Taken in

the long version

In The Los Angeles Times, Carolyn See described Beverly Coyle "as much a dancer as a writer - not a dancer like Fred Astaire but more like Gregory Hines: large in concept, totally full of surprises in how any story turns out, and an absolute master of craft." In Taken In, Beverly Coyle's third novel, we meet Malcolm Robb, a sweetly liberal man, who is somewhat befuddled at having raised a religiously reactionary son. But if that were Malcolm's only problem, he would be a fortunate man. His wife, Susan, and fifteen-year-old daughter, Gretchen, become embroiled with a runaway girl and her violent boyfriend. Their reclusive neighbor, Oren Abel, manages by chance to land himself and the Robbs in the angry path of this marginal couple, and in moments all of their lives are utterly changed. Not only must Malcolm face the harsh reality of a murder, but the pain of having implicated his beloved wife and children in a town scandal, and that in the long aftermath the isolated Matt and the gregarious Gretchen find strength to survive quite beyond what Malcolm manages for himself.