Two girls disappear from the beach party marking the end of summer in the small town of Emerson Bay in North Carolina. Two weeks later, one of the girls manages to escape, bringing relief to her family and a story with a happy ending for the audience following the daily news. A year later, while Megan’s memoir detailing the abduction and her visible escape becomes a bestseller, Nicole is still missing, and it seems that hope of finding her alive is diminishing. Meanwhile, Megan’s older sister, specializing in forensic medicine, chooses to stay within her district’s boundaries so that if Nicole’s body is found, she’ll have access to evidence that might hint at what happened. Of course, not long after the book begins, another body arrives at her operating table, leading her on a path to truth.
Let’s lay the cards on the table right from the start. Charlie Donlea will probably not win the Booker Award with this one, nor the Edgar or Anthony Award. I’m not saying it’s not good. Quite the contrary. Within its genre boundaries, it’s excellent. To put my money where my mouth is – I devoured it instantly, but ultimately, it’s trash (and I’m using this phrase fondly) scraping the edges of good taste. Some might say it even crosses it multiple times with descriptions of forensic surgeries that won’t sit well with those with weak stomachs. Yes, one of the book’s heroines specializes in a post-mortem surgeon. Still, sometimes, it seems that Charlie Donlea derives a sick pleasure from the descriptions of the bodies under her hands and the procedures they undergo on the operating table. But even if we come to the understanding that he does derive such pleasure, he’s not very different from the book’s readers. But more on that later.
As befits a thriller, contradictory hints about the identity of “the villain” are scattered throughout the book, inviting readers to flex their minds and guess who the dark figure at the heart of the plot might be. Charlie Donlea manages to deceive his readers until the very end, twisting their suspicions as if they were playthings in his hands. Usually, I’d be upset if I found out someone was playing me like this, but in this case, he did such a good job that all I was left with was to enjoy the surprising reveal at the end.
One of the best ways to assess the quality of a thriller is through what I like to call the “edge-of-your-seat meter” (™), which measures how close the reader is to falling off their chair due to suspense. In the case of “The Girl Who Was Taken,” the distance from the edge of the chair diminishes as the book progresses until it becomes nearly zero towards its end, almost causing the reader to fall off, just a wrong move away from collapse and an unpleasant thud behind.
Donnelly’s credit lies in never losing sight of what he’s writing. He conveys this through the words of his protagonist, who senses how the audience allows themselves to be swept along by her story without feeling overly manipulated or sickened by the attraction, knowing that ultimately everything will work out and return to normal. At least for Megan. At least externally. How different are we, Charlie Donlea’s readers, from Megan’s audience? Is our interest in her and Nicole’s dark abduction story different because they are conflicted characters, or is it just an excuse that seemingly allows us to enjoy a book filled with such harsh descriptions?
Whatever the answer may be, it seems that Donnelly himself is attempting to solve it by infusing a bit of depth into this otherwise formulaic thriller. The journey he takes with his protagonist, along with the readers, manages to restore empathy to the heart of his protagonist and the readers, as the voyeurism and attraction to the darker side of the story give way to grappling with trauma, which receives more focus towards the end. So, if the intense and graphic descriptions at the beginning of the book fail to shock the reader too much, it’s because, by the end, there are enough hints of violent events to stir unease in the reader’s heart.
In the end, even if it’s not a masterpiece, “The Girl Who Was Taken” is a very good book within the genre’s boundaries, gripping the readers in suspense until the explosive finale.
Four abandoned cars by the roadside.
The Girl Who Was Taken, Charlie Donlea, Pinnacle Books
