Stolen Family by Lisa Regan Summary & Plot Guide

Last Updated: September 21, 2026

Table of Contents

Introduction

Two mothers are dead in a luxury glamping tent, surrounded by rare dark-red camellias.

Hours later, a second mother and her teenage daughter are dragged from their home at gunpoint—and they belong to Detective Josie Quinn’s own partner.

Stolen Family by Lisa Regan is the twenty-fourth book in the Detective Josie Quinn series.

Set during Denton’s massive hot air balloon festival, the novel follows Josie and her team as they race to catch a killer whose choice of victims follows a chilling pattern.

The oppressive July heat, a city pushed to its limits, and one detective’s fractured family life drive the story forward.

TL;DR: What You Need to Know

Genre: Police procedural / crime thriller with a serial killer and abduction plot.
Setting: Denton, Pennsylvania, during a weeklong summer festival and heatwave.
Core conflict: A killer targets mothers and daughters, and the second abduction hits Detective Kyle Turner’s estranged family.
Key hook: A hidden message in flowers, a decades-old abuse case, and a villain presumed dead.
Tone: Fast-paced, gritty, and emotionally charged, with a tight multi-day timeline.

Stolen Family Summary: The Full Story (Spoilers Ahead)

Spoiler warning: This section covers the complete plot, including the ending.

The investigation opens on a scorching Sunday during Denton’s “Balloons and Tunes Festival.” Detective Josie Quinn and her partner Kyle Turner are called to the Balloons and Tunes Glamping Retreat, where two women are found dead in their beds inside a bell tent.

The victims are thirty-seven-year-old Maxine Barnes and her seventeen-year-old daughter, Haven. Both were smothered with their pillowcases in a method known as “burking.” Dark red camellias with white edges are scattered around the scene.

Autopsies reveal Haven fought back hard before she died. Maxine had an arm bruise and broken ribs. Maxine’s estranged husband, Charles Barnes, is arrested after acting aggressively at the glamping office, but his alibi holds.

Josie and Turner interview Maxine’s former employer, Dr. Royston Jones. They learn Maxine was fired for scheduling errors and had told Dr. Jones she had a stalker but refused to go to police.

Josie researches the flowers. She identifies them as summer-blooming hybrid camellias and discovers the Victorian language of flowers, or floriography. Red camellias symbolize a flame in the heart.

The case turns personal when officers check on physical therapist Danielle “Dani” Schwarber and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Cassidy. Dani is Turner’s estranged wife, and Cassidy is his daughter.

Door camera footage shows a man in a ballcap dragging Dani and Cassidy from their home at gunpoint the previous evening. Cassidy mouths two words into the camera: “Dad, help.”

Turner is devastated. He reveals he and Dani were attempting to reconcile, but had a major argument two weeks earlier. He also canceled a hot air balloon ride with Cassidy because of the Barnes murder case.

Detectives investigate Turner’s past enemies. He recalls helping a former escort named Zara relocate to escape an obsessive stalker, Dustin Emmer. Emmer is now a Victorian literature professor who has pestered Turner for years.

Josie and Noah question Emmer at his home. He owns a rare 1884 edition of Kate Greenaway’s The Language of Flowers and recites flower meanings. But Emmer has a solid alibi and is ruled out.

A breakthrough comes from Josie’s ward, Wren McMann. Wren reveals Cassidy was in her art class and had mentioned an “old white guy in a baseball cap” lurking around her house and her dad’s apartment building.

Evidence Response Team leader Hummel finds machine-knit polyester work-glove fibers and traces of red mahogany wood putty in the Barnes tent. The killer’s trade is becoming clearer.

Josie and Gretchen realize the killer targets women in failing marriages who have daughters. Dani’s text messages suggest she was humoring Turner and secretly having an affair.

Turner recalls Dani throwing away yellow chrysanthemums before moving. In floriography, yellow chrysanthemums mean “slighted love.”

Maxine’s financial records show she visited the Greathouse Bed & Breakfast in Ormes every Thursday for seven months, meeting a man who paid cash as “James Smith.” The owner recalls the man always brought a rare hybrid flower called the “Crimson Bride.”

Noah and Josie learn the “Crimson Bride” was created by horticulturist Reina Torres at the Liora Blossom Nursery near Alden. Reina’s brother, Griffin Holt, is a traveling pharmaceutical sales rep who visits medical offices including Quesenberry Court.

Edward Greathouse identifies Griffin Holt from a photo lineup. Police arrest Griffin at his office. He confesses to an affair with Maxine and to abducting Dani and Cassidy at gunpoint.

Griffin claims he was “protecting” them from their toxic husbands. He describes a childhood where he failed to protect his sister Reina and mother Liora from an abusive man.

Police raid Griffin’s mansion in Quail Hollow Estates. They find a locked concrete room in the basement with sleeping bags and a pool of A-negative blood matching Dani’s type. But Dani and Cassidy are gone.

Griffin breaks down, insisting he left them alive that morning. He speculates Charles Barnes must have taken them.

Josie returns to Dani’s house and examines Cassidy’s sketchbooks. On the back of a portrait of an older, balding man, Cassidy wrote “Dirty Lurker.”

When shown the sketch, Griffin vomits and says, “He’s supposed to be dead.” He identifies the man as Saul Vought.

A background check reveals Saul Vought, fifty-seven, did not die twenty years ago. He served seventeen years in a New Jersey prison for burking a woman in a bar and was released two years ago. He had been the abuser of Griffin’s mother, Liora.

Josie and Gretchen drive to Vought’s dilapidated house. They find red mahogany wood putty and plastering tools outside. Vought flees into the forest.

During the chase, Josie falls down a rocky embankment and suffers a head injury. She reaches a clearing and sees Vought smothering Gretchen. Josie shoots and kills him.

Before dying, Vought gives no clues about Dani and Cassidy. A search of his house and land finds nothing.

As Josie and Noah prepare to leave, Josie notices wall sconces flickering in a distinct rhythm. Someone is tapping exposed wires to send a signal.

They race to the basement and trace the wiring behind stacked furniture. They discover a concealed 1920s Prohibition-era speakeasy behind a faux wall. Noah smashes through with a sledgehammer and finds Dani and Cassidy alive.

Dani had deliberately stripped and tapped the speakeasy’s wiring to signal anyone above. Dani and Cassidy are reunited with a weeping Kyle Turner.

Days later, the extended group gathers for goat yoga at the festival. Cassidy tells Turner she always knew Zara was innocent and that Dani was the one who cheated in Alden and projected her guilt onto him. Free from years of false guilt, Turner embraces his daughter.

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Characters in This Book

Character	Role
Detective Josie Quinn	Lead detective with the Denton Police Department and foster guardian to Wren McMann.
Detective Kyle Turner	Josie’s abrasive partner whose estranged wife and daughter are abducted.
Lieutenant Noah Fraley	Josie’s husband and a Denton PD lieutenant.
Detective Gretchen Palmer	Veteran homicide detective and Josie’s trusted friend.
Maxine Barnes	First homicide victim, found dead in a glamping tent.
Haven Barnes	Maxine’s daughter and second homicide victim.
Charles Barnes	Maxine’s estranged husband and initial suspect.
Danielle “Dani” Schwarber	Turner’s estranged wife who is abducted at gunpoint.
Cassidy Turner	Turner’s teenage daughter who is abducted alongside her mother.
Wren McMann	Josie and Noah’s ward who provides a key lead in the case.
Griffin Holt	Pharmaceutical sales representative who kidnaps Dani and Cassidy to “rescue” them.
Saul Vought	Ex-convict and the primary antagonist who burked the Barnes victims and stalked Cassidy.
Dustin Emmer	Victorian literature professor and initial suspect due to his obsession with floriography.
Reina Torres	Griffin Holt’s sister and horticulturist who created the “Crimson Bride” camellia.
Edward Greathouse	Owner of the Greathouse Bed & Breakfast who identifies Griffin Holt.
Chief Chitwood	Chief of the Denton Police Department.
Officer Hummel	Head of the Evidence Response Team.
Dr. Anya Feist	Denton’s Medical Examiner.

Who Is Stolen Family For?

Stolen Family is for readers who follow police procedural series and prefer a tight, multi-day timeline with forensic detail and parallel investigations.

The novel features a serial killer plot, an abduction race against time, and multiple red herrings.

Readers who enjoy detective fiction centered on personal stakes—where the investigator’s family becomes part of the case—may find the Turner abduction storyline compelling.

The book also includes significant domestic drama and emotional resolution alongside the crime investigation.

Those new to the Detective Josie Quinn series can read this as a standalone case, though familiarity with the core characters adds context to their relationships and personal histories.

Book Snapshot

Genre & Subgenre: Crime thriller / police procedural / mystery & suspense.
Core Narrative Tropes: Stalker thriller, cold case resurfacing, false assumptions, secret affair, savior complex, whodunit.
Tone & Atmosphere: Oppressive, claustrophobic, tense, emotionally raw, gritty, and fast-paced.
Primary Conflict: Detectives must catch a serial killer and kidnapper before Turner’s abducted wife and daughter are killed, while overcoming dead-end leads and personal trauma.
Pacing Style: Fast-paced procedural narrative across a tight multi-day timeline with twists, red herrings, and forensic breakthroughs.
ISBN: 978-1805504764 (ISBN-13); 1805504762 (ISBN-10).
Pages: 406 pages.
Book Structure: 58 chapters, followed by back matter including author letter, acknowledgments, and publishing team notes.

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