The Taken: A Hazel Micallef Mystery

THE TAKEN is the second in the Hazel Micallef series by author Inger Ash Wolfe but is my first introduction to the world of feisty Detective Inspector Hazel. This novel has one thing going for it which is very huge and definitely raises it above other thrillers. It is written so intelligently and the characters are so fully formed that you never question their thoughts or actions. People in real life are very complex. Each of us has our good and not so good qualities and that is what author Wolfe brings to each character here - a true sense of reality. The story begins with 62 year old Hazel recuperating from back surgery and recuperating under the care of her ex husband and his new wife. As she is trying to heal a case opens up that makes her have to pull herself from the bed and ease her way back into work. A body is found in a river and it starts a cyclone of plot twists that will have the reader spellbound. It seems as if the unfolding case is linked to a serial story being printed in the local newspaper. In the hands of a lesser author this novel would have certainly reached levels of unbelievability but in the hands of Wolfe it all meshes. It is like a grade B movie that becomes an A-lister due to the acting, directing etc. Wolfe can definitely write and the way she respects and uses the written word is a pleasure. This is in no way pop fiction. It is a psychological thriller at its best. Even with all the plot twists it is the characters that drive the story. From the main characters down to all the secondary all are believable and all conversation is very realistic and filled with humor and wit. The reader finds out at one point who the killer is and it adds even more suspense to this superb thriller. Be prepared to meet characters that are totally human. Hazel is sympathetic with real life problems. She is dealing with surgery, pain medication problems, children and exhusband problems and her biggest battle is with herself to be the best she can be. I can't wait to go back and read the first novel and follow the series in the future. Hazel Micallef is a character I can't wait to follow. With suspense and plot twists galore I highly recommend this intense, superbly written thriller.

First Line: Glynnis Pedersen's house was full of clocks. Sixty-something Detective Inspector Hazel Micallef is not having the best of years. She's had major back surgery, and there was no alternative but she move into her ex-husband's basement and have his new wife take care of her. Just as she's beginning to think about getting back to work in order to salvage some of her sanity, her mother flushes her stash of painkillers down the toilet. It's almost a blessing when Hazel's informed that the body of a woman has been found in a local lake. What makes the discovery strange is that the local paper has just published the first installment of a story in which the details are eerily similar. In no time at all, Hazel finds herself caught up in a game concocted by someone who knows how to convince her to re-open a cold case... someone who knows that, once she gets started, Hazel will not stop until she has the answers. I was thrilled with the first book in this series, The Calling. I enjoyed the setting and the swiftly moving plot, but most of all, I loved the character of Hazel. Her dedication, her ability to think outside the box, her compassion, her prickliness, and her sense of humor. I was hoping that I'd enjoy this next book in the series just as much, and I certainly wasn't disappointed. The game Hazel finds herself in the midst of is deviously plotted, and although the identity of the criminal is revealed about halfway through the book, this has the effect of heightening the tension, not lessening it. To top it all off, I found that I liked Hazel even more in this second book because Wolfe takes the time to add more facets to her character. I know that Hazel is getting close to retirement age, but I certainly do hope that she'll be appearing in a few more books before she hangs up her badge.

Meet Hazel Miscallef, Detective Inspector for the Port Dundas, Ontario, police force. DI Miscallef is having a rough year so far. She has had back surgery which has caused to have to go and live with her ex-husband and his new wife with her 87-year-old mother in tow. While she's recuperating a local fishing guide discovers a mannequin in the lake and as DI Miscallef and her trusty sidekick DC Wingate investigate they begin to suspect it is more than mere dumping. The number etched on the back of the mannequin leads them to a live website where a man is being held hostage. Then on her birthday DI Miscallef receives a gift wrapped as though it came from a department store with the game mousetrap in it except inside the box is a live mouse and a severed human hand. Things start getting really intense from here. Meanwhile back at home she realizes she still is in love with her ex-husband and this puts her in a bad predicament. Her mother flushes her painkillers down the toilet because she says Hazel is addicted to them. Her daughter, Martha, who is 33 but not quite grown up keeps Hazel in a constant state of worry while Martha acts like a rebellious teenager much of the time. So you can see nothing is going smoothly in DI Miscallef's life. Back to her job, she has a new boss who is very young and thinks Miscallef should retire and even tells her a story about dinosaurs and becoming extinct. She and DC Wingate must cross into Toronto and butt heads with the police force there over jurisdiction and re-opening one of their old cases. In the meantime the plot to the victim being held and broadcast on the internet becomes more dark and creepy as time goes on. Just when you think you have it figured out you don't. Welcome to a case that involves a complex web of infidelity, kidnapping and even murder. You won't want to put this novel down until you find out whodunit and why.

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.

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!