The prolific
Judy Jance, who has four distinct crime fiction series to her credit, started
with a book about Seattle homicide detective J. P. Beaumont in 1985. The 27th
case of the retired detective turned private investigator is due to be released
on 10 November 2026.
In The
Taken Ones (Morrow, 2026) Beau’s network of former colleagues and
associates gets a workout in this story of disappearing women kidnapped from
various parts of the United States. The police do not take the missing persons
reports from their families seriously, since all of them are responsible adults
and there were no indications of violence. Beau is first contacted by a grandmother
who is also an excellent vehicle mechanic in Alaska who had helped Beau when he
was in the area on a missing person case years earlier. She had known Gina
Holt, the granddaughter of close friends, since she was a child. The news that
Gina had disappeared after traveling to Seattle for a summer internship at a
prestigious architectural engineering firm stunned her. Then she thought to
call Beau for help. On vacation in Calgary, Beau can still make a few phone
calls to Seattle to jumpstart a search and to find someone in law enforcement
to take the grandparents’ concerns seriously. He learns that the airport camera
footage showed the young woman in the terminal after landing. What happened
after that required more work to discover.
A
knowledgeable IT friend sorted the thousands of missing persons reports filed
across the nation, identifying all of the victims who were about Gina’s age.
More filtering winnowed out a group of young women who disappeared in much the
same way as Gina, giving Beau and his active law enforcement buddies the
distinct impression some sort of mass kidnapping or trafficking ring was at
work.
The revolving
changes in narrative perspective from Beau to the kidnapped young women to one
of the kidnappers to the Alaska vehicle mechanic who first alerted Beau and
back again is a little distracting but the various points of view help fill in
the background leading up to the kidnappings. A fast-moving story with a
satisfying ending. A good addition to the series.
·
Publisher: William Morrow
·
Publication date: November 10, 2026
·
Language: English
·
Print length: 368 pages
·
ISBN-10: 0063413124
·
ISBN-13: 978-0063413122
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://link.amazon/B08DcObvH
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal
It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
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