Unsure how but I have already read and reviewed this book here on Netgalley so will keep my feedback short...... Max and the team return with what initially looks like a kidnapping but the case quickly turns into so much more with plenty of twists along the way.

When dancer and young mum Jessica is abducted near her flat, Detective Max Wolfe starts investigating. In between dealing with her retired cop father, investigating links to crime boss Harry Flowers and hiding his DCI’s drink problem, Max is having to cope with his ex-wife’s plans for daughter Scout. Can he solve the case while keeping his family?

This is the first Tony Parsons book I’ve read, but I’m already a fan. Max Wolfe is a great character, with personal issues and professional dilemmas, and is somebody you want to get behind. His interactions with colleagues, interviewees and members of the Flowers family flowed well and were easy to read. The plot was intricate and involving and the identity of the culprits kept me guessing until the very end, but without any loose ends being ignored. The pages kept turning as I tried to figure out what was going to happen but at the same time, I didn’t really want it to end.

A great story and I will be looking out for more books by Tony Parsons.

It's been a while since I picked up a Max Wolfe book, but fortunately Parsons weaved enough backstory through the narrative to make it work as a standalone for me. As usual I love Max and his daughter Scout. What a lovely contrast to the dark world of kidnapping, London gangs and murder. As a single parent, Max is desperate to do his best for Scout and that narrative rings true.
The storyline about a beautiful woman being car jacked and kidnapped is chilling, complex and delicately balanced. I love the thrill of the key moments interspersed with the investigative procedure.
A thoroughly enjoyable read

This is a new author to me, and is the sixth book in a series. I enjoyed this book and liked the main character and his background. When a woman goes missing he and his work colleagues investigate and initially think it is a case of mistaken identity. But is it? I thought the book was well written, had a good plot with a lot of twists, some I guessed, some I didn’t. This book can be read on it’s own, and I will look to read the previous books in the series. 4 stars

Gritty thriller . Young mother is abducted,a case of mistaken identity of not.?
Fast moving story with some rough characters.

Another outing for Max Wolfe and another example where Tony Parsons does not disappoint. After 6 books I was wondering whether it would start to feel a little stale, but it definitely did not.

A woman gets kidnapped and it's the wrong woman. But things are not always as they seem. Max has to delve into the underworld to get to the bottom of things, but can criminals be trusted? Does everyone have their own agenda?

The characters that we have known to love appear to have even more layers as we find out more and more about them. The best part of Tony Parsons writing is how fallible we all are. No one is perfect, everyone is complex and everyone has secrets. Through it all we get to watch these characters make mistakes, and try to better themselves, and try to figure out who they are.

I love these books, and I hope Tony Parsons keeps writing them for a long time!

Good solid London gangster story which is slightly dated but quite enjoyable. Some characters are a bit of a caricature but I liked Wolfe and his daughter, Scout.

Loved this book read it in a day, I love Max Wolfe's character, he's called to an abduction, a young girl Jessica taken from her car leaving her baby in the back, her dad an ex cop puts lots of pressure on Max and his team, it becomes apparent a well known "gangster" is somehow involved but we don't fully know how until near the end. Will Max and his team find Jessica before it's too late, Max is also trying to be the best dad he can and a supportive colleague when he sees his boss struggling.

Love the Max Wolfe novels and this one is no exception. Great writing. Page turner. Fantastic characters. Plenty of suspense to keep me enthralled. Definitely look forward to his next offering. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review it.

I enjoyed this, the sixth instalment in the Max Wolfe series. It’s a good story and Tony Parsons writes very well, as ever.

This time Max, who is recovering from the shattering events at the end of Girl On Fire, is called to investigate the abduction of a young woman. The investigation takes him and his colleagues into the world of an ageing crime boss and some very shady, complex revelations as they search for her. Max’s relationships with his daughter and his ex-wife develop, too, and Max’s (and Parsons’) powerful commitment to parenthood are movingly portrayed.

In short, it’s a good story, well told. Max is an engaging, human narrator who is likeable if fallible. The plot gives us interesting developments rather than absurdly shocking “twists” and I found it genuinely gripping. There are some implausibilities – not least Max’s tendency to race off alone into dangerous situations without even calling for backup, let alone waiting for it – but I found that quite easy to forgive in the context. I can recommend this as a very good read.

(My thanks to Cornerstone for an ARC via Net Galley.)

I have discovered a new detective with this book. Only just found out that this is number 6 in the series so I can't wait to read previous titles. Several plot twists which kept me guessing. I changed my mind several times on the outcome of the plot. A young mum is kidnapped whilst driving her friends car. Her dad is an ex police detective who demands answers. She's also linked to a local drug dealer via her best friend. Why was she kidnapped? Was she the target? One of the things I likes about this book is the way the story flowed. There was no back and forth, chopping and changing scenes. Straight to the point writing which I found difficult to stop reading. So much so that I started it yesterday afternoon and finished this morning. I just couldn't wait any longer to find out what had happened. Thank you so much for being given a chance to read this. I have now discovered a new author to add to my favourites list.

It has to be said - Tony Parsons really knows how to write a story that completely enthralls the reader and # Taken is a prime example. He has a way of making the characters, though flawed, believable and sympathetic. Even the characters we are meant to dislike! The plot was well-paced with fleshed-out characters, all set in very detailed surrounds, with enough suspense and drama to keep the reader hooked. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my unbiased review. Well done, Tony Parsons....!

A great London based crime story, which starts with the kidnapping of a beautiful young woman but is it a mistaken identity? Lots of twists and turns as the reasons for this kidnapping begin to unfold, leading to an uneventful recovery of the woman. The story continues to twist and turn to a climatic end.

Just excellent, once again.
Full of twists which will keep you awake and guessing long into the night.
I love Tony Parsons' books. Always intelligently written without managing to bore. and the sort of novel where you know you may as well just cancel any previous plans because you are going to be busy.
Many thanks for the entertainment and escapism.

Absolutely brilliant. I love this series of books and eagerly await each new one. This has a satisfying number of plot twists and is really well paced. A great read.

Tony Parsons - Taken
Fast -paced and gritty just what you expect from Tony Parsons.
DC Max Wolfe investigates when a young woman is kidnapped on her way home. Jess was driving her friends’ car so could it be a case of mistaken identity?
The police believe that it was, especially as her flatmate is the girlfriend of ex-criminal kingpin Harry Flowers.
Max has to keep his focus on the job and find Jess alive, especially as her father is an ex-police officer who thinks he can do the job better than Max. When his ex-wife turns up wanting to spend more time with their daughter Scout and his boss appears to be turning up at crime scenes drunk he has to find a way to juggle everything.

I have not read this author before and find I have started with book 6 in the Max Wolfe series.
Jessica Lyle is taken on her way home, pulled from her car by two men in masks leaving her young son in the baby seat in the back. Detective Max Wolfe and his boss DCI Pat Whitestone are leading the investigation into Jessica’s disappearance. It soon appears that Jessica was taken by mistake. She was driving her flatmates car and her flatmate was the girlfriend of Harry Flowers a “reformed” gangster. To make matters worse Jessica’s father is an ex copper and has his nose right in the investigation.
I enjoyed the storytelling of this novel. Wolfe’s private life with his 8 year old daughter Scout and their dog Stan. Just the two of them trying to live their best life. Pat Whitestone and her drink problems and even the high flying lives of the Flowers family.
It’s a great read and would make a great tv series.
#netgalley #taken

Can’t complain about the writing it’s up to Tony Parsons usual standard and the plot was interesting but it had too many holes and unlikely events to make me love it.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this book. I love all Tony Parsons' Max Wolfe novels and I have to pace myself not to race through them too quickly. I also have to read books in published order hence the delay in posting a review. However, this is up to the great story telling standard as all the others and I loved it - one to keep definitely. A brilliant series for cold winter nights. More please !

EXCERPT: ....they loaded her into their car.

And now she felt the violence in them. Not spite, or sadism, or wounded, woman-hating pride. But violence. Violence in the hands of deeply experienced professionals who did this sort of thing for a living.

She saw her baby son, and she called his name, and the child was still sleeping on the back seat, wet-lipped and head lolling under the 'Baby, I'm bored' sign, and she let out a howl like a wounded animal because she knew with total blinding clarity that she would never see him again in this life.

And that was when she understood.

This was personal.

This was as personal as hell.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: WRONG TIME.
WRONG PLACE.
WRONG GIRL.

When a young mother is kidnapped by unknown assailants, Detective Max Wolfe suddenly has a dangerous job on his hands.

As Wolfe investigates the connection between the kidnapped woman and the head of a crumbling criminal empire, the hunt takes him from New Scotland Yard’s Black Museum to the glittering mansions of career criminals, from sleazy strip joints to secret dungeons, and from the murderous hatreds of today to the unspeakable crimes of half a lifetime ago.

Why would someone kidnap an innocent young woman? As Wolfe plunges deeper and deeper into a world of darkness and vengeance, he begins to wonder if anyone is innocent...

MY THOUGHTS: I have learnt to expect surprises from Tony Parsons. He is a master at leading the reader in totally the wrong direction, of smokescreens so well crafted you don't see them for what they are until afterwards. But he takes his writing to a whole new level with #taken, #6 in the Max Wolfe series.

I read this with my mind darting from one scenario to another, my heart pounding, my pulse racing. If I could have read it in one sitting, I would have. I did not want to put it down. Even while I was at work, I was thinking about this book, about the possibilities, wondering......and wondering some more.

I love the character of Max. He is strong, thoughtful. I love reading about his bolt-hole, New Scotland Yard's Black Museum, and his daughter Scout. I love what I learn about London, old and new, each time I read a book in this series. In short, I love this series, and #taken is a wonderful addition.

#Taken #NetGalley

*****

THE AUTHOR: Tony Parsons (born 6 November 1953) is a British journalist broadcaster and author. He began his career as a music journalist on the NME, writing about punk music. Later, he wrote for The Daily Telegraph, before going on to write his current column for the Daily Mirror. Parsons was for a time a regular guest on the BBC Two arts review programme The Late Show, and still appears infrequently on the successor Newsnight Review; he also briefly hosted a series on Channel 4 called Big Mouth.

He is the author of the multi-million selling novel, Man and Boy (1999). Parsons had written a number of novels including The Kids (1976), Platinum Logic (1981) and Limelight Blues (1983), before he found mainstream success by focussing on the tribulations of thirty-something men. Parsons has since published a series of best-selling novels – One For My Baby (2001), Man and Wife (2003), The Family Way (2004), Stories We Could Tell (2006), My Favourite Wife (2007), Starting Over (2009) and Men From the Boys (2010). His novels typically deal with relationship problems, emotional dramas and the traumas of men and women in our time. He describes his writing as 'Men Lit', as opposed to the rising popularity of 'Chick Lit'.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Random House UK, Cornerstone via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of #taken by Tony Parsons for review. All opinions expressed in this review are totally my own opinions.

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