Vanished by Tim Weaver

  

Author: Tim Weaver

Title: Vanished

Publisher: Penguin 

Published: 

Pages: 2012

Genre: Crime Thriller

     He got on the train. He didn't get off. So where did he go? On a normal London morning, Sam Wren gets onto a tube train - and then never gets off again. No eyewitnesses. No trace of him on security cameras. Six months later, he's still missing. Out of options and desperate for answers, Sam's wife Julia hires David Raker to track him down. Raker has made a career out of finding the lost. He knows how they think. And, in missing person cases, the only certainty is that everyone has something to hide. But in this case, the secrets go deeper than anyone imagined . . .

     Vanished is my second time coming to the works of Weaver, a few years back I had the pleasure of reading Broken Heart. It was a book that kept me glued to the pages from start to finish forever trying to work out what the devious end was going to be. Now more often than not I'm not the best at going back to authors I've previously read. This is not done to a dislike of doing so more so that I forget once I've read a few more books. It is only when I get a nudge that I remember to go back and spend some time with them. So when my friend said she had been working her way through his books I went back and grabbed another book in the series. As a note of interest possible, I am also really terrible about reading books in the correct order hence why I have gone from Broken Heart which is number seven in the series to Vanished which is number three. I highly doubt this will ever change and so far with this series at least I seem to have gotten away with it. 

     Now when it comes to Vanished weaver is not going to give much of a background catch-up for you. But to be honest, this story doesn't really require its information. It could for all intents and purposes be the first in the series. For me, I think you kinda get a sense of who Raker is very quickly. In part, this is down to Weaver's style he gives us these bold and strong characters. Raker is someone you know is going to go through hell just to get to the conclusion of whichever case he is working on. This doesn't however mean he is the most pleasant person to be around, I suppose with each outing he goes on a small part of him becomes more damaged. This will always work to the detriment of those in his personal life. You have to feel a little sorry for the partners of such characters. But do we ever search out perfectly functional heroes when it comes to this sort of genre? I would say probably not what we really seek is interest but broken people doing what they must. This can also be levered in part at his companion characters within this tale. Not a one is really what you would call a fully functioning member of ordinary society. But the point is that they all work together to draw you into this dastardly tale. As you peel back each layer no matter how bad it gets you want to see some sort of flight at the end of the tunnel. 

     I think there is something for what Harlan Coben has said about his novels, that if you start with a mission person instead of a murder, the reader can never really be sure where the tale s going to go. And here Weaver has used this to excellent effect, his tale twists and turns throughout the bowels of London never allowing us to get a firm grip on just who is alive or not until just the right moment. Now for me, half the joy in reading such books is in the trying to work out just what is going on and who is guilty before I get to the end. I suppose if asked I would claim I was better at this than I probably really am but it never stops me from trying. And I believe Weaver's books are great for this. He kind of leads us by the nose this way and that all the while giving us just enough breadcrumbs to keep us guessing.  And this one for sure takes some very dark twists and turns. But it is worth pointing out that at least with vanished he manages to show just how much harm people can do to each other without spilling their last drop of blood on the pages. I wonder if in some ways this is worse, after all, once you are dead it is at least an end. But to witness someone in horrific pain and suffering and to be able to do nothing, is at least to me a fate worse than death. He turns this screw to great effect and it means the tension builds and builds and just when you think you can't take any more we get a little release and then he starts to turn again. 

     Vanished was a book that I simply could not put down. Weaver has a style that most definitely gets its hooks into you and you have to know exactly what has taken place. It is a tale that to a greater extent feels like you could be reading about elements in the morning news. A tale that treads the line between Hollywood blockbuster and the latest true crime novel. I could see them being turned into a really good tv drama to give you some sort of idea of what you get. Vanished is most definitely a book that I whole heartily recommend to you and a series that I really need to dip back into sooner than I did the last time.