Captive

The Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero

By: Ashley Smith, Stacy Mattingly

Narrated by: Ashley Smith

Now a stirring movie from Paramount Pictures—starring Kate Mara (House of Cards and Fantastic Four) and David Oyelowo (Selma)—this inspirational, news-making life story of the young female hostage who in 2005 single-handedly talked the infamous Atlanta courthouse killer, Brian Nichols, into surrendering peacefully by gaining his confidence through her prayers and personal faith and by reading passages to him from the Christian blockbuster A Purpose Driven Life.

In March 2005, Ashley Smith made headlines around the globe when she miraculously talked her way out of the hands of alleged courthouse killer Brian Nichols after he took her hostage for seven hours in her suburban Atlanta apartment. In this moving, inspirational account, Ashley shares the details of her traumatic ordeal and expands on how her faith and the bestselling book The Purpose-Driven Life helped her survive and bring the killer's murderous rampage to a peaceful end.

Like her captor, Smith too has faced darkness and despair. Seeking a new life, she moved to Atlanta, got a job, enrolled in a medical assistant training program, and was beginning to find her way to becoming the kind of mom she wanted her little girl to have. Then Brian Nichols took her hostage. Just hours earlier, he'd allegedly shot to death a judge, a court reporter, a deputy, and a federal agent and escaped in a stolen vehicle. Now she found herself face-to-face with Nichols, a desperate, heavily armed man with nothing left to lose.

Juxtaposing the minute-by-minute tale of her experience with the tragedies and triumphs of her own life, Captive is a riveting story that will leave no reader untouched.

Awesome testimony!

A great example of God's amazing work. I was touched and awed by Ashley Smith's testimony!

great story of courage and faith

this isnt the best book i have listened to but it was full of courage and faith.

very personal

book was a lot better than the movie. you feel like you get to know the people.

Poor writing and narration.

I was anxious to hear this story. Unfortunately, the author narrates the book herself and does a very poor job. Her voice is not pleasing to listen to. She does not change intonation or voice when she does different characters so it becomes confusing to determine who is speaking.

I felt that the writing was very poorly done. Much time was spent going into great detail about unimportant details of the scene. Much of the information was given over and over again. I feel that the book could've been done in one quarter the amount of time.

I am sure that the book could have been better with better writing and narration. It certainly has a good underlying story.