Vanished by Joseph Finder

 

Vanished

By Joseph Finder

St. Martin's Press

$25.99, hard cover, 421 pages, 978-0-312-37908-7 (2009)

 

            Joseph Finder just keeps getting better and better with each successive book. Vanished is one that you don't want to start without having some free time on hand – because you'll have a tough time putting it down. (I began the book early Saturday morning and finished it before going to work on Monday.)

            Lauren Heller and her husband, Roger, were walking home after having dinner at his favorite Japanese restaurant in Georgetown. Suddenly, they're brutally attacked. Lauren awakens a day later in the hospital and immediately asks about her husband.

                        "Is Roger okay?"

                        Silence.

                        "Where's Roger?"

                        No reply.

                        She felt the cold tendrils of fear in her stomach.

                        "Where is he? Is Roger okay or not?"

            "A couple of policemen came by to talk to you," he said, "But you don't have to talk to anyone until you feel up to it."

"The police?" Tears welled in her eyes. "Oh, dear God, what happened to him?

A long pause.

"Oh, God, no," Lauren said. "Tell me he's okay."

"I'm sorry, Ms. Heller," the doctor said.

"What? Please. God, tell me he's alive!"

"I wish I could, Ms. Heller. But we don't know where your husband is."

 

            Their 14-year old son, Gabe, calls the one person he can think of that can find his father, Uncle Nick. Having served in the Special Forces in Iraq and now working as a high-powered investigator for a private intelligence firm, Nick Heller will do anything necessary to find his brother.

            What follows is the typical one-man-against-insurmountable-odds story detailing Nick's search to uncover what happened to his brother. Finder's plot twists keep the narrative moving and his writing is crisp and polished.

Who can resist a fight scene with an unarmed Nick against three men – one carrying a .45 Ruger, another pointing a Taser, and the third with flex cuffs.

I felt Talor clap a hand on my left shoulder, "Hands behind your back," he shouted, jamming his Ruger against my spine. "Do it now!"

At that instant, I stumbled, but not forward.

I fell backwards, right into him, catching him off guard. The momentum sent his gun hand sliding forward, through the gap between my torso and my right arm.

I didn't have time to think. Lighting-fast, I slipped my hands over his wrist while twisting to my right, his elbow vised tight against my side, and pulled down on his straight arm with a sudden sharp force, hyper-extending it.

The elbow is a complicated joint. It's a hinge made out of three bones that come together with a lot of ligaments and tendons. Most people can flex their elbows nearly one hundred and eight degrees. Force it beyond that, and you'll wedge the bony tip of the ulna under the end of the humerus, and bad things can happen. The bones can separate, or fracture, or simply snap.

I heard a snap.

 

Vanished is escapism at its very best.

Buy it here on Amazon.