A Stolen Child, by Sarah Stewart Taylor, is part of the author’s Maggie D’arcy Mystery series. Maggie is an experienced American homicide detective who has immigrated to Ireland after her husband’s death. Living in Dublin with her daughter and boyfriend (Maybe fiancé? We’ll see about that…), she joins the Garda, the Irish police as she moves into this new chapter of her life.
At the start of the book, Maggie is on patrol. She’s passed her Garda training and is starting at the bottom of the Garda organization, as is customary. It’s frustrating for her, what with 20 years of experience solving murders in the US, but it’s a new country for her, and a new police department.
Still, she is building good relationships with the higher ups, including Detective Inspector Roly Byrnes, who assures Maggie that she will move up to investigations when the time is right. In the meantime, she’s patrolling Dublin on foot with her partner.
They get called to an apartment where they find Jade Elliott, a beautiful fashion model and reality TV actress, strangled to death. It’s a painful moment for Maggie and her partner, as they had been summoned to the same apartment a few nights earlier on suspicion of domestic violence. At the time, Jade had told them that nothing was wrong—that the call had been a mistake—and sent them away. Now, she’s dead.
Worse, the police realize with horror that Jade had a toddler, Laurel, who has vanished. Where is this little girl? With the clock ticking, the Garda, along with the whole city, goes crazy looking for her. It’s easy for everyone to assume the worst, but Maggie doesn’t give up hope.
Shorthanded, Byrne temporarily assigns Maggie to the team investigating Jade’s murder and the child’s disappearance. Maggie is excited to be included in the more serious police work, but the case is nerve wracking.
What Taylor creates from hereon in is an effective police procedural mystery. She skillfully weaves Maggie’s personal story, involving her boyfriend and their relationship and adjustment to Ireland, with the increasingly maddening search for the little girl. The book presents a host of suspects, and you’re truly left guessing about who is who. Everyone appears to be lying, but the question is why? So many things don’t add up, but Maggie and the team are on the hunt for the truth.
A Stolen Child is, per its jacket flap, an atmospheric book. You get a feel for life on the streets of Dublin, a city in transition, where everyone is talking about skyrocketing housing prices. This adds to the fun, and it aligns with Taylor’s intent to write a mystery, rather than a thriller. (Though I must say, this term is so overused in publishing lately, it’s hard to reckon where the thrills are in most thrillers I read.)
Taylor also does a good job dissecting the toxic, entrapping world of modeling and its effects on young girls and their families. Jade emerges as a complex character, not at all what she seemed to be on the surface. That said, I will say that the book is a bit flat in a few places. Maybe I’m just too much of an American. I want a car chase, a gun pointed at the main character’s head. (Yes, I’m that shallow.)
If you like a good mystery, this might be a one to check out.