Reviewed by Rod McLary
The crime genre is a broad church and there are a number of sub-genres from the hard-bitten police procedurals to outback noir to urban noir – all of which provide their own brand of tension, excitement and the thrill of the chase. So there is ample room for Senior Detective Antigone Pollard, now appointed to Deception Bay police station after her time in Melbourne, to take her place in the canon. The Stolen is the second novel featuring Antigone and is a sequel to the award-winning The Unbelieved.
A frantic mother contacts the police to tell them that her baby Ethan has been taken from his cot – not in the middle of the night but during the morning when Ethan is having his morning sleep. A missing child is not an uncommon plot device for a crime story but in this narrative the subsequent events very soon turn the device on its head. The identity of the perpetrator is discovered by the police almost immediately but what is not discovered for some time is why was the child taken? and where is he? Strangely enough, the perpetrator also takes photos of Ethan and posts them on Instagram with frightening captions but, rather deviously, only after he has left the site with Ethan; thus creating a time lag between when the photo is taken and when the police are able to identify the site and get there. These clues are misleading to say the least and there is a deeper, darker story behind the taking of the baby which does not surface until much later in the narrative.
But the title of the book also points to a sub-plot – this one is historical but equally as heartbreaking as the current one and one that is much closer to home as Antigone discovers. Is there a link between the two matters? Is there any link between the taking of Ethan and the drink-spiking and subsequent sexual assaults of young women by a group of young men a year or so ago? These are the questions facing Antigone and her partner ‘Wozza’ – or more properly Senior Detective Warren Harvey – as they continue the search for Ethan.
The twists and turns in the plot are unexpected and create a suspenseful and totally engaging read. And it all takes place within this rather genteel milieu of Deception Bay where the police are largely respected, where they – with only one or two exceptions – are committed and skilled at their jobs untouched by cynicism or disenchantment, and the town’s inhabitants – again with only a few exceptions – are cooperative. It makes the narrative a pleasure to read and nothing is taken from the thrill of the chase as we follow the detecting skills of Antigone, Wozza and the other officers involved as they track down Ethan.
As with her first novel, the author draws attention to a serious social issue and this underpins the investigations in both plots – but it is achieved without sacrificing either the dramatic arc or the tension as we move closer to solving the disappearance of Ethan.. The author has had a long and successful career as a True Crime writer and has written eighteen books including The Frankston Murders about serial killer Paul Denyer and in 2023 released a podcast of the same name. Her experience in this field has informed the narrative in her novel and has added a depth of authenticity which is hard to replicate and ensures that the novel’s dialogue and procedures ring true.
Vikki Petraitis’ first novel The Unbelieved won the inaugural 2022 Allen and Unwin Crime Fiction Prize and the 2023 Readers’ Choice Davitt Award.
The Stolen
[2025]
by Vikki Petraitis
Allen and Unwin
ISBN: 978 176167 166 7
$34.99; 329pp