Taken

Jo Birmingham #2

by Niamh O'Connor

It's a cold wet winter night when a car pulls into a service station on Dublin quays. Strapped on to the back-seat is a three-year-old boy. Asleep. Five minutes later he's gone – kidnapped in the time it's taken his mother to pay for her petrol. Distraught and fearing for his safety, she has only one option. DI Jo Birmingham. One of the few female senior officers on the Dublin police force, Jo has a keen reputation for solving crimes and righting wrongs. Her search for the little boy takes her into a dark world of lies and corruption, where hard cash is king, where sex is a commodity to be bought and sold – and where the lost and vulnerable are in terrifying danger . . .

Genres: Ireland, Audiobook

318 pages, Paperback

First published May 26, 2011

About the author

Niamh O'Connor is one of Ireland's best known crime authors. She is a crime reporter with the Sunday World, Ireland's biggest selling Sunday newspaper, for whom she has written five true crime books which were given away with the newspaper. Her job, in which she interviews both high profile criminals and their victims means she knows the world she is writing about.

Reviews

[Leah · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Best Crime Books & More · Rating 4 out of 5]

In February 2011 I read Niamh O’Connor’s debut novel and really enjoyed it. I was looking forward to reading the second instalment. We once again meet the feisty Jo Birmingham who as a female DI is one of the few female senior officers in Dublin. She is trying to manage her work as well as her children and being a single parent makes her life that little bit harder. The Model and It-Girl Tara Parker French drives into a petrol station to fill up and runs into the station to pay. She leaves her three year old son Presley in the car, and that is her biggest mistake.

With Tara’s child kidnapped Jo does her best to help with the case. What she can’t work out is why Tara doesn’t want the public to know he is missing. Before long in true Jo Birmingham style she has forced herself into the middle of the case irrelevant of the consequences. Jo is a character I really liked as although she was feisty she was also human and that means mistakes. It makes her all the more likeable as a character. We also see the return of her colleagues Gavin Sexton, Foxy and her ex-husband (who also happens to be her boss) Dan.

The story itself is pretty intriguing early on as you get to see the sheer terror of Tara whose child has been snatched. What I didn’t realise was that as soon as I was hooked on that part of the story I didn’t really come up for air. The book itself isn’t too lengthy but has enough substance to make it interesting. The crime element of the story covers pretty much everything with drugs, sex crimes as well as corruption and extortion to name a few. Towards the end it picked up again and I have to say I read the last quarter of the book the quickest. The ending surprised me, but I have to say it leaves the reader really wanting to pick up the next book to find out what happens to the characters.

There is a lot of crime books and especially new authors about at the moment. Niamh O’Connor will definitely be making it on my ‘to read’ list every year, but has yet to blow me away. It seems she has created a great series with characters that are slowly worming their way into people’s minds. Most definitely somebody to watch for the future!

[Kieran · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was alright. To be honest the notion that serious druggies would kidnap a child at a petrol station in full view of witnesses in order to put pressure on the mother not to pull a fast one in relation to the huge drugs haul hidden in the back of the very same car (still not sure if she knew it was there) from which the child is taken simply doesnt make any sense whatsoever. I mean can someone please tell me why the drug lords didnt just take the car and leave the kid instead? The only answer has to be that there wouldnt have been a book if that were the case. The car ends up in the Garda pound as a result of taking the child making the bad guys' problems even bigger ..... go figure!

Good insight into criminal life in Ireland and Garda process and journalists but overall, not worth the bother.

[Roxanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! Sometimes hard to follow as there was alot going on at times but this books made me want to read the rest of the series.

[Geraldine Comiskey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this thriller, having read the first in the series years ago (see my review). The character of Jo Birmingham is mostly relatable. The story is told from different perspectives so you feel like the proverbial fly on the wall - and it's wonderfully twisty. What makes this special is the author's background as a tabloid crime reporter who apparently never made the mistake of getting too close to her sources; she writes as an outsider with insider's knowledge. This book will also have special resonance for anyone who remembers Dublin's glitzy social scene in the Celtic Tiger years, with its heady mixture of "models" (influencers), tabloid reporters, cocaine, neo-snobs, gangsters and cops (good, bad and compromised).

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected a lot more from this book. However, I did enjoy it.

[Vincent · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the book was much better than what some of the reviews had led me to expect.

[Digby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fast paced but the plot had more holes than a sieve.

[Mairéad · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5

[Ayotunde Windapo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay. I didn't read the first book in the series, but it didn't matter as this is a story of it's own. The introduction (in which the kidnapping) happens was very good, but as the book goes on and Jo Birmingham attempts to solve the case, at times it seemed to drag. There were very good parts and boring parts of the book equally. I did find Tara Parker Trench's character (the mother of the abducted child) interesting, and I liked how Niamh O'Connor reveals the 'dark side' of Dublin in which Trench was a part of. However, throughout the book I felt there were so many characters and so many different stories going on, that I simply became confused. Maybe it was to do with a lack of focus at times (which means I probably found particular parts boring), but there were minor characters at times that would be mentioned, and I would have to flick back in order to recall who they were.
DI Jo Birmingham was a interesting character to walk this journey with, being a single woman who was dedicated to her job and the kidnapping case, but on the emotional side showed vulnerability to her ex (who she worked with) and who she also had children with.
But overall, the story was decent. The major characters were thankfully more interesting and readable than most of the minor ones, but I felt a lack of suspense towards the ending despite a dramatic scene at the end. I would rate it 3 and a half stars, but 3 seemed more appropriate than 4. I'll probably read the other books in the series.

[Rob Kitchin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taken starts at a clip and steadily builds steam. Niamh O'Connor works as the true crime editor of the Sunday World and she brings her knowledge of Ireland's criminal underbelly to the story, fictionalising elements of rumours concerning high class prostitution she's heard in her day job. Whilst the criminal side of the story, linking the rich and famous with underclass criminal gangs seems credible, the policing and family side of the story seemed less so. The guards are portrayed as incompetent, jealous and backstabbing, and the procedural elements are weak. This worked to create some tension and melodrama, but also undermined the credibility of the story. The plot also relied on some awkward set-ups at times, such as leaving the car unlocked, putting people in an inspector's office unattended, and a mobile phone too wet to use. Despite this, the story rattles along at a heck of a pace, dragging the reader with it as the various threads are woven together and resolved, culminating in an explosive finale. And given the high melodrama, its breakneck speed, and the mixing of the rich, famous and criminal gangs I can easily envisage Taken being serialised for television. Overall, a searing commentary on the legacy of Celtic Tiger excesses, played out through thrill-bound melodrama.

[audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first 200 pages are amazing, then it took me another week to come back and finish the last 100. Jo Birmingham's exactly the kind of character I love -- harried, angry, brave and blind to the vulnerability of her own emotions -- and the plot works very well, especially being one of the only crime fiction novels I can think of where sex workers are portrayed in a sympathetic light rather than only getting screentime as murder victims.

I just prefer my crime fiction with a little less romance, and Birmingham's whole swooning over ex-husband Dan ("He's such a good man! If only I had another chance with him! I must have him!") was tiresome and ffs, he left Birmingham while she was pregnant with his kid then went and knocked up his secretary so maybe we're dealing with really different definitions of "a good man".

But that swooning makes sense for Birmingham as a character, and as a flaw it made her interesting. Also, Foxy and Sexton's subplots were dynamite, and, with Foxy's in particular, I can't wait to see how they develop in the next book.

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another brilliant book by Niamh O'Connor in the Jo Birmingham series.
I read this one much quicker though like the first one it took me a while to properly get into it.
As I read on more I feel like I'm getting to know all the characters more personally and to me Jo Birmingham is one of the best lead roles, she's feisty and hard working with a tough she'll but a good heart and she's a good mum who try's her best with her kids.
Again this one had plenty of twists and turns,maybe none as shocking as they could have been though the ending was a surprise, had no idea what had went down.
It leaves the door open for the characters making you want to go on and read the next one, which in going to def do.

[Kent Hayden · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was so bad . . . . How bad was it?

The writing was dismal. I kept reading it because a friend recommended it but it was pure work on my part to finish it. Characters did not stay true to their personalities; events didn't quite fit with each other; the phrasing and word choices in the prose were just bad. I had to remind myself that this was not a bad translation but an author that apparently knew English. Bad English but English none the less.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a tabloid type of crime novel. If you like the Sunday World then you will like this. The style of writing and the the plot wasn't great. It felt a bit dumbed down. Was happy to finish it, so I could start something better!!

[Juliana Jura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lacked any real depth to the plot. A light weight read.

[Theweebarrell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't get into this at all but perservered. I did enjoy her first book but this one i didn't enjoy as much

[Sam Blake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast paced thriller that has you hooked to the final page! Love Jo Birmingham and her constant struggles with life and work.

[Sydney Mcknight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Couldn't put this book down. Had to find out what happens!

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this as much as If I Never See You Again, but it was a very good continuation of the story. I would definitely read any future novels in the series.

[Jacki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gripping and terrifying book loved it.

[Nick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Appalling, poorly written, poor plot, random characters .... Just not a good read

[Victoria Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed it