The Girl Who Was Taken (2017) is a work of crime fiction written by American author Charlie Donlea. A best-selling author who specializes in female-driven thrillers, The Girl Who Was Taken is his fourth novel. Set in the fictional town of Emerson Bay, North Carolina, the story follows the abduction of two teenagers: Megan McDonald and Nicole Cutty. After two weeks of being held captive, Megan escapes and tells her story, becoming an overnight media sensation. Although Nicole is still missing, people lose interest in her story. The only person still searching for Nicole is her sister, Livia, a forensic pathologist who uses her skills to seek justice for Nicole. When Livia teams up with Megan, they expose a web of dark secrets that neither of them could have imagined.

This guide refers to the 2021 Kensington e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss kidnapping, sexual and physical abuse, murder, drugging someone without their consent, trauma, and mental illness, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They also contain brief references to drug overdoses and death by suicide.

Plot Summary

The story is set in the fictional town of Emerson Bay, North Carolina, and opens with a three-part Prologue that details the abduction of two high school students: Nicole Cutty and Megan McDonald. Although both girls have been kidnapped, only Megan manages to escape from the bunker in the woods where she was held. Megan’s escape becomes a national media sensation after she publishes a memoir detailing her harrowing experience in captivity. However, Nicole remains missing, and despite her sister Livia’s efforts to find her, the search for her is largely overshadowed by Megan’s story.

Megan’s newfound fame comes with a cost as she experiences PTSD and the lingering trauma of her abduction. Her mental health deteriorates as she grapples with fragmented memories and nightmares, leading to strained relationships with her family and a sense of isolation. In her therapy sessions, she strives to remember details about where she was kept captive, hoping to find relevant details to share with the police. Meanwhile, Livia, a forensic pathologist, channels her grief and determination into her work, using every resource available to uncover the truth about Nicole’s disappearance.

Livia’s investigation leads her to autopsy the body of a young man named Casey Delevan, and conversations with Nicole’s friends reveal that Casey and Nicole were dating during the summer of Nicole’s abduction. As Livia digs deeper, she finds a folder with clippings about missing people in Casey’s apartment. When she interviews Casey’s friend Nate Theros, he reveals that he, Casey, and Nicole were part of a secret club called the Captive Club. Its members were obsessed with abductions, and along with discussing serial killers and other crimes, they staged abductions of their own, inducting some of their targets into the club.

Chapters told from Nicole’s perspective reveal that Casey initiated Nicole into the club by kidnapping her. However, she enjoyed the club’s activities because they helped her cope with her own young cousin’s abduction. She helped plan a particularly brutal kidnapping of a woman named Diana Wells from a club, after which the Capture Club disbanded. However, Casey continued performing kidnappings for hire, and he planned to bring Nicole into his crimes, convinced she had the same compulsions as her. Together, they planned to kidnap Megan; though Nicole just wanted to scare her, Casey was hired by his client to kidnap a new victim for him, and Casey chose Megan.

Eventually, Livia and Megan join forces and find new clues. Through autopsy reports and police records, Livia realizes that Megan and other kidnapping victims were drugged with ketamine, linking their cases together. Scraps of evidence from Casey’s body link him to Nicole’s car, proving that their fates are connected. Through hypnotherapy, Megan remembers auditory details about where she was held. A particular detail—the sound of a leather gun holster—makes her realize that the kidnapper is her own father, Terry McDonald, who is the chief of police. She realizes that she was kept in the basement of an abandoned house nearby.

Livia and Megan go to the complex to confirm Megan’s suspicions, and they find another girl there. Elizabeth has been held captive for two years, and she says that a girl named Nicole is kept elsewhere in the house, though Livia can’t find any trace of her. The girls call the police to report finding Elizabeth, and Megan’s father hears the call on his radio. He goes to the house, intending to kill Elizabeth and the witnesses and burn the house to the ground, but Livia bests him and sets him on fire.

As Elizabeth, Megan, and Megan’s father recover in the hospital, he confesses to his crimes. He hired Casey to kidnap girls for him, and Casey chose Megan as his next victim without realizing that she was Chief McDonald’s daughter. The night of the kidnapping, Nicole realized what was happening and tried to run and get help. Furious that Casey kidnapped his daughter, Chief McDonald killed him and then pursued Nicole to prevent her from revealing his secrets. He kept Nicole as his new victim, and he kept Megan captive for a few weeks to conceal the truth, drugging her to prevent her from recognizing him. When Megan eventually escaped, it was because he let her. However, he kept Nicole captive for over a year, only killing her a few days before Elizabeth was found. The novel ends with Livia going to a site where a body was found, likely Nicole’s remains.