Taken by Dinuka McKenzie

Publisher's Synopsis

Detective Sergeant Kate Miles is back from maternity leave and struggling on multiple fronts - the pressures of a second child, financial strain from her husband losing his job, and a corruption scandal that may involve her father.

When an infant goes missing, Kate finds herself fronting a high-profile and emotionally fraught case. Was baby Sienna removed from her bassinet by an unknown abductor or is the answer much closer to home?

Amidst a frenzied media demanding answers, and a station chief looking for any reason to remove her from the investigation, Kate is pushed to her limits, pulled between the competing demands of the family at the centre of the case and her own spiralling personal life.

My Review of Taken by Dinuka McKenzie

Taken is Dinuka McKenzie's second crime thriller to feature Detective Kate Miles and highlights the difficulties of juggling work with home life for a working woman.  Particularly when the job becomes dangerous and life threatening. 

An infant goes missing from the family home and Detective Sergeant Kate Miles,  fresh from maternity leave,  is assigned the case.  Six month old Sienna is close to the same age as Amy, her own baby and the emotional charge this strikes into Kate is acute.

Consequently its no surprise that emotions run extremely high as the investigation runs its course.  Every failed lead, uncooperative suspect and incorrect assumption brings greatly magnified ramifications. The effect is tension from page 1 that draws tighter and tighter as it goes along. 

The case starts off as a divisive one with two equally likely suspects. The husband, who was attending a conference when Sienna went missing, and the abusive ex-partner who was in the area that same night. Kate believes one of these men to be the abductor, her colleague Josh is equally adamant its the other. Neither is willing to concede they may be mistaken in their belief. 

Kate is almost completely distracted by two factors: first, she feels threatened by her fellow officer, Josh who is working on a different theory as to who the kidnapper is; and second, she’s petrified details of a scandal involving her father will be revealed. Both of these things seem to be at the forefront of her mind rather than trying to solve the mystery of who might have taken Sienna.

This is a strong second thriller by Dinuka McKenzie that comfortably combines the drama and heartbreak of a missing infant with the human side of policing. 

There's a realness about Detective Kate Miles as a character. She's battling sexism and racism on a daily basis, is prone to making poor decisions that threaten both her professional and personal life, yet she maintains enough self-belief to overcome most obstacles making her fascinating to follow. 

Taken is a tightly plotted Australian police procedural that kept me engrossed right up to the final chapter. A few surprises along the way prompted more than the occasional nod of approval. It carries on seamlessly from the first book in the series, yet it can also be enjoyed as a standalone thriller.