Monday, November 6, 2017

Charlie Donlea’s The Girl Who Was Taken [Book Review]

“The country was transfixed, not by the girl who was gone, but by the one who made it home.” The Girl Who Was Taken

 

ABDUCTION, MEDICAL EXAMINER AND A DEAD BODY

Nicole Cutty and Megan McDonald (both seniors in high school) were kidnapped the same night but only Megan was able to escape her captor two weeks after. We meet up with Megan 14 months later as she has written a book about her ordeal and how she escaped. But we are left wondering what happened to Nicole and is there a connection between the two abductions.

Livia Cutty is Nicole's sister and a medical examiner. When she receives what seems to be a body of a possible suicide jumper to examine she learns more than she expected. Not only that, this body will lead Livia on the hunt to find her sister with the help of a Megan. Soon, both Livia and Megan will come face to face with the truth neither expected.

 

THE BIRTH OF THE CHARACTERS

The book was written in a manner that it kept you engaged. No fancy words were used or ambiguity used to where you have to read the sentence or paragraph a few times to understand what's being said.

The characters were well written to where they didn't come over done or confusing. I've read books in which writers try to give birth to a character and over do it or give too much information about the character that could have been done within the story. Donlea does this perfectly with Nicole, Megan and Livia. Each chapter gives a bit more information about each character while continuing on with the story.

 

BUILDING A STORY

Donlea knows how to tell a story, that's for sure. He writes in a manner as if he's right there telling you the facts of the case. When it comes to crime suspense stories I like them to be smooth yet captivating and Donlea does that, with what seems as no effort. I've read books in which it seems the author was putting too much effort into their books that I grew tired of reading their work. A good example of this is Patricia Cornwell. I used to be fan of hers when I read her first three books, but after that, her books seemed forced and not genuine.

 

MY BIGGEST CONCERN WHICH IS ACTUAL SMALL

When Donlea would speak of the past the chapters were written in italics. I found this quite unnecessary for he's already told us at the start the chapter was going to be set one month before the abduction or two weeks before the abduction. I hope he leaves the italics out of his next book unless he's mentioning a title of something or a quote. As mentioned, this was a minor issue I had with the book. And this is mostly a personal preference. This will definitely not stop me from reading his other books and I hope he stays consistent throughout his career.

 

MY THOUGHTS

I absolutely loved this book. It had me on the edge of my seat from the first page until the very end. Some nights I couldn't put the book down but sleep won the battle many a nights. As I was reading I thought of Nicolas Nash's The Girl At The Bar for it kept you guessing. The only difference between Donlea's The Girl Who Was Taken and Nash's book is you had no ideas who was behind the abductions and the further you got into the book the harder the guesses became. With Nash's book, you had many suspects and the further into the book you got, more and more suspects appeared. In both the reveal had me in shock. Never saw either one coming.

Please get a copy of both books and enjoy the ride.

Summer Lake is the next Donlea book I will be reading in a few weeks. I have two to read and review ahead of Summit Lake.

The Girl Who Was Taken
Author: Charlie Donlea
Pages: 320
Publisher: Kensington (25 Spril 2017
Where to purchase: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooks
Other books by DonleaSummit Lake 
Charlie is currently working on his next book. Once I get a copy of it I will definitely be doing a review of it and I'm so looking forward to it.

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