The Taken Ones: A Novel (Steinbeck and Reed Book 1)
£1.90
Two girls vanished. A woman buried alive. Between two crimes lie decades of secrets yet to be unearthed in a pulse-pounding novel by the Edgar Award–nominated author of Unspeakable Things.
Summer 1980: Despite the local superstition that the Bendy Man haunts the woods, three girls go into a Minnesota forest. Only one comes out, dead silent, her memory gone. The mystery of the Taken Ones captures the nation.
Summer 2022: Cold case detective Van Reed and forensic scientist Harry Steinbeck are assigned a disturbing homicide—a woman buried alive, clutching a heart charm necklace belonging to one of the vanished girls. Van follows her gut. Harry trusts in facts. They’re both desperate to catch a killer before he kills again. They have something else in common: each has ties to the original case in ways they’re reluctant to share.
As Van and Harry connect the crimes of the past and the present, Van struggles with memories of her own nightmarish childhood—and the fear that uncovering the truth of the Taken Ones will lead her down a path from which she, too, may never return.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Thomas & Mercer (19 Sept. 2023) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 4052 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 329 pages |
by lesley lloyd
5
Steinbeck and Reed #1
Cold Case detective Van Reed teams up with Forensic Scientist Harry Steinbeck in the start of a new crime series.
I’ve read a couple of this authors other books that are retro/ historical and from a younger persons pov which are excellent, Litani is in my books of the year. So I couldn’t wait to read her latest book.
The blurb gives quite a lot of information which I’ve condensed. Two crimes decades apart. A missing woman buried alive who is found wearing the necklace of a girl who vanished decades before. So we still get a retro element with this book.
Ok my first misconceptions were that the protagonists are male. But nope, Van is Evangeline, although Harry is male.
We also find out all about Van’s past. I love the retro aspects of the authors books. The characters are really well fleshed, but not at the cost of slowing the pace to a crawl which is hard to achieve. Van is very interesting, and pleasantly different to your usual antagonist. I love the authors unique style, I find it difficult to explain it any better. Harry, what can I say, he is just adorable, so kind and caring, prepared to go the extra mile or ten.
This book is simply brilliant!! It WOWED me. I can’t wait for the next one in the series. This is a great book to start with if you are new to the author. Lourey definitely deserves heaps of attention. I’ll be shouting from the rooftops!
by Suzywuzy
Difficult to review agent reed’s character without spoilers. Let’s just say, she’s complex! Very good story, the epilogue made me go cold. Now I have to wait till November 2024 for book 2. This I think will be a very good series.
by Poppy
I loved this book, brilliantly written, I can’t wait to read more!
If you enjoy detective stories then you’ll love this.
by D. Blewitt
I’m a recent, devoted convert to Jess Lourey’s novels.
Unspeakable Things, Litani and The Quarry Girls are some of my favourite books that I’ve read this year.
The Taken Ones is a more traditional Police Crime thriller, cold case detective Van Reed teams up with forensic scientist Harry Steinbeck.
A woman has been buried alive, clutching a necklace – a necklace that belonged to a girl who went missing over forty years ago.
It’s got it all, a gruesome death, girls who went missing decades ago, a flawed cop with a troubled past, great character writing, and intricate plotting and twists.
I love Jess Lourey’s empathetic character writing and she does a great job weaving it into a crime thriller. Past and present crimes, characters with deep backstories, plenty of suspects and witnesses forced to dredge up memories they’d rather forget.
It moves at a good pace considering the depth and detail.
Very highly recommended and I can’t wait for the next in the series!
by Kindle Customer
Really enjoyed this book, well written and twisty, great characters and left on a intriguingly good “what’s his secret”
Looking forward to book 2
by Maureen
Really enjoyed this book kept you wondering to the end and really liked the characters. Look forward to next in series.
by SWitty
What an amazing read, I’ve now read two 5
plus. This is currently on kindle unlimited to read or listen too…Without spoilers this crime thriller was gripping, fast paced, short chapters, it was also dark and disturbing with a mild paranormal side to it, I absolutely loved it and couldn’t stop reading! The second book is out in October can’t wait to read it, another brilliant Author to add to my list ????????????????
by Elaine Tomasso
I would like to thank Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for an advance copy of The Taken Ones, a stand-alone set in and around Minneapolis.
In 1980 three grade school girls walked into the local woods and only one came out. The other two were never found. Now in 2022 a woman has been found buried alive and there are links to that 1980 disappearance. Cold case detective Van Reed and forensic specialist Harry Steinbeck of the Minnesota BCA are assigned to the case and are determined to solve it.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Taken Ones, which is an exciting read, full of twists and turns and a little drama of a more personal nature. I was really taken by the tone of the novel, which I would describe as lively. It draws the reader in and gets them involved in events and rooting for Van at every success and more often at every setback.
The novel opens with girls’ trip to the woods and that sets the tone as it feels creepy when seen through their young eyes and draws the reader in, making them want to know what happened. After that it is mostly told from Van’s point of view with the odd interjection from the kidnapper, who mostly muses about the danger she presents to him. Van’s narrative is mostly in the present, but there are flashbacks to her childhood when she lived in a cult and was abused. This childhood experience colours her present day as she has great empathy for victims of violence, but it has also given her visions where she can see crimes being committed. It’s not a subject I believe in so it put me off the novel slightly (hence 4, not 5*). Still, I could live with it if I got to see more of Van and her budding friendship with the more rational Harry.
The plot held my attention from start to finish. It follows an increasingly frantic and from her colleagues’ point of view erratic Van as she races to solve the case, hampered at every turn by her former colleague at Minneapolis PD, Detective David Comstock. There are blind alleys, twists, verbal fights, office politics and some solid investigative work, in short the novel has a bit of everything.
I would gladly spend more time with Van Reed, so I have no hesitation in recommending The Taken Ones as a good read.