I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from the Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Taken Ones
by Jess Lourey
Series: Steinbeck and Reed #1
Series Rating:
Published by Thomas & Mercer on September 19, 2023
Setting: Minnesota
Genres: Crime Thriller
Pages: 332
Format: Audible Audiobook, Audio CD, ebook, Kindle, Paperback
Source: the Publisher
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Get Your Copy at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, BookShop.org
Two girls vanished. A woman buried alive. Between two crimes—decades of secrets yet to be unearthed in a pulse-pounding novel by the Edgar Award–nominated author of Unspeakable Things.
Summer 1980: With no fear of a local superstition, three girls go into a Minnesota wood. Only one comes out. Dead silent. Memory gone. No trace of her friends. The mystery of the Taken Ones captures the nation.
Summer 2022: Cold case detective Van Reed and forensic scientist Harry Steinbeck are assigned a disturbing homicide—a woman buried alive, clutching a heart charm necklace belonging to one of the vanished girls. Van follows her gut. Harry trusts in facts. Their common ground is the need to catch a killer before he kills again. They have something else in common: each has ties to the original case in ways they’re reluctant to share.
As Van and Harry connect the crimes of the past and the present, Van struggles with memories of her own nightmarish childhood—and the fear that uncovering the truth of the Taken Ones will lead her down a path from which she, too, may never return.
The Taken Ones by Jess Lourey is an adventure into the dark side of humanity and what some are willing to do. The story will invade your mind, and you won’t be able to stop thinking about it until it is finished if you are lucky.
Will Van and her team find Lily before she ends up like Amber? Will Van’s career be over in the process?
The story starts in 1980 with three young girls taking off to the local creek to swim. However, only one girl leaves the woods. The other two are missing, taken. The older two are friends, Amber and Rue, in the third grade, while Lily is Rue’s six year old sister. The case goes cold with no leads. That is apparently due to the original team investigating and how things were handled in small towns in the 80s.
Flash forward to the present time, and they find a woman recently buried alive with possible ties to the cold case. The cold case team must work with the current homicide team.
The Investigators
Evangeline Reed
Agent Van Reed, as she prefers to be called, lives a solitary life with her primary focus on her work and her volunteer time at the animal shelter as her relief valve. Van hasn’t had an easy life as she was raised on Frank’s Farm, a weird cult like place. Once “rescued,” she got a degree and became a detective with the Minneapolis Police Department. She was lucky to get one of the more experienced detectives as her partner, and he became her best friend. However, when he died, Van was pushed and bullied right out of the department. Now, she is working with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Cold Case Unit.
Van also has dreams that show her horrible things that are happening now. These monsters in her dreams do terrible things to the innocent, and Van needs to save them. I like Van. She has this almost emo thing going on, but mostly, it’s poor hygiene and lack of care in her appearance. I don’t know how she manages to deal with the gift she has been given or the path her life is on. But I do know that I would be friends with her moody self.
Harry Steinbeck
Dr. Harry Steinbeck is the forensic person on the team and works closest with Van. Harry is an elegant guy with multiple outfits and doctor bags to match. His appearance is always spotless, and he is at the top of his field. He comes from a well-to-do family, and his manners show that.
I like Harry, but there seems to be more to him than meets the eye. Harry shows a part of himself, but it’s almost like he spotlights this positive personality, hoping that what lies beneath stays in the shadow. However, I could be wrong, and he could just be what he appears.
Think of them as The Odd Couple television series, where Oscar, the grumpy-couldn’t-care-less-slob guy, lives with Felix, the neat-always-a-ray-of-sunshine guy. 
Five Stars
I started reading this one afternoon before we had plans, and I couldn’t get it out of my mind. The complexity of the characters, the crimes against humanity, the small town settings with all the secrets, and the good ole boys’ club intrigue me completely. The clues kept leading us in all these different directions, but the severity of the kidnapper’s reasoning is mind blowing.
My rating for The Taken Ones by Jess Lourey is five stars. If you love a good mystery with a thrill, you must read this one. I truly recommend it. However, set aside some time; otherwise, you won’t be able to concentrate on anything else.
Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of The Taken Ones by Jess Lourey.
Until the next time,
About Jess Lourey
Jess Lourey is an Amazon Charts bestselling, ITW-, Anthony, and 2023 Minnesota Book Award-winning author who’s also been shortlisted for Edgar and Agatha awards. She writes crime fiction, nonfiction, children’s books, YA adventure, and magical realism. She is also a retired professor of creative writing and sociology, a recipient of The Loft’s Excellence in Teaching fellowship, a Psychology Today blogger, and a TEDx presenter (check out her TEDx Talk about inspiration behind her first published novel). When she’s not leading women’s writing retreats, reading, traveling, or fostering kittens, Jess Lourey is drafting her next story. She lives in Minnesota, where twenty-three of her books are also set.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
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