Book Review: The Vanishing by Jayne Ann Krentz

Title: The Vanishing
Series: Fogg Lake #1
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz
Genre: Romantic Suspense/Paranormal Romance
Edition/Pages: Paperback, 294pgs
Goodreads / Amazon / Waterstones

Summary

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.

Overview

‣ POV: 3rd Person

‣ Summary in Emojis: 💬😱❤️🌇✖️

‣ Trigger and Content Warnings: torture, murder, violence

My Thoughts

Well this was a very quick read! Usually I’m quite a slow reader but I actually managed to finish this one in a day. Although, honestly, this book could have benefited from being a 100 pages longer. Yes it was fast-paced and there was a lot of tension throughout, but I felt like I was constantly missing out on some essential backstory. I did enjoy it though, it gave me a lot of X-Files feels and I used to love that show.

The beginning was absolutely fantastic. There is instant tension and an underlying vibe that carries on throughout. But then we get to the present, and the characters and it just falls a bit flat. I wanted more depth to the characters. There is a lot hinted at, with the hero’s history, with the history of the town, but it’s all sort of glanced over. I was actually really interested in a town where events in the past are now producing people with paranormal abilities but we don’t get to spend much time there at all. I think this one is supposed to be a trilogy so I’m wondering if the author held back the information on purpose. It really did a disservice to the hero who could have really done with the backstory to flesh him out a bit. And because the hero was bland I was never completely convinced by the romance.

I did love the main mystery though, it kept me engaged throughout and I was eager to discover how everything was going to play out. The storyline was nicely wrapped up in the end for Catalina and Slater but there was still a sense of danger and the ultimate villains (I’m assuming?) were still at large. There was enough here to keep my interest and I’ll definitely be reading the next one and seeing if the problems I had with this one are resolved and the mystery of Fogg Lake is more expanded upon!

Happy Reading,

Lea x