Elizabeth Heiter
Exp. Pub.: December 30, 2014
Sometimes the past can haunt you...Eighteen years ago, FBI profiler Evelyn Baine's best friend, Cassie Byers, disappeared, the third in a series of unsolved abductions. Only a macabre nursery rhyme was left at the scene, a nursery rhyme that claimed Evelyn was also an intended victim. Now, after all these years of silence, another girl has gone missing in South Carolina, and the Nursery Rhyme Killer is taking credit. But is Cassie s abductor really back, or is there a copycat at work?
Sometimes the past is best forgotten...
Evelyn has waited eighteen years for a chance to investigate, but when she returns to Rose Bay, she finds a dark side to the seemingly idyllic town. As the place erupts in violence and the kidnapper strikes again, Evelyn knows this is her last chance. If she doesn't figure out what happened to Cassie eighteen years ago, it may be Evelyn s turn to vanish without a trace..
Hmm... I'm hitting quite a few novels lately that are just ho-hum, and Vanished was no exception. The story follows Evelyn Baine as she travels back to her hometown, where a girl has gone missing. Kicker is, Evelyn herself was meant to be a kidnap victim of the Nursery Rhyme Killer eighteen years ago, so she puts her stubborn foot down and all but forces her way onto the case as the FBI's profiler. But it's not just the killer who awaits her return, but the police officer who grilled her to the bone last time she was there, determined to do anything to finally close this case.
I've always loved books and movies where you have a serial kidnapper or killer wrecking havoc on a small town, but this one just didn't do it for me. Evelyn and her comrades continually went between three possible suspects with very little to show for it, and it slowed the pace of the story so much it was triumph just to make it to the next chapter. Maybe it was Evelyn's complete disregard for the rules and allowing her emotions to say screw you to the necessary steps needed to gather legitimate evidence that wouldn't be thrown out in court because of unlawful obtainment, but her attitude really rubbed me the wrong way.
I get that she was meant to be a victim herself and that her childhood best friend was probably dead, but she seemed to be on a one-girl mission of stupidity going off doing illegal searches and putting herself in dangerous situations without backup or communication. I mean seriously? You're trying to get an abductor/killer put away. Don't mess it up. There are two little girls missing out there, so try not to make it all about you and your almost-but-never-happened kidnapping twenty years ago.
Be mad, be vigilant, just don't be stupid and blow it to the point this scumbag never sees the inside of a prison.
Sadly, by just a third of the way in, I thought the person who was responsible for the abductions was as obvious as a goldfish in a piranha tank, but for some reason, Evelyn and company were completely blind to what was right in front of them, so law enforcement comes off looking pretty stupid in this novel. It was either the killer's doing or just dumb luck that they managed to unearth anything at all.
Be mad, be vigilant, just don't be stupid and blow it to the point this scumbag never sees the inside of a prison.
Sadly, by just a third of the way in, I thought the person who was responsible for the abductions was as obvious as a goldfish in a piranha tank, but for some reason, Evelyn and company were completely blind to what was right in front of them, so law enforcement comes off looking pretty stupid in this novel. It was either the killer's doing or just dumb luck that they managed to unearth anything at all.
So, meh. Don't get me wrong, This was by no means a bad book, but it lacked the necessary mystery and suspense and actual police work to get me to read the other books in this series.
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