The Taken: A Hazel Micallef Mystery (Hazel Micallef Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Inger Ash Wolfe (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Lovers of twisty but plausible plotting and an out-of-the-ordinary lead will embrace Wolfe's standout second police procedural featuring Canadian Det. Insp. Hazel Micallef (after 2009's The Calling). A bizarre case brings Micallef, who depends on her ex-husband and his new wife as she recovers from a serious back injury suffered in the line of duty, back into action sooner than planned. A body fishermen dredge up from the bottom of a lake in Port Dundas, Ont., turns out just to be a mannequin, but numbers on the dummy lead Micallef to a Web site streaming video that appears to show a man being tortured by his abductor. In a frantic search for clues, Micallef concludes that the kidnapping is somehow linked to a fictional story being run in installments in the local newspaper. It's a testament to Wolfe's storytelling gifts that her reveal of the criminal's identity about midway through heightens rather than diminishes the tension.
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Review

"A terrifyingly addictive series — I'm hooked! Detective Hazel Micallef investigates the creepiest of crimes." 
— Mo Hayder

"The work of a major talent. . . . Wolfe is a master at atmosphere and setting, capturing perfectly the glory of small-town Ontario. . . . Highly satisfying." 
— Margaret Cannon, Globe and Mail

"Just as compelling as the first . . . with an even more expertly managed plot. . . . Keeps the reader's heart pounding from first page to last in a distinctive and superior crime novel." 
— Toronto Star


From the Hardcover edition. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (July 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151013535
• ISBN-13: 978-0151013531
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #19,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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  Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery > Canadian Detectives

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Worth the Wait, June 16, 2010

By	Charlotte Vale-Allen (CT USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Taken: A Hazel Micallef Mystery (Hazel Micallef Mysteries) (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

I have been anxiously waiting for another Hazel Micallef book--after falling completely in love with Hazel in her first outing, The Calling. And, happily, author Inger Ash Wolfe lives up to the standard she set with that first book. The characters, as before, are rich and round; the plot is complex and unpredictable; the humor is natural to the characters and never for a moment feels forced. This is writing and plotting of the highest order. And even the secondary characters are fully developed. I am not going to give a plot summary--that's available in the product description. What I am going to do is encourage everyone to get to know Hazel; she's addictive. She's an actual adult and a parent, with all the fears and foibles, tics and heartaches and, finally, acceptance that go along with the accumulation of years of living. Highly recommended!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Headless also= mouthless. Silenced.", July 12, 2010

By	Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Taken: A Hazel Micallef Mystery (Hazel Micallef Mysteries) (Hardcover)

It's been a couple of years since I have enjoyed the work of Inger Ash Wolfe. The Taken is a worthy effort, well-written and suspenseful as her previous novel. In Port Dundas, Ontario, DI Hazel Micallef is recuperating from painful back surgery, dependent on pain killers for relief and communicating by phone with her staff at the small local station house. Port Dundas isn't a high crime area, in fact threatened by fiscal cutbacks, until a strange series of events unfolds that pull Hazel from her bed in her ex-husband's basement and the cheerful ministrations of his new wife, delivering her into the heart of a mystery that begins with a serialized story in the local newspaper, "The Mystery if Bass Lake" by Colin Eldwin. Only two chapters have published when two people out fishing catch something in local waters that leads to a series of confusing clues and a website with a decidedly disturbing image.

It is a long holiday weekend and while Hazel is abruptly parted from her pills by a well-meaning mother, DC James Wingate has little success contacting the visiting fishermen or the local author, whose drunken wife insists is out of town. Once the code to the mystery is broken, Micallef and Wingate are on the move, interviewing the coupe who reeled in the surprise on the lake and certain the web image is a countdown to harm to another if they don't figure it all out on time. The characters are well-drawn and appropriately eccentric, especially the cranky Micallef, nearly at the end of her career and the patient Wingate, who has learned to care for his taciturn and undemonstrative boss. Hazel's family, ex-husband, new wife and mother, define the lonely years of a dedicated detective who loves her small station and the people she has known all her life. Blending mystery- and horror- with humor and human foibles is a particular skill of this talented writer, who hasn't lost her touch with this irascible protagonist caught in a riveting tale of murder and revenge. Luan Gaines/2010.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Twisting & engrossing sophomore outing for DI Hazel Micallef, July 4, 2010

By	Carol S. (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)

This review is from: The Taken: A Hazel Micallef Mystery (Hazel Micallef Mysteries) (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

I read and enjoyed Inger Ash Wolfe's first Hazel Micallef mystery, and like the second one even better. I like that protagonist Micallef is a divorced woman in her sixties, heading up the police force in a rural district of Ontario. As "The Taken" begins, Micallef is recuperating from back surgery, living in the basement apartment of her ex-husband out of sheer desperation for someone other than her mother to help care for her. With too much time on her hands and an increasing dependence on percocet, Micallef is ready to be drawn into the strange circumstances that present themselves to her second-in-command: a sighting of a corpse in a nearby lake that turns out to be a mannequin. But the mannequin has a sort of coded message on it that intrigues and horrifies Micallef as she starts to follow its instructions. Micallef ends up with a murder that's been written off as a suicide; a kidnapped man who may or may not be the murderer; and a bizarre webcam that somehow connects the two.

Micallef is a sympathetic but flawed detective and it's a pleasure to watch her untangle the strands of this strange case while simultaneously untangling some of the emotional knots that bind her. The supporting cast is engaging and interesting, and the rural Ontario setting is familiar enough for American readers while still fresh enough to avoid feeling samey. The mystery is creepy and intricate and should keep most readers guessing 'til the end. If Wolfe glosses over the question of why the originator of this convoluted puzzle picks Micallef as the recipient of these coded messages, and if the "clues" are more than a little obscure & attenuated, it's a small enough matter to suspend that incredulity in exchange for an enjoyable and atypical mystery.