The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore by Joan Lowery Nixon

First published: 1979

Type of work: Mystery

Themes: Coming-of-age and family

Time of work: The 1970’s

Recommended Ages: 13-15

Locale: Houston, Texas

Principal Characters:

• Christina Lattimore, an intelligent high school junior, who lacks self-confidence
• Cristobel Lattimore, Christina’s grandmother, a wealthy and influential businesswoman
• Zack Tigus, a skinny, stoop-shouldered man, who manages a hamburger stand
• Loretta Tigus, Zak’s plump wife, who is easily frightened
• T. J. Kelly, a college sophomore majoring in communications, who works part-time as a television cameraman
• Detective Jason York, a slow-moving, deliberate police officer

The Story

The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore has all the elements of the mystery novel with two unusual differences: The victim is also the sleuth who must solve the crime, and the master criminal is an unnamed character who appears briefly in only one scene. Christina Lattimore is the granddaughter of Cristobel Lattimore, who efficiently runs a Texas oil company founded by her late husband and who is involved in various political, social, and business groups in Texas. Christina rebels in a small way against the family’s rules of proper behavior by frequently stopping at a greasy hamburger stand on her way home from the private girls’ school she attends.

Christina desperately wants to go with her classmates on a summer-in-France program to study cathedrals and art, but her father opposes the tour for religious reasons. When Cristobel refuses to let Christina use money from her college trust fund set up by her grandfather, Christina becomes very upset and angrily leaves her grandmother’s office. That evening when Christina returns home, she is grabbed and drugged. She awakens in a cold basement—sick, frightened, and disoriented. A man wearing a ski mask forces her to sign a typed ransom letter to her grandmother. Frightened, alone, and frustrated in her attempts to escape, Christina must do whatever the kidnappers tell her to do, including walking about the house touching various objects and changing into clean clothes. Christina’s first discovery is the identity of the two people in the house. Next, she realizes that a third person planned not only the kidnapping but also her incrimination.

The police find no evidence to prove Christina was ever held prisoner in the basement. Instead, they find her clothes and personal items in a bedroom, her fingerprints on objects around the house, and the gun belonging to her father. As Detective Jason York explains, it is Christina’s word against that of Zack and Loretta Tigus. Christina’s feeling of isolation intensifies when her grandmother has the police investigation dropped to prevent further publicity. Disheartened that her parents are more interested in pleasing her grandmother than in hearing her side of the story, Christina determines to search for the evidence to prove her innocence. Even after York warns her of the possible danger and after two others tell her to stop, she stubbornly overcomes her fear and continues. Although T. J. Kelly helps to direct her attention to those with access to the house, Christina alone reaches the conclusion and finds the way to prove it to the police.

Christina emerges from the entire experience a stronger, more confident person. She admits that she is as stubborn and determined as her grandmother and that she will take control of her own life. Unlike her parents, who meekly allow Christobel to dictate to them in return for financial security, Christina decides to work her way through college rather than to use the trust fund that would involve her grandmother’s control. Christina intends to be her own person.

Context

Joan Lowery Nixon won an Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America for The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore. The majority of Nixon’s fiction and nonfiction books for young readers are mysteries. In 1964, when Nixon first decided to write a book, two of her daughters insisted that it be a mystery for children. Nixon’s writings have brought her numerous awards and honors.

Nixon develops her characters so as to reveal both good and bad traits. Because Christina has not always behaved blamelessly, her family and friends find the idea of her participation in the kidnapping plot conceivable. Nixon also shows a trait in both a positive and a negative way. Christina’s stubbornness enables her to start behaving independently but, at the same time, causes her to endanger herself by disregarding Detective York’s professional advice about the danger of searching for a criminal who has shown little concern for Christina’s well-being.

Christina’s kidnapping bears a slight resemblance to the 1974 kidnapping of Patricia Campbell Hearst, the daughter of the chairman of the board of the Hearst Corporation, which owns various newspapers, magazines, and television and radio stations across the country. Both Christina and Patricia have wealthy, influential families and had their innocence doubted. Nixon’s work is original, however, and not a fictionalized version of the Hearst story.

Nixon’s mystery is more than a simple puzzle to be solved. Nixon also places her protagonist in a suspenseful situation that requires her to overcome her fear, her dependence on others, and her frustrations when her innocence is doubted and when the official investigation is dropped. The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore provides a suspenseful mystery and a study of a young girl’s coming of age despite the pressures of her family to remain dependent and submissive.