Taken (A Jo Birmingham Thriller)

by Niamh O'Connor

[Leah]

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.) I decided to read it on a whim, wanting something a bit different to Chick Lit and considering it’s been aaaages since I read a crime novel, I was intrigued by the Prologue of Taken, after a little boy is (aptly) taken at a petrol station.

However despite finishing the novel relatively quickly, it was actually (sadly) a pretty forgettable novel. I read it with no real enthusiasm or suspense, but more it seemed as if I just got so far in that I felt I may as well finish it. There just seemed to be so much going on with so many different people, that I could barely keep up with everyone we were meant to be keeping up with. Don’t get me wrong, I expect that with crime novels, but it just seemed there were just too many characters and it would have been miles easier to get rid of a couple, particularly all the “bad guys”.

Whenever I read a Tess Gerritsen novel, I’m guaranteed suspense, guaranteed my heart will be racing as the novel reaches it’s climax, but with Taken it was all very pedestrian. It’s a shame, really, it has some characters who were interesting (Jo’s partner, whose name escapes me with his dead wife was interesting) but I just felt the book fell somewhat flat. So O’Connor probably won’t make it onto my “Crime must-read list” but, well, I don’t necessarily regret reading it, I just wish it was more suspenseful.