Interesting read on a little-known chapter in American history. Wish he'd included a section on the kidnapping scare in the Hollywood community, but well-written overall.

This book is a history of a rash of kidnappings in the early 20th century, some, like the Lindbergh kidnapping you have heard about. So many others you have not.
During the Great Depression, people desperate to take care of their families turned to desperate measures. Kidnapping became a major resource not just for criminals and the Mob but for your everyday citizens as well.
David Stout's account of this era shares the laws that came about, how the FBI became involved and how investigators solved these kidnappings without DNA and other modern investigative tools.
I found this book to be well researched and very well written. The accounts of the kidnappers, the victims and their families read more like a novel then history.
Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks and David Stout for a copy of The Kidnap Years in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is my first True Crime of the year. I grabbed it because of the time period. Most of us are familiar with the Lindbergh baby kidnapping in 1932, and the financial motivations of kidnapping Charles Lindbergh’s 20 month old son. However, this book paints the bigger picture. That, although we know of one, there were
Many. We didn’t have Facebook or other forms of broadcasting that were instantaneous. Things were lesser known, and because of that more apt to continue.

Although I found the writing a bit amateur, I very much enjoyed the newspaper-esque formatting and the general research that motivated the author to touch on a topic that so many of us know so little about.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for
providing me with a copy in exchange for my honest feedback.

The cases covered in this book are really interesting, and I found the overall thesis about rampant kidnapping being a reflection of Depression-era socioeconomics really powerful. It’s great to see an author utilize original newspapers to analyze themes from history. He mentioned microfilmed newspapers so many times that I lost count.

That said, the writing quality was pretty low here. Almost every other paragraph contains a sentence fragment or two. I don’t think the journalistic expertise of the author translates well to a nonfiction historical monograph like this. I also started to get annoyed by how much the author was inserting himself and cracking little jokes in the footnotes, as it felt unprofessional for such a serious topic.

I can see some readers enjoying this book more than I did, especially if they find the summary interesting and just want an easy read.

This book takes you back to the 1930s and headline making kidnapping cases as it follows them from start to finish. The kidnappings became so common and got so out of hand that something had to be done. It took the death of the Lindbergh baby for a real change in the law to happen. I enjoyed this book, reading about the crime in that decade, though I was familiar with several of the cases already there was information that was new to me. The kidnappers were as different as their selected victims were. I read a book on the kidnapping of one of the Busch beer clan awhile back that was very good.

Many of the gangsters were into bootlegging, and with the end of Prohibition coming, they were worried about that loss of very good income. So they began branching out into kidnapping to create a new revenue stream. One of the aspects of kidnappings that I loathe is the ones who kidnap the victim and kill them right away and dump the body because they are too lazy to even bother with taking care of a hostage. What a nuisance, they figure. So, without even waiting to see if the family is going to pay or not, one side’s treated like they have done something wrong and assassinated an innocent party for no reason. Which, of course is not discovered until after the ransom money is paid and the kidnappers believe that they are safely away, and at times are. Advance electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, author David Stout, and Sourcebooks.

"The Kidnap Years" is about the many kidnappings that took place during the Great Depression. This book is very informative, and contains accounts of the "kidnapping epidemic" that very few Americans even know about. Each chapter contained a separate account. It was a hard book to read, due to the detailed kidnapping stories.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

I received an ARC from Net Galley the #1 place for digital reviews

I thought I was a history buff until I picked up this book. Very well written to the pint you tink it is a novel at times but it is our history, the history of mankind and what hard ties can do to each of us. It also sheds a light on what early law enforcement was and sadly was not at times and even then how problems are not seen clearly until seen or they affect the rich and powerful. Very well done here.

I was not able to finish this book.

The style of writing was too loose in reference to the subject and included a lot of unnecessary fluff. He also had a weird use of the word Negro instead of black or African American. I understand that he was trying to put the reader into the shoes of one of the individuals in that particular vignette...but that word is not needed in 2020. I just couldn't get past that.

I very much enjoyed reading The Kidnap Years. I thought it was a realistic and scary chronicle of the wave of kidnappings that overwhelmed law enforcement agencies during the Great Depression. New York Times-veteran Stout sheds important new light on the rise of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover while u sing the kidnapping of the Lindbergh Baby as a thread running through the years from the late 1920s to the mid-1930s. The stories about gangsters, prohibition, early kidnappers and their victims, the formation and development of the F.B.I., and the passing of the Federal Kidnapping Act of 1932 were relevant and tied the story to the setting perfectly.I would be remiss to not acknowledge in this review that many innocent people died and others did despicable things, but the author handles this with class and sensitivity.

A fascinating look at a little known phenomenon, The Kidnap Years looks at the rash of kidnapping that took place during Prohibition-era America. An immersive read, this book is perfect for fans of Depression-era trivia and the unexpected true crime stories.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

Wow just wow! This book is great! Like it reads more like a novel but I was intrigued throughout thw whole book! This is a true crime novel and it shows how the police couldn't stop people from kidnapping and the struggle it was. Definitely gets the reader hooked from page 1. Definitely recommend!

Thanks to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS (non-fiction) for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

'The Kidnap Years' is quite simply one of the best true-crime books I have ever read. Compelling, erudite and utterly absorbing are just a few superlatives to describe this book. Stout, with the perfectly-calibrated prose of a seasoned newsman, shines a probing light on the hitherto little-known phenomenon of Depression-era kidnapping. Of, course we all know the details of the Lindberg baby kidnapping, but what is little understood is the broader context of the crime of kidnapping for financial gain itself. Here Stout paints a vivid picture of unrestrained panic and impotent law-enforcement agencies powerless to prevent such opportunist crimes, crimes themselves that were inseparable from the social and political context of 1920s and 1930s Depression-Era America. Whilst the crimes themselves are fascinating and meticulously researched by Stout, the author also illustrates how the kidnapping craze fitted into a broader narrative about the history of law-enforcement agencies in the US. Most notably this included the creation of the FBI and the birth of cultural stereotypes of the omnipotent all-powerful 'G-men'. As a true-crime book of both style and substance, David Stout really delivers. The Kidnap Years' is quite simply a triumph - move over 'The Untouchables' and pick up this unputdownable gem of the true-crime.

Very well written and I feel like this will do well in the true crime circles that I happen to swim in. I often think of the kidnap years being the 1980's but I was way off. This was extremely informative in all aspects such as the media surrounding them, the ways in which people were kidnapped, and how they were found. This was wonderful.

Wow I knew nothing about the epidemic of kidnappings.Thisvwas an eye open look at all the kidnappings the feeling of panic the investigations .Thiswas a very interesting read tod in a manner that was engaging,#Thekidnapyears#netgalley

The Kidnap Years was an interesting book. The chatty style used throughout made me think that I was reading The National Enquirer, which could be annoying, and the way it went back and forth between incidents was interesting, but it was a little difficult to determine which case I was reading about at any given time. Overall, the book was a decent effort.