The Stolen by Vikki Petraitis

Australian true crime author Vikki Petraitis made her crime fiction debut with The Unbelieved. That book introduced police detective Antigone Pollard and dealt very bluntly with issues of rape, sexual assault and domestic violence. Her follow up, The Stolen, continues to play out the themes of that first book but also broadens them out to explore misogyny and some toxic gender politics.

As the name suggests The Stolen opens with the taking of seven month old baby Ethan from his mother Maddy. It quickly turns out that Ethan has been taken by his father, Josh, who had been estranged from Maddy and who starts posting photos of the baby on Instagram and claiming he is taking “revenge”. Before Antigone and her partner Wozza can find the baby, Josh is killed in a car accident. The baby is nowhere to be found. There is a lot more going on in The Stolen than just this main plot – Antigone’s boss is badly injured in a suspicious car accident, another involves an admission by Antigone’s mother around some painful family history and the third is the return of Antigone’s detective-ex who is seeking to rekindle their relationship.

While there is a lot going on in The Stolen Petraitis has a good handle on all of the plot threads, and more importantly what she is trying to say with them about the treatment of women in society and the media. Despite the fact that he took the baby, Josh is soon being lauded by the media as a ‘wronged father’ and this causes many in the town to turn on Maddy. That attitude is reflected by at least one of the Melbourne detectives who is assigned to help, egged on by Wheeler, Antigone’s old boss who is brought back due to the other accident. And in the background, the ongoing consequences of the drink spiking and sexual abuse investigated in the first book are still in play given that Josh and his brother, who died tragically the year before, were also involved.

With The Stolen, Petraitis once again has delivered crime fiction with a lot to say about hot button issue and still prevalent societal and media tropes that tend to blame women for the sexual abuse and domestic violence that they suffer. And while there are plenty of issues being dealt with, the narrative is, for the most part, not didactic and the issues are well worked into the plot. This is particularly helped by focussing on Antigone Pollard, her trusty ex-police dog Waffles, colleagues and family. The Stolen ends on a bit of an ambiguous note so that it feels like Petraitis has more to say about these issues in a third outing for Antigone and the community of Deception Bay.

The Stolen by Vikki Petraitis

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8.0/10