Wordful Wednesday: Vanished
I used to be much more of a monogamous fiction reader. Then I slipped into serial monogamy (one author at a time), and now I’m just willing to read anybody. How have I fallen so far?
In college, when I first discovered my love of reading, I read stuff my dad read. Clancy, mostly. After I’d read all of those, I started in on Grisham. Then I added in Crichton.
Of course, all three of these authors are prolific, and there had to be a certain amount of overlap once I’d “caught up” with them. Because they’d all three publish something every now and again, and I found myself reading whatever, whenever. Even (gasp) new authors!!!!
I think Washington County Cooperative Library Services has had a lot to do with it, too. I see a book come through on their RSS feed for new materials, read the summary, and give it a whirl.
Actually, the Internet itself is probably to blame. I read book review blogs, and then I go over the WCCLS website and request the titles. The ease of requesting titles also makes it easy to follow-through on recommendations from real-life friends. Which is how my Koontzian obsession started. But that’s neither here nor there.
I must confess I don’t remember what possessed me to first pick up a Joseph Finder novel, but I remember it was Paranoia, and it was eerily like reading a thriller set at my office. Seriously. Since then, I’ve read each of his more recent offerings and I’ve just finished his latest, Vanished.
This is the first Finder novel I’ve read that didn’t mostly focus on somebody working at a large corporation. In this case, it focused mostly on the brother of a guy working at a large corporation. Nick Heller, former Green Beret, is an investigator who finds himself investigating his brother’s disappearance. 
The story alternates between first-person narrative following Nick Heller, and third person narrative revolving around Lauren Heller, wife of Roger Heller the Vanished man. So it’s the classic plot-subplot thing, and it works, because the plot requires us to not really know everything that goes on in Lauren’s head.
As Nick investigates his brother’s disappearance, he finds himself delving deeper and deeper into government conspiracies and Roger’s shady dealings and many secrets. And his investigation involves lots of cool techo-gadgetry and cleverness. Good stuff.
There’s a twist I spotted from the instant it was set up, as I think most readers would, but the ultimate twist I didn’t see coming. Well, okay, so it was one of three or four possible turns I was tossing around.
The book ended well, and I hope we see Nick Heller as a lead character again.
One thing I really liked about the book was the uber-short chapters. I doubt if there was one chapter in the whole book that exceeded six pages. Makes it seem like you’re flying through the book.
At some point in the future, I may decide to catch up with Mr. Finder by going back and reading his pre-Paranoia publications (you know I just couldn’t resist that alliteration).
Next up, after my latest read-aloud with Ethan, will be Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (And What it Says About Us). Woo! Nonfiction!
