Book Review: Taken by Dinuka McKenzie

 Taken 

by

Dinuka McKenzie

Detective Kate Miles #2

Publisher: Harper Collins Aus

 

Publication date: 1st February 2023

 

Series: Det. Kate Miles #2 

Genre: Crime / Mystery

Pages: 327

Source: Netgalley

My review of Taken

Just what I needed, I finished it in two days! Taken is a fabulous read that kept me glued to the pages. 

A young baby goes missing a Det Kate Miles leads the case. This is the second book in the series but I didn't feel like I had missed out on anything.

Kate has a lot going on in her life and she seems to be struggling but she always finds time to help others, often to the detriment of her own family time.

Kate brushes of racist remarks and battles misogynists while her personal life is threatening to derail her career as she worries that her father may be implicated in a corruption scandal.

Through Kate, Dinuka McKenzie highlights the struggle for all mothers returning to the paid workforce and the guilt this entails as they juggle being a wife, mother, daughter and employee.

Detective Kate Miles is a skillfully developed character; she makes bad decisions, thinks with her heart and struggles with the challenges life throws at her.

Taken is a well-rounded crime, mystery with themes of domestic abuse and the overwhelming expectations of motherhood.

 

Taken, book two in the Kate Miles series, is a fast paced and deftly plotted police procedural that reads well as a stand-alone.

I am pleased to have found a new series to follow with a relatable protagonist at its heart.

My rating 4/5       ⭐⭐⭐⭐

About the author

Dinuka McKenzie is an Australian writer. Her debut crime novel, The Torrent, won the HarperCollins Australia 2020 Banjo Prize. Her then-unpublished manuscript Taken was longlisted for the 2020 Richell Prize. When not writing, Dinuka works in the environmental sector and volunteers as part of the team behind the Writers Unleashed Festival. She lives in southern Sydney with her husband, two kids and their pet chicken.