Vanished (Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense #51) [Mass Market Paperback]

Margaret Daley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 8, 2007

As a detective in Chicago, J. T. Logan had put away a lot of criminals--and had made a lot of enemies. However, the last thing the widowed father and current small-town sheriff expected was crime in his own backyard. Until his young daughter was kidnapped.

FBI agent Madison Spencer found herself working with J.T. again, on a case painfully different from their previous one. She could only watch as he struggled to remain coldly professional while his heart was in anguish. And what of her own heart? Romance should be the furthest thing from their minds. All she could do was hope--and pray--for them all.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Steeple Hill (May 8, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0373442416
• ISBN-13: 978-0373442416
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 4.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,449,370 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Margaret has been writing for over 20 years. She started writing in the late 1970s because she wanted to see if she could put a whole story down on paper. That book is still in the drawer and will never see the light of day. But she was able to finish a book, which was her goal.
She decided after that to get some help, and joined a writers' roundtable where she met once a week with some fellow writers who went over each other's work. She sold her first book in the early 1980s and has been selling ever since.
She loves to tell a story. When she was a little girl she made up stories while playing with her dolls. On long trips with her family she would weave a story about the surrounding countryside. From those early beginnings grew a love of entertaining people with a story.
When she went away to college, she met her husband, Mike, to whom she has been married for over 30 years. He is her support and her best friend. She has always felt she was the luckiest woman the day she bumped into him on campus.
When they married, they moved to Tulsa, where she finished her degree in special education and began teaching. She still teaches today and loves working with students with special needs. They help her remember what is important in life. She also participates in the Special Olympics as a coach with her students and has attended the State Games in May for years.
Besides teaching and writing, she is also a mother of one. Her son, Shaun, loves animals and there have been times they could have their own zoo at the house. The most interesting pet Shaun has is a leopard tortoise, which could outlive him. She has joked that his children will be inheriting a tortoise. Shaun is getting married to his high school sweetheart. Margaret hopes that they are as happy as she and her husband are.
When she isn't working, she loves to read, travel, and go to lunch and a movie with a friend. She has been to many countries in the world and loves to meet new people. Her favorite place is Tahiti -- Bora Bora. It is as beautiful as all the pictures portray it.
In her travels she has found herself in some interesting situations. Once, in London, she got caught in the middle of a protest that later turned into a riot over poll taxes. In the rain forest of Costa Rica, she was covered from head to toe in mud and ruined a perfectly good outfit. She should have remembered it was going to be wet since it was called a rain forest. In Rio, she and a friend were left with no means to get back to the hotel on the other side of the city. Neither Margaret nor her companion spoke Portuguese and there wasn't a cab in sight. Thankfully one finally pulled up to the curb at the museum because she couldn't see herself hiking across Rio to get back to the hotel.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read The First Page And That Was It For Me!, July 8, 2007

By 

Nike Chillemi (NYC metro coastal area) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vanished (Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense #51) (Mass Market Paperback)

I wanted to take Margaret Daley's romantic suspense novel on the family vacation, but made one little mistake. I read the first page and that was it! I finished the book before we even left.

J.T. Logan is a widower, a single dad and the county sheriff in his hometown, paying his teenage daughter Kim to watch her younger sister Ashley. A typical teenager, Kim wants to talk on the phone with her friends and tells Ashley to go out and play. However, someone is watching the yard. Someone who means J.T. great harm and that someone kidnaps eight year old Ashley.

J.T. now has to try to be both a dad to his two teenage children still at home, Kim who is filled with guilt and remorse and Neil, the high school academic and sports star, while maintaining cold professionalism as he searches for Ashley. This novel gripped me to the extent I found myself praying along with the entire town for the safe return of Ashley.

J.T., a former Chicago detective wants to look at criminals he put away while he was boozing it up in the Windy City. Madison Spenser, an FBI agent who worked with J.T. before has a hunch the perpetrator is much closer to home. Several red herrings pop up, as the reader tries to figure out who the kidnapper is. And then a man is murdered, his charred remains found in a burning speed boat and the stakes get higher. The kidnapper is capable of murder.

As the case progresses both J.T. and Madison reluctantly look at the feelings they have for each other. As J.T.'s nerves become frayed and he feels the total helplessness any parent would feel having a child kidnapped, Madison finds him sitting in his Jeep with an open bottle of booze. He didn't take a drink, but confides in her that he used have a serious drinking problem. He's a recovering alcoholic. Madison has her own issues, as she has emotional scars from a broken engagement, where she was left standing at the altar.

Will little Ashley be found alive? Will J.T. and Madison overcome their issues and take a chance on true love?

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vanished, May 16, 2007

By 

tetewa "Teresa" (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vanished (Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense #51) (Mass Market Paperback)

J.T. Logan gets his own story in this new inspirational romance. He once was a detective in Chicago, now he is the sherriff of his hometown. He has put many criminals behind bars and someone comes after him with revenge in mind. Someone kidnaps his youngest daughter. FBI agent Madison Spencer finds herself once again working with J.T. to try to find his daughter. The now widowed sheriff has to try to keep himself together for the sake of his other kids while fighting the demons of alcohol abuse. He is tormented by the death of his wife thinking he is the blame for her demise. Madison is there for him and his family to try to get his daughter back. Meanwhile she is coming off of an engagement that went bad while trying to control her feelings for J.T. This is a very riveting read that will keep you guessing on the outcome until the very end. J.T.'s character was first introduced in Margaret's other inspirational romance So Dark the Night. Will Madison and J.T. find the culprit in this crime and will true love finally bring them together.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A parent's worst nightmare: Your child is missing, April 11, 2008

By 

Bill Garrison (Oklahoma City, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Vanished (Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense #51) (Mass Market Paperback)

I've never read a Love-Inspired suspense book. I picked this up after hearing Margaret Daley speak at a local writers group meeting. So, this isn't my genre, but the the book sounded interesting. The beginning rips your heart right out. Ashley is at home with her older sister, Kim, and playing in the back yard. J.T., the chief of police in their small town comes home and asks Kim where Ashley is. Kim says she's outside. She's not. Panic sets in and soon J.T. realizes his eight year old daughter is gone. He's the sheriff, he's supposed to keep everyone safe, yet he can't even protect his own daughter.

Soon, the FBI is on the case and the entire town is helping J.T. find his daughter. An FBI agent named Madison begins working with J.T. They've worked together before. Beneath the stress of the case, a romance begins to bloom between the two. The book spends a lot of time on Kim's guilt for being the only one home when her sister was taken and on older brother Neil's feelings of helplessness as he constantly wants to help.

I enjoyed the characters, the suspense and the romance in this novel. Since it is part of a large line of books, I could also tell where the novel had to follow certain guidelines. The romance between the main characters, while seeming real, also felt like there were never any other alternatives to the ultimate resolution. I know there is a book before this one that has the same characters, and perhaps I should have read it first. At times, I felt lost while reading this book amidst all the characters that received little description and were constantly referred to on a first name basis.

Women, if you read these Love-Inspired books, then get your husbands to read them. Vanished, by Margaret Daley is a good read.