The best that can be said about The Solid Gold Kid is that the authors have hit on a plot with 14-carat potential. The mass kidnapping of five teenagers, previously strangers, is a premise that's virtually guaranteed to keep youngsters turning pages.

The solid gold kid himself is Derek Chapman, the lonely, insecure son of a self-made millionaire. While waiting for a bus outside the gates of his private school, Derek unsuspectingly hitches a ride with Pearl and Bogie, a self-styled Bonnie and Clyde who have been planning to kidnap him for a cool half-million in ransom. Just as innocently, Derek invites five townies who happen to be standing at the bus stop to share the back of the van with him. Thus Pearl and Bogie, luckless as they are desperate, are stuck with four accidental hostages.

Our introduction to the five victims is the first hint of...