Little Girl Taken

Detective Madison Harper, Book 3

By: Wendy Dranfield

Narrated by: Gigi Burgdorf

Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's Summary

Rain rattles through the trees as she leans into the car, careful not to touch anything. Two pretty blue eyes stare back through the dark, wide with relief, or maybe fear. A baby girl, wrapped up in a pink snowsuit, reaches out a tiny hand. Her mother is nowhere to be found....

An abandoned baby is the last thing Detective Madison Harper expects to find as she drives to her first day back at work since the case that ripped her life apart. But as she cradles the shivering child close, all her instincts tell her there’s something more sinister at play. Then she finds a lone sneaker down a muddy trail nearby, the laces spattered with blood....

In a town as small as Lost Creek, Colorado, the baby and the shoe are quickly identified as belonging to Kacie Larson, a waitress at the local diner who quietly stashed away her tips to make a better life for her daughter. A mother herself, Madison can’t believe that Kacie would just abandon her child, but she also can’t convince her new team. Not for the first time, Madison feels she must go it alone to get the job done.

But when a body is pulled from a nearby lake, and it’s not Kacie, the case takes an agonizing turn. Is this missing mother really who she says she is? Is there a chance she’s still alive? Madison barely has time to think before the sweet little girl she rescued is snatched on a crowded street. Gone, in the blink of an eye.

To break this case and earn her place back on the force, Madison must learn to trust her team, and herself again - and fast. If she doesn’t find this twisted individual in time, a little girl could die....

A pulse-pounding, absolutely gripping and totally addictive pause-resister that will have you racing through and reeling at the twists. Perfect for fans of Melinda Leigh, Lisa Regan, and Kendra Elliot. You’ll be sleeping with the lights on!

©2021 Wendy Dranfield (P)2021 Bookouture, an imprint of Storyfire Ltd.

good story

I like the series & narrator. I just don't understand why there are so many British words included.

Great 👍

love the story. can't wait to hear more. T story folded well and I recommend it to all.

A more normal detective story but…

This story is a more typical detective story. It’s about robot-humans who don’t have any signs of being fully alive and chastise themselves for not being even more unfeeling and vindictive. One trope that I really wish would be eliminated from these stories are rape victims whose only thought is how much they want to keep their baby. In light of what’s just happened with abortion rights in this country I think this is a cultural story that people tell themselves. That is that raped girls will immediately embrace their pregnancies. It’s so toxic and unreal. I’ve read this over and over and I hate it—it’s not reality. The book presents a somber joyless landscape devoid of emotional nuances. The robots of course have no sexuality—despite living together the male and female robots never have even a feeling of attraction—another trait of the non living. The perp is always a flat evil woman or in this case a child who has been victimized and broken. Having a baby doesn’t confer womanhood on a girl. It’s chilling to me how much damage these attitudes have done to women in our country since Dobbs. The shadow over everything is the Catholic Church that the neutered male hero is so attracted to. I don’t want to live in this depressed, sad world of punishment of the innocent. Instead of chastising herself for not being cruel enough the heroine should wish for more empathy and kindness in her own personality. Are there any modern day female detectives as well drawn as Kinsey Milhone? Right now I feel like we’re living in a medieval hellscape and this book fits right in telling a tale of unfeeling robots too broken to be human.

Great sequel

This is the third book in this series that I listened to, and I'm getting quite attached to the protagonists. So much so in fact, that I was really saddened when one of them died. I know, they're only fictional, but still! This was again a great story, and I'm on to the next one now.

Love the books but the main character can be grating sometimes

I really enjoy this series. I plan on reading all of them. I’m invested in all the characters, and the mysteries are satisfying.
The narrator is great, she feels perfect for this series.

My only complaint is that sometimes I find myself hating the main character and I’m not sure if it’s intentional on the author’s part.

She’s super judgy all the time, sometimes internally but sometimes audibly.
She makes huge mistakes or overlooks important details. There were several times in this book she would just run with something and I’d find myself thinking “did she ever bother to verify who this person is/if this thing actually happened”

When these things actually end up with consequences for her, she immediately jumps to blaming other people. Saying she’s being set up, when she easily could’ve avoided the problem by taking a different approach.

Overall though this doesn’t hinder my enjoyment.

The narrator ruined the book for me.

The story may have gotten better but this narrator sounds like Christopher Waken
Love this author

Great author

This is the 3rd book I have listened to by Wendy Dranfield. I loved all of them. Will definitely read more of hers. I cannot say enough about Audible. Once you join you are hooked. Multi-tasking is a breeze.

loved it!

I can't wait for the next book!
I love her writing style, and was happy with the narration too

Another good story

Miranda has been exonerated and is starting her first day back as a police detective. She discovers an abandoned car, with a baby inside…and her first case is on! Find the missing mother! Meanwhile, Nate’s best friend is murdered shortly after he left to join Miranda…now he’s wanted for the murder! Can Miranda and Nate solve these two crimes or will this be two much for the jaded duo? Again, my only complaint is that the story is written in present tense and is a bit ‘clunky’.

Great book

I really enjoyed listening to this book and cannot wait to download the next episode