TAKEN (2008)

George's offbeat thriller about an out-of-work actress who accidentally becomes involved in a high-profile child abduction case boasts three ingredients too often missing from the suspense genre: irony, humor, and plausibly flawed, cliche-free characters. Marina Benedict may be young and beautiful, and the cop she falls in love with handsome (and married), but they've got beautifully delineated inner lives that are far from picture perfect. George is as concerned with the random relationships between her protagonists (and thugs) as she is with the investigation. A refreshingly un-gimmicky denouement doesn't compromise these character-driven realities -- or the reader's intelligence.