’re doing this so that he doesn’t come up with any bright ideas to make an unnecessary detour.

His advice is sound, including:

- “Seek information about kidnappings and assaults that have happened.” Kidnappers often have a method of operating and executing their business. If it ain’t broke, they don’t fix it.
- “Store emergency numbers with dialing shortcuts, so that pressing one digit is enough to call for help.” I often forget to do this since I’m changing countries so often but it’s a good practice.
- “If you bring an ATM card, make sure there is limited money in the account. Robbery victims are sometimes held for days because the money in their account exceeds the maximum you can withdraw per day.”
- “Do not stop if anyone addresses you on the street.” This is hard to do, especially in broad daylight. However, had I listened to this advice, I would not have been strangled in a dark alley in Cameroon.
- When kidnappers try to force you into a car, play dead. Collapse on the ground and force them to drag you. It’s hard to carry a limp body and that can buy you precious seconds.
- If you’re near a car, crawl under it and wrap your arms around the axle to make it hard for them to extract you.

Here’s a tricky tip: when in a moving car, fasten your seatbelt, disconnect their seatbelt (most low-income country drivers never wear seatbelts anyway), and then kick the steering wheel to cause a serious accident. It’s a risky strategy.

He teaches you how to prevent kidnapping in the air and at sea.

He gives tips on how to fake a medical condition.

Assuming you're kidnapped, the book teaches you how to stay calm, how to handle ransom negotiations, how to escape, how to influence the kidnapper, how to deal with violent kidnappers, and how to avoid Stockholm syndrome.

Finally, it ends with the release phase and how to get your life back on track after having the kidnapping trauma.

The ebook is worth $10. Buy it if it’s ever selling for less than that.

VERDICT: 9 out of 10.

The world is loving true crime right now! I think this books offers great tips on how to avoid being a victim!

In some ways this is an odd book, after all, just what are the chances of getting kidnapped? Well, the answer of course depends on where you live and what you do for a living. There are many people throughout the world who probably are at heightened risk – aid workers in conflict zones for example – and this book, written by a Norwegian lawyer and researcher might just save their life. Olav Ofstad certainly knows his stuff, having spent years in conflict zones working with embassies and international organisations and worked in the field of conflict resolution. To be sure some of the information at the beginning of the book about avoiding undue risks in the first place reads like basic common sense, but it isn’t long before he serves up intriguing, and quite possibly lifesaving, psychological analysis.

Surviving Kidnappers takes the reader through the process of being kidnapped, confinement, to (hopefully) release or rescue. Throughout the author analyses the psychological skills and stratagems one might use to survive. This is no gung-ho, wannabe special forces survival manual, rather a serious study gleaned through interviews with victims of kidnapping combined with the insights gleaned from the psychological literature. Topics include building empathy and understanding, utilising cognitive dissonance and cultivating a feeling of reciprocity on behalf of one’s kidnapper.

It would be a shame if this book was only read by those at risk of kidnapping, for as with many such titles the insights gleaned can feed into all walks of life. An appreciation of social psychology and how to influence others can be beneficial to anyone who’s job leads them to interact with others. I personally read a wide range of non-fiction and Surviving Kidnapping has certainly given me a greater appreciation of the psychological underpinnings of severe trauma, as well as a great understanding of psychological resilience.

An interesting book with great advice for lots of situations. Well set out under different headings.

Excellent! I've long had an interest in survival.
Through,easy to read. Highly informative.

Surviving Kidnappers is an essential handbook for anyone who might be at high risk of kidnapping. I read it myself even though I'm not at high risks, I enjoying knowing how to handle what if situations and how psychology can work for you. Though it's not written in a very interesting way, it doesn't need to be to meet it's purpose. The great news is that is way easier to read than a DV manual and you actually understand what to do!

If you live in a country where kidnapping is a likely possibility, then you must read this book. It tells you how to handle different situations and what to do depending of the kind of kidnapping. Excellent resource!