It’s my stop today on the blog tour for Driven by Kerena Swan. Many thanks to Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources for the tour invite.
Title: Driven (DI Paton Investigates #2)
Author: Kerena Swan
Published on: 29 November 2022
Genre: Mystery and Thrillers | Police Procedural
Driven is the second book in Kerena Swan’s DI Paton Investigates series.
What a fantastic, totally engrossing and intense police procedural. Absolutely loved reading every bit of this story. I cannot wait to catch up on book #1. Be it the characters, or the setting, or the storytelling – I loved it all!
The story begins with two teenagers stealing a car. They have been doing it for a while now. Woody is a bit worried that they will be caught but his buddy Roach thinks otherwise. They are startled by a voice from the backseat -“where’s mummy?” It’s too late when they realize they stole a car with a kid in the backseat. But they cannot go back now and risk getting arrested.
Roach decides to leave the kid in the middle of nowhere. Woody is not happy with this development but he has no say in it. The boys deliver the stolen vehicle to their boss and leave.
Meanwhile, DI Paton has taken his son Tommy to a potential suspect’s place. He asked Tommy to stay in the car but Tommy ventured out, dug up dirt on the suspect. Tommy’s minder was on leave and DI Paton had to work. But bringing his son to work, especially to the place of a notorious might-be car thief is definitely going to backfire.
Mabel is driving home when she sees a small boy in the fields. Her dreams of being a mother is finally coming true. She takes the kid home, promising she will find his mummy and daddy soon. But she doesn’t want him to leave…
Paton is handed over the case of the missing child. The child’s mother is inconsolable and blames herself for her son’s kidnapping. Her husband is not being supportive either. As Paton and his team intensifies the search – they learn the missing child has health issues and if he does not get the medicines on time, he might die.
Woody is repenting for leaving the young boy in the middle of nowhere. The goons are threatening him and he has only one means of escaping everything – a visit to grandpa’s farm.
We have three PoVs here: DI Paton, Mabel and Woody. There are times when their stories overlap. I cannot pick a favorite PoV because each came with its own set of twists and turns. I haven’t read the first book yet but I didn’t find it difficult to follow the character development (of recurring characters.)
The mystery behind the missing child and recent case of stolen cars kept me guessing till the end. I felt sad for Mabel’s dilemma – the poor thing knew it wasn’t the right thing to do – she was practically stealing a child. Having said that, the developments regarding this matter in the second half of the story was touching and a bit sad. The same goes for Woody too. His guilty conscious made him do the right thing – finally.
Driven by Kerena Swan is an intense, completely engrossing and mind-blowing mystery. Highly recommended!
There’s a giveaway for this tour. Win a paperback copy of Blood Loss by Kerena Swan (Open to UK Only.) Giveaway details here.
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