The Vanishing
Fogg Lake, Book #1
By Jayne Ann Krentz
ISBN13: 9781984806437
Author’s website: jayneannkrentz.com
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Omar
Summary
From New York Times bestselling author Jayne Ann Krentz comes a new gripping romantic suspense trilogy fraught with danger and enigma.
Forty years ago in the small town of Fogg Lake, “The Incident” occurred: an explosion in the cave system that released unknown gases, causing peculiar effects on its residents, such as strange visions and ominous voices. Not wanting the government to get involved, they chalked it up to the hallucinogenic effects of mushrooms. Little did they know these effects would linger through the generations….
Residents Catalina Lark and Olivia Dayton have been best friends for years and own an investigation firm together, using what they call the “other sight” to help with their business. When Olivia goes missing, Cat frantically begins the search for her alone when the town does nothing about it. When scientist Slate Trevelyan shows up, she has no choice but to accept his help even though there’s something about him she just can’t trust. The duo discovers someone is hunting the two witnesses of a murder in Fogg Lake fourteen years ago—the very one Cat and Olivia witnessed as teens, one that they couldn’t prove happened. Cat and Slate’s search for Olivia takes them down a rabbit hole that is far more dangerous and mysterious than they ever expected, and with a killer in their midst, neither of them can foresee who will come out alive.
Review
The Vanishing was a different book compared to my usual urban-fantasy and mystery genre that I read, but it was a very interesting story to read. The plot of the story centers around individuals that have psychic abilities, many of them are the result of government experiments.
The story starts fifteen years ago when Catalina Lark and Olivia LeClair were witnesses to the murder of a man in the caves of the rural town of Fogg Lake. This mysterious town of Fogg Lake has for citizens many psychics who were born after an explosion in the caves near the town releasing a fog that changed the descendants of that town over time.
When Catalina and Olivia were in their teens, it was a nontraditional rite of passage for the teens to sleep one night inside the caves. During the night that Cat and Olivia decided to spend it in the caves, they witnessed the murder of a man and escaped the killer by going deeper into the caves. Once inside, they came up to a secret room charged with psychic energy that produced hallucinations.
Fifteen years later, Catalina and Olivia are partners and owners of their own Private Investigation firm. After some past failed cases, Catalina is marked as Fake psychic by the media. One night, after saving one of their clients from an unstable lying boyfriend, Catalina wakes up to find that Olivia never made it to her date last night and is missing.
Catalina will do anything she can to find Olivia and those who took her, even work with the Foundation, a group of individuals that study paranormal psychics and try to enforce them. She has a history with them, bad history, but she will take their help given that their goals aligned.
I liked the Vanishing, it’s an interesting and fast read. At first, the book makes it look like it will be long giving that it has 42 chapters, but still, I felt it was a fast read that compelled the reader to continue reading.
In this case, the psychic powers of the characters were interesting, and I liked the way the author described the powers working. Both Catalina’s and Slater’s powers were fun to see them in action and collide with each other.
While I liked the story, I felt that the end was too quick for the narrative and the main villain was defeated very easily. With the way the villain was set, the story makes it sound like the author has plans to continue as a series.
I did like the mysteries that were still unsolved and may be plotting for future books. At the same time, the narrative of the government experiments and secret societies caught my attention and I hope we learn more about their origins.
The Vanishing was centered more on the new relationship between Catalina and Slater. I liked that sparks fly the moment they meet for the first time and the citizens of Fogg Lake jump right at the conclusion that they are a couple. The other characters from both Seattle and Fogg Lake were fun to read, but I wish we had learned more about them. I liked Robert’s personality and Olivia’s determination to stay alive and get a boyfriend. If you are interested in the paranormal genre and psychic mysteries solving, I recommend the Vanishing. Sometimes those that we call freaks or crazies might actually have some powers either for good or bad. In the Vanishing we meet both.
*OBS would like to thank the publisher for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review*
