I’ll admit Sarah Stewart Taylor’s atmospheric depiction of Ireland stole my heart in her first Maggie D’arcy mystery, The Mountains Wild. Now, the fourth in the series, A Stolen Child, is a solid police procedural with plot twists to keep the reader and the police guessing.
Maggie D’arcy resigned from her job with with the police department on Long Island. A year and a half later, she and her daughter, Lilly are living in Dublin with Maggie’s long-time love, Conor and his son. Lilly’s in school, and Maggie has finished her time at the Garda Training College. She’s back to walking a neighborhood beat with another Garda. One Saturday night, they’re called to a possible domestic, but the woman who answers the door says there’s nothing wrong there. A few days later, when they report to the same apartment, Jade Elliott is dead. It’s only while they wait for the Criminal Investigation unit to arrive that Maggie notices signs of a child there. But, there’s no child in the apartment.
Maggie’s friend, Detective Inspector Roly Byrne, is in charge of the case. While it’s important to investigate Jade Elliott’s murder, top priority is to find the missing toddler. Jade’s daughter, Laurel Maguire, is almost two. Roly pulls Maggie onto his team as the Garda launch a nationwide search for the little girl. While it’s obvious the Garda need to look at Jade’s ex-partner, he was in France at a conference, and the French police confirm that.
Maggie D’arcy had a long career as a homicide detective in the U.S., but now she has to prove herself all over again in Ireland. She’s frustrated at times when she’s sidelined to minor parts of the case, but she’s there for every twist and turn in the complicated case. No one, not even concerned family members, are easy to deal with in the case of the missing child and murdered mother.
I didn’t think Taylor could surpass The Mountains Wild, a finalist for the Hammett Prize. However, she took the series in an entirely new direction with this solid police procedural with all it’s complexities. I’d still recommend newcomers start with The Mountains Wild, but there’s no reason you can’t pick up A Stolen Child and start there. It would make an outstanding jumping off point.
Sarah Stewart Taylor’s website is https://www.sarahstewarttaylor.com/
A Stolen Child by Sarah Stewart Taylor. Minotaur Books, 2023. ISBN 9781250826688 (hardcover), 352p.
FTC Full Disclosure – I read a galley from NetGalley to review for a journal.
