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Product Description
Book Description
A child is abducted. How far would you go to save him?
Product Description
A beautiful woman
Model and it-girl Tara Parker Trench is famous across Ireland - with her beauty, glittering lifestyle and perfectthree-year-old son Presley, she seems to have it all.
A stolen child
Until, one cold wet Dublin night, Tara pulls into a service station for petrol, leaving Presley strapped into the back of her car. Five minutes later he's gone, kidnapped while his mother's back was turned.
A hidden world
Tara, terrified and hysterical, begs DI Jo Birmingham to help her find her child. But why doesn't Tara want the public to know he's missing? Soon, Jo is drawn into a dark underworld of corruption and extortion, where sex is a commodity, and life is cheap. Who is really telling Jo the truth about the missing little boy- and who's got too much to hide?
A gripping crime novel, with an unforgettable heroine - welcome to the dark side of Dublin's Fair City
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Taken starts at a clip and steadily builds steam. Niamh O'Connor works as the true crime editor of the Sunday World and she brings her knowledge of Ireland's criminal underbelly to the story, fictionalising elements of rumours concerning high class prostitution she's heard in her day job. Whilst the criminal side of the story, linking the rich and famous with underclass criminal gangs seems credible, the policing and family side of the story seemed less so. The guards are portrayed as incompetent, jealous and backstabbing, and the procedural elements are weak. This worked to create some tension and melodrama, but also undermined the credibility of the story. The plot also relied on some awkward set-ups at times, such as leaving the car unlocked, putting people in an inspector's office unattended, and a mobile phone too wet to use. Despite this, the story rattles along at a heck of a pace, dragging the reader with it as the various threads are woven together and resolved, culminating in an explosive finale. And given the high melodrama, its breakneck speed, and the mixing of the rich, famous and criminal gangs I can easily envisage Taken being serialised for television. Overall, a searing commentary on the legacy of Celtic Tiger excesses, played out through thrill-bound melodrama.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I loved Niamh O'Connor's first novel If I Never See You Again, was left frantically trying to finish it at the heart stopping ending - so I was really looking forward to what happend next to the ballsy DI Jo Birmingham. But I really wasn't expecting the way O'Connor's new novel Taken keeps surprising the reader right to the last page - I couldn't put it down!
Grabbing you in the first page, O'Connor plays on every mother's fears and hooks you into a plot that twists and turns so fast you just have to keep reading to find out what happens next. The sense of confusion at a murder scene where the facts presented and the evidence just don't add up was masterfully executed - it's easy for us readers who watch cop dramas to think that gut instinct and forensics will throw up the killer everytime. As O'Connor knows from her job as True Crime editor of the Sunday World, real life and real policing isn't like that - and you can't trust anything you see.
This is a fabulous read, exposing the tragic dark side of wealth and celebrity, a fast paced thriller that will leave you thinking next time you open Hello! Magazine, and keep you guessing to the end. Couldn't recommended it highly enough.
Grabbing you in the first page, O'Connor plays on every mother's fears and hooks you into a plot that twists and turns so fast you just have to keep reading to find out what happens next. The sense of confusion at a murder scene where the facts presented and the evidence just don't add up was masterfully executed - it's easy for us readers who watch cop dramas to think that gut instinct and forensics will throw up the killer everytime. As O'Connor knows from her job as True Crime editor of the Sunday World, real life and real policing isn't like that - and you can't trust anything you see.
This is a fabulous read, exposing the tragic dark side of wealth and celebrity, a fast paced thriller that will leave you thinking next time you open Hello! Magazine, and keep you guessing to the end. Couldn't recommended it highly enough.
Format:Paperback
Having just finished this, I felt a more objective impression was required for readers who might be drawn in by some of the more ridiculously over-the-top five-star reviews here ...the book is no more than a barely decent read at best - albeit entirely unconvincing for the most part. As already pointed out elsewhere here. More bitty than gritty, I think the real problem is the constantly changing POV (point of view). The author may well be a 'true-crime' reporter but frankly you'd never have guessed it and she is very much second division in this field. While the various elements of the plot are just about brought together and tied up at the end, the actual dénouement is so laboriously contrived that you can almost hear the creaking and clanking of improbable coincidence clashing with unlikely clichéd circumstance. I still don't understand why 'heroine' DI Jo Birmingham ends up dashing to get to her ex- before the drug baron homicidal killer - the two hadn't even been mentioned in the same context previously. Avoid.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great second novel!
In February 2011 I read Niamh O'Connor's debut novel and really enjoyed it. I was looking forward to reading the second instalment. Read more
Published 18 days ago by Best Books To Read
Taken
I picked this up from the library not having read anything from this author before, so glad I did, I couldn't put it down and read it in a few days, I really recommend it.
Published 23 days ago by Tracy Scotton
Irish crime fiction at its best?
When model Tara pulls into a garage to fill up with petrol she doesn't expect it to turn into a living nightmare, her toddler son is snatched from the car whilst she was inside... Read more
Published 29 days ago by Shaz's Book Blog
Take it away...
Taken is Niamh O'Connor's second fiction novel and also appears to be the second novel to feature DI Jo Birmingham. (I haven't read the first. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Leah Graham
Taken to another level
Having read Niamh's first book, If I Never See You Again, I already knew that the main character, Detective Inspector Jo Birmingham, was one tough cookie. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mel Sherratt
Chilling read - kept me up all night!
Tara Parker Trench is a single mother and model in her late 20's. Returning from an overseas job on a dark Sunday night, she stops at a petrol station on the wrong side of Dublin... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mrs. Mary Malone
Brilliantly captivating!
Taken is without a doubt my favourite book of the year so far. Having read the author's previous book, If I Never See You Again, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this one. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Maria
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