Hostage to Murder — Val McDermid

Jobless in Glasgow, Lindsay Gordon makes friends with a young freelance journalist Rory McLaren. But when a local car-dealer's stepson is kidnapped, Lindsay and Rory are invited to trade journalism for detection. The trail leads them to St Petersburg and a dangerous snatch-back operation. It becomes clear that Lindsay and Rory have stumbled into a bigger, more violent piece of business than either of them could have guessed.