The Take Girls (DI Edina Ogborne) by G.D. Sanders
Genre: Crime Fiction, Mystery
Read: 18th December 2018
Purchase: Amazon
★★★★ 4 stars
THE TAKEN GIRLS is the debut book by G.D. Sanders and the first in a series featuring newly promoted DI Edina "Ed" Ogborne. And wow, what a great debut. After a couple of average books I found myself caught up in the storyline very quickly, finding myself unable to put it down.
DI Ogborne has been transferred out of the Met due to an indiscretion with a senior officer and it still being much of an old boys' club, was sent off to a posting with Canterbury CID in Kent...a post sweetened with the deal that it came with a promotion from DS to DI. Upon arrival in Canterbury, Ed soon finds that her transfer may not be as welcome as she first thought. It seems the team were expecting the current DS, who had been groomed to take over the position as DI, was transferring to Maidstone and therefore making way for Ed. It didn't matter that the decision came from the top brass and had nothing to do with Ed, as her new Chief Superintendant was quick to remind her. She had six months to prove herself or she'd be out. Starting with a case that had come in overnight.
Teenager Lucy Naylor is abducted on the short walk home from her best friend's place one night. No one saw anything. No one heard anything. Lucy had disappeared without a trace. Ed, keen to impress, plunges into the case despite having little to go on. Working alongside the current acting DI who seems to smooth her transition into the team, it soon becomes clear that Lucy's disappearance bears many similarities to one four years ago.
Then just a month later Lucy turns up unconscious, unharmed but pregnant. Like the girl in the case four years before. As the team delve further, they shift their focus to any other cases that may have been similar. Then they discover rumours of the possible disappearance of a young girl the same age as both girls, but when she turned up her family went on an extended holiday overseas and upon their return, left Kent altogether. There appeared to be no trace of them at all. The girl's father was a solicitor and an affluent member of Caneterbury. Ed soon tasked her team with finding any trace of the girl and her family.
Then when a fourth girl goes missing, time is running out to find her before the villain/abductor impregnates her.
The villain in this book is somewhat different than you would expect. He is not a sexual sadist, nor has he any sexual interest in his victims. Just an obsession and extreme desire with fathering a child of his own. His method did leave me puzzled to begin with as to how this was possible but we are enlightened along the way. For once, I had no idea who the abductor was until it was revealed, and I must admit I was sadly disappointed - hoping it was one of the others.
The story unfolds mostly from Ed's POV, with the occasional secondary character and then of course the chapters devoted to the villain. I did find some of the story surrounding Ed unnecessary and a tad voyueristic and while it may have had a little do with Ed's backstory I found it a little too descriptive and yes, unnecessary. There were some characters I took a real dislike to, in particular one who found himself in the suspect pool. I would love to have drowned him in it!
I can't say I took to Ed. I don't like her name for a start. Couldn't it be shortened to "Edie"? Not Ed. And not Eddie. But still I wasn't a huge fan of her. She is impulsive with a few too many poor decisions in her personal life, which if that was anything to go by I fail to see her success as a DI! I hope she develops into a more likeable character and makes better decisions in future books. I do look forward to the next book, whose premise sounds exciting.
I would like to thank #GDSanders, #NetGalley and #AvonUK for the opportunity to read an ARC copy of #TheTakenGirls in return for an honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment