Then She Vanished

Having read all of Parker\’s novels over the years I started to note the last few got sloppy and the plots got stretched beyond their editorial needs. This novel hits the jackpot: a drunk California politician from San Diego who hires our Private Investigator to find his missing wife. By the end of Act One-expository-who really cares? And this is the high point. The story is weighed down by silly characters and subplots. AVOID.

T. Jefferson Parker\’s new Roland Ford novel is a worthy addition to the series. Here, Roland is hired by a local politician to find his wife. Bi-polar and something of a spendthrift, the wife has either walked away into the desert or been kidnapped. The politician is an ex-marine, like Roland, and Roland agrees to search for her. At the same time a terrorist group that calls itself the Chaos Committee is sending mail bombs to public officials and inciting the public to kill police officers and anyone else who is handy. The question is, is the disappearance of the woman, Natalie Strait, related to the actions of the terrorists? Roland\’s investigation is a linear, straightforward one, not unlike those of the other Parker\’s Spenser, investigations in which the PI \’goes around and asks people questions.\’ This is not a thriller, not an action/adventure and not really a mystery, per se, though we are anxious to see the final results of Roland\’s investigation and have a number of our own questions answered. The setting is north San Diego, in general the Fallbrook area, where Jeff Parker lives, and his representations of it are always spot-on. Roland\’s \’irregulars\’, the renters on his farm/ranch return and Roland himself finds some romantic action with one of his employer\’s relatives, a now-legal cannabis farmer/marketer who is falling afoul of one of the Mexican cartels. My friend and fellow mystery writer, the late Frank McConnell, used to say that we read books like Chandler\’s for a single line, the line that encompasses all of the experience and pain and wisdom that constitute the story. Hence, we look for great one-liners as one of the hallmarks of the genre. Here I counted six. Here is one: \”Nothing is slower than time. \”Or louder than silence\” (p. 264). And how\’s this for description \”A long silence as the invisible weights of blame and forgiveness shifted on their invisible pulleys\” (p. 187). Jeff Parker is a modern master who makes everything look easy. That is so very hard to do. THEN SHE VANISHED is as smooth as a mountain lake and sometimes just as deep.

Have followed this character, PI Roland Ford, finder of lost souls from the beginning I find the writing compelling and characters interesting. Read this in two sittings. Gulf War descriptions sound legitimate. Will be back for more as soon as available.

Super Read with plenty of twists and turns and tons of excitement. Great characters and a hell of a plot. Ready for the next Roland Ford book.

Viet Nam era Veterans had the heat, the damp and enemies hidden in plain sight. Iraq War Vets had heat, the dry and enemies in plain sight. Both wars scarred the survivors with guilt, doubts, suffering indifference from those who hate our Nation. The physical scars heal, in a way over time, the mental damage still lingers. This Author captures the present anguish of the wars and also for those who loved and lost; some, who luckily found a new love, never supplanting those lost, but adding to the emotions and strengths of the often silent suffering survivors. Read and enjoy a bitter/sweet tale, appropriate for our turbulent times.

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