The Toy Taker by Luke Delaney

Every parent can relate to this nightmare.  You put your child to bed, perhaps watching as they fall asleep.  You might check on them several times before you go to bed yourself as the lure of their innocent sleep draws you.  Then you wake up the next morning and find your child gone.  No clues, no way to know who has your baby.  The police come but it is obvious that they are stumped and have no real clues to track down your child and their kidnapper.

This is the nightmare that is taking over London's poshest neighborhoods.  The child is put to bed and then just not there in the morning.  No sound awoke the parents and nothing else is missing.  Just an empty bed and then empty dreams of promised happiness.  First it is George, whose parents are locked in an unhappy marriage. Then it is Bailey, the daughter of parent whose success has surprised even them.  As the days go by, more children are taken with no clue and no apparent way to track the kidnapper. 

Detective Sean Corrigan is back at work after he and his team have successfully tracked down a serial killer.  His work has been noticed and he and the team are now designated as the Special Investigations team and have been moved to Scotland Yard.  Most people would be thrilled, but Corrigan is less than entranced.  His success comes from his gift to meld his mind with that of the criminals he tracks.  Now with the added bustle of headquarters, a troubled marriage, internal office politics and being his superiors' stepping stone to further success, the noise around him has him blocked from his own abilities to track killers.  Can he find a way to stop the bustle and noise around him long enough to discover who is taking children?

Luke Delaney is a policeman himself and worked with the English police for many years.  His intimate knowledge of police procedure and how cases are handled and managed is evident in this novel.  His character Sean Corrigan is a high flyer who isn't interested in the administrative roles the top brass seems determined to promote him too.  Instead, he needs to be close to the crime in order to make the intuitive leaps that keep him as the most successful detective in the department.  The reader is fascinated as the case unfolds and Corrigan does what he is born to do.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.