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The Vanishing is the twenty-fifth JAK novel that I’ve read, so I think it’s fair to say that I’m a fan. Many of her books are DIKs for me, but every once in a while she writes a novel that I feel doesn’t meet her usual standard. This is one of those books.
Our story begins with a murder. Everyone in town knows that the caverns around Fogg Lake often cause hallucinations, so naturally every “self-respecting teen in the small community made it a point to sneak out of the house and spend a night in the caves at least once before graduation”. On the night that Catalina Lark and Olivia LeClair go, they are unexpectedly joined by two strange men from out of town. They hear them coming and are able to avoid them by hiding in a side tunnel, from which vantage point they watch one man murder the other. The girls spend a chilling night hiding from the villain but when they return home and tell their parents and the rest of the community what they saw, no one believes them. The killer had cleared the cavern of evidence and after all, the caves were known to cause hallucinations.
Fifteen years later, Slater Arganbright’s uncle Victor has cost Catalina her job, albeit by accident. He had her consult on a crime scene and a reporter somehow learned she had used psychic abilities to provide the analysis. The result was a social media frenzy that had Catalina labeled a psyche case and a fraud and she was subsequently fired from her position. The negative publicity also brought an end to her relationship with the man she thought she was in love with. All of which is going to make Slater’s job very difficult since he has been tasked with getting Catalina to look over another potential crime scene for their organization, the Foundation. A rival may very well be collecting rare paranormal artifacts and it’s important that they discover if that is indeed the case. Catalina’s powers should make finding the truth easy – or at least easier.
After the fiasco that caused her termination, Catalina and Olivia opened a private investigative firm called Lark and LeClair.
Their business model was based on targeting a niche market – smart, savvy people who knew that it was a good idea to take a second look at a potential spouse who looked like Mr. Perfect, a charming investment counselor who promised you a steady return of twenty percent on your money or a long lost relative who showed up just in time to get himself into your will.
They rely heavily on the paranormal gifts they received simply by being born in Fogg Lake – visions of the future, and what they call their “other sight” (an ability to read auras) to help solve cases. Catalina might want nothing to do with the Arganbright family after the mess Slater’s uncle caused her but Slater has a feeling their fledgling firm will be very interested in the Arganbright money.
Catalina had a strong intuition that something had happened to her friend the previous evening and she is proven right when Olivia doesn’t show up for work in the morning and a phone call to her new boyfriend reveals that she also failed to appear at his home the night before for an important event. While Catalina is out searching the streets for Olivia, Slater arrives at her office, learns what happened from their assistant and volunteers his aid. Catalina accepts his offer and the two begin their urgent search for the missing woman.
This is the first book in the Fogg Lake series but the information dumps regarding the history of the characters – from Catalina’s job loss, to the incident that caused all the Fogg Lake residents to have paranormal abilities, to the myriad intricacies of the Foundation and its members and their link to Fogg Lake – make it read very much like a later book in the saga. It wasn’t a very promising start and I’m sad to report that things don’t really get better from there.
I have a high level of tolerance for what the author calls “the woo-woo factor”. I’ve been reading science fiction/fantasy since I was in second grade and my first crush was Mr. Spock from Star Trek so you’re unlikely to find a better audience for a romance with paranormal elements. However, there is a way to use those elements well and Ms. Krentz doesn’t manage it here. Slater and Catalina’s skills are a hodge-podge of paranormal senses that work in an erratic manner designed to help the flow of the plot. In other words, their “magic” works when the author has no other way to explain what’s happening and fails when moving to the next step in the narrative needs it to. Another problem I had with this portion of the text was the characters’ bemusement/mockery at the skepticism of those who don’t accept psychics, crystals, and visions as legitimate; it seemed a bit mean spirited.
Which leads me to another problem. Krentz provides us with caricatures rather than characters in this story. Slater and Catalina are defined almost entirely by their psychic abilities. I received no sense of them as individuals, except that they both prefer neutral colors for clothes, and in Catalina’s case, apartment decorating. We aren’t told if they have any food preferences, like particular TV shows, have a caffeine addiction – there is nothing to them but their skills. Being a fan of romantic suspense, I’ve read plenty of road-trip/missing-person-hunt romances and know that isn’t why these two appear so one dimensional. The problem lies with the info-dumps; a large number of the conversations between Catalina and Slater are spent giving the reader the history behind psychic phenomena, Fogg Lake, the Foundation, Vortex etc. As a result, the author doesn’t have time to create characters or build a romantic relationship between them. Catalina marries Slater after a matter of weeks because he’s the first man to give her orgasms, and he’s the first man to give her orgasms because he’s the first one to truly accept her psychic abilities. Slater falls in love with Catalina because she doesn’t think he’s crazy for having had to be locked up for severe hallucinations.
Typically, a novel this poorly constructed would receive a much lower grade but Ms. Krentz is an experienced, skilled author whose smooth, charming prose is laced with touches of humor and whose ability to create an interesting storyline saved The Vanishing from being a complete fiasco. It‘s very readable and even enjoyable if you don’t think about the story and just sit back and enjoy the ride. Die hard fans will probably want to read it, hoping book two in the series is better, though I would recommend getting it from the library rather than paying for it.
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Grade: C
Book Type: Romantic Suspense
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 05/01/20
Publication Date: 01/2020
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
I've been an avid reader since 2nd grade and discovered romance when my cousin lent me Lord of La Pampa by Kay Thorpe in 7th grade. I currently read approximately 150 books a year, comprised of a mix of Young Adult, romance, mystery, women's fiction, and science fiction/fantasy.
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I agree with the review and the comments here. I had to push to get through this book and I think I have read almost everything she has written under all her pseudonyms (including her “Stephanie James”Harlequin or Silhouette books I used to “borrow” from my older sister). As Frances said above, it seemed like a rehash of her Arcane stuff, only less interesting. I still enjoyed the main couple and slogged through all the backstory, exposition and side stories to read about them but it was just too little of them and too much about everything else.
I’m glad I got it from the library and didn’t invest any money into it.
I’ve always been a library reader but recently I’ve begun to depend on it a lot more heavily. The publishers are getting outrageous with their pricing (15.00 for an ebook by a debut author, really??) and they are a lot less picky about what they publish. High price and lower standards means I don’t buy, I borrow.
I agree 100%! My monthly bill from Amazon on new ebooks used to be crazy. My “auto buy” list has been cut down to a fraction lately. Like you, I have turned more and more to the library for new releases. If something is really great I do end up buying it eventually despite having already read it from the library but it keeps me from throwing money away on mediocre books. I also rely HEAVILY on AAR, not only for the official reviews which are both thoughtful and beautifully written, but for the reader feedback as well. I feel like between the two I get a very well balanced view potential books and am alerted to exciting and promising new or “new to me” authors. I really like to put my spending money towards supporting talented authors that may be less well known, or more up and coming and not just big names I keep coming back to out of habit.
Me too! Not the Amazon budget but rest for me too! MacMillan’s new library policy is SO short sighted. I read for free and then buy if it is good enough to reread and/or the start of a series. So many self-published titles are making getting things at the library more and more difficult, so AAR reviews and reader comments are super important to me as well.
Why do publishers not understand that library books HELP TO SELL books?! It’s amazing to me how short sighted they are. I have a real axe to grind against MacMillan right now. Not as much for me because I can pretty much afford to buy the new books if I want to. I don’t have to choose between necessities and reading, but a lot of people DO have to choose. Restricting libraries from buying new releases is just infuriating. IMHO publishers should be DONATING books. Libraries and Librarians help to create and cultivate life long readers and book buyers.
Maggie,
Thankyou for the thoughtful and insightful review. IMO you are a life or ,at least, a sanity saver. I thought I was the only reader not enamoured of the latest JAK book. It was a relief to find someone whose opinion I respect agreeing With me that the latest JAK is not up to her usual standard. . As I read through the glowing reviews on Goodreads I thought it was just me who was disappointed in the story. I agree with you that her skill as a writer saves the book but I felt it was a retread ( Foundation instead of J & J , Vortex instead of Nightshade )but basically a rehash of an Arcane Society book. JAK , under her 3 pseudonyms was an auto buy for me until about a year or so ago when she abandoned writing Jayne Castle futuristic paranormals and left two trilogies (The Ladies of Lantern Street and the Dark Legacy trilogy) incomplete with both crying out for the third story. Now I am much more wary of paying top dollar when she releases a new book.
Glad I could help :-) . I don’t blame you for being wary of paying top dollar for an author who hasn’t completed trilogies. I had one author do this to me, and though she is very popular still I now wait for the whole series to come out and then I get them from the library. I won’t pay good money or invest time for books by a writer who won’t give me an ending.
It’s interesting, isn’t it? I have been known to enjoy JD Robb’s “in Death” books but have never clicked with Nora Roberts. And while Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum character was initially amusing (the first dozen or so, anyway), I do not care for her “romances”.
In the case of this writer, I think I may have tried one or two Krentz titles back in the day but nothing kept my interest. (none show up in 15 years of reading logs)
This is how I generally feel about all of JAK’s paranormals. “This would be good but argh.”
I’ve enjoyed a few of the paranormals but I do think she is at her very best when she sticks to a straight mystery format. Unfortunately, I don’t think she agrees. A lot of her books lately have had the paranormal factor.
To me, her contemp suspense and her contemp paranomals just never click. I don’t know quite why. The Amanda Quick historicals, though, still work for me.