Vanish [Paperback]

Tom Pawlik (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 18, 2008

2009 Christy Award winner!
Three strangers each encounter the same mysterious storm and awake the next day to find that everyone else has vanished. There's Conner Hayden, a successful but unscrupulous trial lawyer who has forsaken his family for his career; Helen Krause, a middle-aged model struggling to come to grips with her fading beauty; and Mitch Kent, an enterprising young mechanic unable to escape a past that still haunts him. Afraid and desperate for answers, their paths eventually cross and they discover they are being watched. Elusive and obscured in shadows, the “observers” are apparently forcing them to relive vivid hallucinations of events from their past. They discover a mute homeless boy in tattered clothing and believe he may hold the key to the mystery, but the “observers” soon become aggressive and the four are forced to flee. When the boy disappears, the four decide to head from Chicago to Washington, D.C., in search of answers…and more survivors. Winner of the 2006 operation first novel contest, Vanish is a nonstop suspense thriller in the vein of Ted Dekker.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Pawlik's debut novel of inspirational suspense, two men and one woman wake up one morning to find that every other human being on the planet seems to have disappeared. (Yes, one character even uses that tell-tale phrase "left behind.") The three survivors hallucinate and sense they are being watched. But by whom? Protagonists Mitch, Conner and Helen not only struggle to survive physically, but find themselves pondering vivid memories and grappling with issues from the past. Helen, for example, regrets certain choices she made in her personal life years ago, and Mitch ponders unresolved issues with his parents. Conner mourns his dead son and failed marriage, and tries to cope with the fact that his ex-wife and daughter have become evangelical Christians. The circumstances of his survival prompt him to wrestle with questions of belief. Resolution and even redemption come for some of the heroes, but the prose is flat and the character development is thin enough that readers will have a hard time caring.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. (June 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1414318936
• ISBN-13: 978-1414318936
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (189 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #861,596 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

JUMP IN. HANG ON.

Tom is the highly imaginative Christy Award-winning author of "Vanish", "Valley of the Shadow" and "Beckon". His unique brand of suspense thrillers will grab you from the first page and won't let go until the last.

Tom's fascination with the weird, the creepy and the unknown began at a very early age when he was introduced to a bizarre 19th century German story book called "Der Struwwelpeter". The book was a collection of nightmarish morality tales by a German physician who obviously had too much time on his hands and no children of his own. The morbid nursery rhymes included the frightful "Daumenlutscher" (Thumbsucker), a disturbing yarn about a young boy who was warned that if he continued to suck his thumbs, the demented local tailor would chop them off with his sewing shears. You can guess the story's gruesome ending has scared many a child out of surreptitiously savoring their opposable digits over the years. Other tales warned against playing with matches and being overly messy. Needless to say Tom never played with matches, generally kept his room clean and to this day retains the use of both his thumbs.

But the psychological damage was already done, and Tom's warped imagination turned him to writing his own creepy stories at a rather young age. Alas, no publishers were brave enough to bring his stories to print, so Tom would not realize his life-long dream of becoming a published author until the ripe old age of 42. Today, Tom lives in Ohio and is happily married with five children of his own... who, oddly enough, never sucked their thumbs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed bag, September 11, 2009

By 

Jennifer Bogart "@ Quiverfullfamily.com" (Alberta, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vanish (Paperback)

When Tom Pawlik's sophomore novel Valley of the Shadow released this year, it piqued my interest enough to look into its predecessor, Vanish. When I read the synopsis online the story's premise dug its claws into me and wouldn't let go.

Selected as an Operation First Novel winner in 2006 by Jerry B. Jenkins' Christian Writers Guild, Vanish was published in 2008 by Tyndale. It then went on the win a highly respected Christy Award in the Visionary category. With the scent of speculative Christian fiction wafting from every description of the book, how could I resist?

Lawyer Conner Hayden is a man obsessed with his work. The emotional distance he cultivated between himself and his family following the backyard drowning of his young son Matthew have resulted in divorce from his wife and alienation from his daughter. One night he watches an immense black storm roll towards his house, containing strange flashes of light within it. When he wakes he finds himself alone in a deserted city.

It isn't long before he encounters strange, inhuman creatures - watching, following, and waiting. Conner soon encounters other travelers through this barren landscape - a boy who won't speak; a Harley riding mechanic; an aging, small-time actress; a couple of young thugs; and an elderly farmer. Each struggles with burdens from the past that appear in the form of incredibly vivid hallucinations as they are pursued by the mysterious, relentless, and increasingly malicious beings.

After first noting the excellent book design (eerie-contemporary within and without) the next thing that struck me was the limp prose. After barely making it to the storm scene, I was struggling through pages intended to develop character -- but didn't -- stilted dialogue, and a resulting lack of interest in the story. However, after Conner's discovery of an empty world and the introduction of the strange grey figures with spider-like fingers, the pace picked up significantly.

While Pawlik's opening chapters were weak, it's the suspenseful pacing that found me finishing the novel inside of 24 hours. He had my train of thought dashing down all of the expected rabbit trails given the scenario laid out. In truth, I was surprised by the unfolded revelation as the book reached its climax.

The Christian message found in Vanish is likewise largely hidden in the first portions of the novel. While initially only present in the conflict between Conner and his Christian wife and daughter, the unmistakable themes of forgiveness and redemption are clearly revealed by books end.

Pawlik's premise is undeniably unique, despite what could be misunderstood as plot devices held in common with other "Where did everyone go?" titles such as Offworld or Left Behind. If you can endure the first five chapters or so (they are admittedly brief) while you're waiting for the action to kick in, Vanish will provide an entertaining, fast-paced read filled with suspense, mystery, and even a few goose bump raising, heart-pounding moments.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Up late with this..., September 27, 2008

By 

In My Opinion... (NH) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Vanish (Kindle Edition)

Like an end-times novel, only a few are left behind. I wouldn't say it was scary and it started becoming redundant. Suspenseful in that you couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't. Definitely a page-turner.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Strange view into what is impossible to know., December 16, 2009

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vanish (Kindle Edition)

The simplified, single dimension characters seem to be drawn from the mind of someone who imagines people he has never known. If he had ever known these people there would be a more believable past for each one.
Their fates together make no sense. Does the author really think a person can be brought back to life by the selfish prayer to save them. By this logic our loved ones died because we didn't pray hard enough.
What do the monsters represent? How does the child get to go to heaven but not Devon? If Helen is mentally delusional, why is she here too? It's the sort of simplistic view of what the auther imagines a sinner to be.