The author's unique approach and perspective will leave you stirred but enlightened. A courageous autobiography and an extensively researched biography mortared with fiction. It reads like a novel. It is masterfully and touchingly written by the first victim, and only survivor, of a serial killer. It's the story beyond the headlines. The killer himself becomes almost a background character as the author pulls to the forefront the lives and stories that matter - the young women who did not survive, their sisters, mothers and friends who answer the titled question - "What Was Taken". The writing is almost magical at times. With a few carefully chosen and crafted words you are transported back to the 1960's and early 70's. The book is a stinging reminder of how differently society, police, psychologists and the court system treated and valued women just 50 years ago.