Stolen Family (Detective Josie Quinn #24), by Lisa Regan
Stolen Family by Lisa Regan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Lisa Regan’s “Stolen Family” hits like a heatwave and does not let up. Set against Denton’s Balloons and Tunes Festival, it opens with a tableau that is both theatrical and chilling: two bodies, mother and daughter, arranged beneath fairy lights, and marked with blood-red flowers. The case hooks on spectacle, but it tightens quickly into something far more unsettling - because the killer’s calling card is not just a flourish, it is a promise.
»They're camellias.«
From there, the novel sprints. Regan is excellent at drip-feeding information without ever letting it feel like stalling, and the heatwave setting adds a faint sense of delirium to the investigation; everything is bright, crowded, and slightly too loud, which makes the moments of quiet menace land harder. When the book swerves, it does so on the back of evidence, not authorial whim.
The pacing keeps widening the circle without losing clarity. Each new lead feels like it should be a detour, yet it snaps back into the central pattern, tightening the net around the killer while simultaneously revealing how many people have been living with secrets. Even when I thought I had the shape of it, Regan kept finding ways to unsettle my assumptions.
What makes this instalment sing, though, is how decisively it becomes Detective Kyle Turner’s story. Turner has often been the closed door in Josie Quinn’s team dynamic, and here Regan finally pries that door open - slowly, and with intent. Turner’s voice can be sharp, almost performative, even when the ground is shifting beneath him.
»Quinn, you plan on showing up for work today, or what?«
But the book’s real power lies in the moments when that performance slips. One small scene captures it perfectly:
»He turned the car off and met her eyes. They were devoid of all emotion.«
That emptiness is frightening, yes, but it is also clarifying, and the plot uses it to explore what Turner has buried, why he buried it, and what it costs when the past comes looking. The secret-family thread could have tipped into melodrama, yet Regan plays it straight and ruthless, letting the emotional consequences do the heavy lifting.
I also loved the domestic counterpoint: Josie’s and Noah’s home life with Wren threads tenderness through the tension without ever deflating it. Those scenes are not mere palate cleansers; they sharpen the book’s central fear—what it means to keep people safe, and what happens when safety turns out to be an illusion.
Compared with my other Josie Quinn high points - “Remember Her Name” and “Face Her Fear” especially - “Stolen Family” feels just as compulsively readable, but even more character-driven, with Turner’s arc giving the suspense real bite. This one is tighter, more focused, and more personal. It delivers the nail-biting thrills I come to this series for, and it leaves the characters changed in ways that feel earned.
Five stars out of five.
Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam
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