Who is really the chosen victim ?

There are many good crime series available at the moment. If you want to try a new one then search for Angela Marsons, Cara Hunter, William Shaw, Elly Griffiths, Ann Cleeves, JD Kirk or Alex Gray to name but a few – there are reviews for all these writers on this site too which you can find if you use the search function. To that number I would add Tony Parsons who writes police procedurals set in London about his character Max Wolfe.

Max is a single father whose wife is uninterested in contributing to the day to day life of his daughter Scout. Fortunately, Max has one of those people who has found a handy babysitter who is available at all times of the day and night to be available to look after his child. It’s very handy for him as an investigator although perhaps a little unlikely in real life.

Taken is the sixth book in the series but you don’t need to have read the previous volumes to understand this one. I’ve read a couple of the earlier stories and rate them highly so they are worth a look, in my opinion.

A young woman is kidnapped leaving her young child in the car from which she is taken. Max and his team have to try and get her back. The problem is that her flatmate is the girlfriend of one of London’s most notorious gangsters. Is it possible that the kidnappers have taken the wrong woman ? If they have, what will they do when they find out ? If they haven’t, then what is the motive for the kidnapping ?

This is a straightforward enough plot with no big twists but plenty of red herrings to keep the investigative team and the reader wondering what will happen next. At some point in each of the books Max visits the “Black Museum” at Scotland Yard to look at evidence from previous crimes and discuss things with the police officer who acts as curator which helps him to see his way through the problems he faces.

This is a fast paced and enjoyable entry in this series. Max is an engaging character and his team are interesting characters in their own right. This book also shows them adjusting to something horrible that happened in the previous book but I didn’t know the details of that and it didn’t matter when I read this story.