Book Review: Irene Hannon's Vanished

Vanished, by Irene Hannon

Book one of Private Justice

 

Revell Books

$14.99

January 2013

978-0-8007-2123-7

 

A bump in the night and eyes full of terror won’t let go of Moira Harrison. Was it her Pulitzer-prize nominated instincts, a bad memory, or guilty conscience that sent her to Phoenix, Inc, seeking justice. But for who?

 

Phoenix, Inc., the PI firm recommended by her colleague at the newspaper doesn’t exactly fit Moira’s idea of the office of private investigators, even though she’s never visited one before. The receptionist’s outlandish taste of dress almost offsets the soothing décor. And then Moira meets Cal Burke.

 

After hearing her crazy story of skidding in front of a woman and hitting her in the rain on a lonely road while Moira was reaching for her long-distance glasses, tincluding a man who said he’d help her but didn’t, and no evidence of anything but burned rubber, Cal Burke, ex-ATF agent and partner at Phoenix Inc., must be nuts to take her case. Pro-bono. Even the cops were hard-put to do anything but close the file.

 

Moira’s credentials as an investigative reporter help Cal believe, and when the math doesn’t start to add up, the hunt is on for a Samaritan whose kindness could put Moira in the afterlife before anyone’s ready. Certainly not Cal, whose five-year mourning period for his late wife is melting away, and Moira, who’s been burned by romance one too many times in the past.

 

Join this middle-thirties couple and their friends as they search for justice for a nameless victim.

 

I’ve been an Irene Hannon fan for a while, and enjoyed this story. It’s fast-paced and extremely well-detailed without crossing into the boring. A few little glitches, like adding some extraneous character point of view scenes for a situation that simply didn’t need more explanation felt like filler, but weren’t fatal to the pace. I liked the characters and their inevitable conclusion. I liked the investigative techniques, which might also make the details fall into place a little too coincidentally; but overall, Vanished is a great addition to Hannon’s repertoire. The next books in the series I’m sure will prove to be just as entertaining.

 

Available January 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.