You know the children's story, but this is no fairy tale. A young woman is kidnapped by a delusional admirer. To escape, Barbara must piece together fragments of her captor's shattered mind.

SYNOPSIS:

Part crime drama, part psychological thriller, Rapunzel is no bedtime story.

It's a modern take on the classic tale of a long-haired damsel in distress, but our damsel is no Sleeping Beauty. She's a headstrong twenty year-old dancer with long golden locks from Kansas, just arrived to the hustle of the sweltering Atlanta streets. Bright, ambitious, and athletic, Barbara was raised an Army brat.

In addition to taking her to gymnastics practice, Barb's single dad taught her another very particular set of skills. Skills he acquired over a very long career, skills that make her a nightmare for people like J.D. Carpenter, an unbalanced veteran with little left to lose.

Recent events have dealt his unfortunate family a series of cruel blows, so he retreats to a delusional world where he can be a hero to his dying wife. Off his meds, he behavior becomes erratic, showing flashes of genuine compassion to his victim between bouts of self-loathing and nihilism. He doesn't want sex or a ransom, and the true motives behind his twisted crimes are both tragic and disturbingly relevant.

But nobody puts Babsie in a corner. With her physical gifts mostly negated, she will have to escape by using her wits to solve the deadly puzzle inside the warped mind of a mentally ill man who has embraced his own death.

RAPUNZEL (SAMPLE)