The Prisoner of Cell 25

The Prisoner of Cell 25 is a novel by the American writer Richard Paul Evans, published in 2011. It is the first book of the Michael Vey series.

Michael is a teenager with a power he has learned to hide, because showing it would make him something other than an ordinary boy with ordinary problems. The trouble begins when the wrong people find out what he can do. An organisation that has been collecting information about people with unusual abilities turns its attention to Michael, and the pressure it applies is not directed at him alone: when they take his mother, he has to use his power and his wits to get her back, along with the friends who have been drawn into the same danger. The novel is a chase and a rescue story with a group of teenagers at the centre of it, and the ability that makes Michael a target is also the only advantage he has.

Evans wrote the series for young readers, and it follows the same group of characters as the organisation's reach becomes clearer to them.