FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE: 6/1/11

To arrange an interview or request a review copy, contact Barbara Brannon, Texas Tech University Press, (806) 742-2982 x 315 or visit www.anatomyofakidnapping.com

Physician’s memoir recalls how medical training—and a keen memory—aided escape from 2005 Amarillo abduction

When Dr. Steven L. Berk was kidnapped at gunpoint from his Amarillo, Texas, home in March 2005 by a meth-crazed escaped criminal and forced into an extended ride in the perpetrator’s car, one detail led to the kidnapper’s eventual capture and arrest outside Kingman, Arizona: Berk observed and memorized the 14-digit vehicle registration number reflected on the driver’s-side windshield.

This practiced power of observation and concentration, along with composure under pressure, clear decision making, and not least human compassion, are among the aspects of his medical training that Berk credits with saving his own life, preserving his family’s safety and bringing the kidnapper, Jack Lindsey Jordan, to justice. Berk combines such reflections with a revealing account of the crime and trial in his new memoir, “Anatomy of a Kidnapping: A Doctor’s Story,” forthcoming from Texas Tech University Press  Sept. 15, 2011.

Berk will talk about his experiences and sign books at events in Amarillo and Lubbock in the fall (details to be announced). The author is available for interviews; advance reading copies of the book are available to reviewers and the media upon request.

Steven L. Berk, M.D., is dean of the Texas Tech School of Medicine and provost of Texas Tech Health Sciences Center. As a physician certified in infectious disease and geriatrics, Berk has treated an outstanding diversity of patients in his forty-year medical career.

For more information, about Anatomy of a Kidnapping and author Steven L. Berk, visit

http://www.ttupress.org/_product_132047/Anatomy_of_a_Kidnapping_(cloth) or http://www.anatomyofakidnapping.com