Vanished [Mass Market Paperback]

T.J. MacGregor (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Through succinct prose and sharp dialogue, MacGregor (The Seventh Sense) spins a haunting tale of classified technologies that warp the delicate fabric of space-time. Drawn outside by a mysterious convergence of birds on his upstate New York property, veterinarian Max Thorn watches as Ellen, his live-in girlfriend of seven years, literally vanishes before his eyes. Max suspects that Ellen's disappearance is connected to the bird gathering, but he has nothing but a handful of mutilated birds and a patch of dead grass to prove his claim. On the lam with a half-million-dollar price tag on his head and his cop neighbor pursuing him relentlessly, Max settles in Piper Key, Fla., where Internet tales of bizarre animal behavior have led him in search of answers. Although MacGregor's "scientific" explanations are rather dense at times, her accounts of island-sized pods of dolphins, instantaneous concentrations of insects and unexplainable energy points are chilling nevertheless. Readers will also appreciate the quirky characters--a dolphin center owner, a teenager who possesses the uncanny ability to communicate with animals, an anonymous wildlife columnist and a rich computer whiz kid--who unite to explain these provocative incidents.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Pinnacle Books (February 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786011629
• ISBN-13: 978-0786011629
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,735,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Toss this book into the Fourth Dimension, May 7, 2001

By 

Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Vanished (Mass Market Paperback)

VANISHED begins in upstate New York as Max Thorn watches Ellen, his Significant Other, literally fade away to invisibility. Fearing that her disappearance will be interpreted as foul play, with himself the murderer, Max goes on the lam to escape the Law and find out what really happened to his gal pal. I mean, what was with that huge flock of birds (right out of a Hitchcock film) that appeared shortly before Ellen's dramatic exit? From this point, the storyline takes Thorn to Florida, and the reader into a hopeless mish-mash involving a rogue Navy unit, attacking owls, huge schools of magically appearing dolphins, ley lines of energy crisscrossing the Earth, a Chasm of Nothingness, reference to the USS Eldridge and the "Philadelphia Experiment", parallel existences, a mysterious Blue Light, displaced animal species, somehow-significant flute music, and ... oh, never mind.

It's been several months since I've read a book with a plot so nebulous and disconnected as this one. It doesn't help that the ending is utterly incoherent, while doing nothing to answer any of the questions that arise from events occurring up to that point. One is just left with a confused "Huh?"

As I began the last fifty or so pages of VANISHED, I thought that I might at least be able to recommend the book as something mindless to read on a long airplane flight instead of the Safety Instructions in the seat-back jammed up against your knees. Trust me, the Safety Instructions card is the better choice. VANISHED goes into the circular file.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fast Paced Thriller That Will Scare You Out of Your Wits!, February 12, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Vanished (Mass Market Paperback)

Author MacGregor's new suspense novel is fresh, unusual, and very scary. A woman vanishes without a trace before the eyes of her live in lover, and soon he is accused of having murdered her. The frightened man, Max Thorn, manages to give the police the slip and along with his dog, Bacall, he sets out on a journey to find some answers--but what he comes up with are more questions. This book is guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat from first page to last. Highly recommended.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exciting thriller with a touch of the X -Files, January 24, 2001

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vanished (Mass Market Paperback)

In Upstate New York, veterinarian Max Thorn and Ellen Bradshaw still deeply love each other after living together for seven years without the benefit of marriage. As hundreds of birds for no apparent reason land on their property, Ellen begins her daily jog. Max stunningly watches her vanish into thin air.

Knowing her influential father and the law think he killed Ellen and needing to find his beloved, Max decides to search for her. The Internet describes similar historical events involving birds and vanishing. The weird news includes a story of hundreds of dolphins escorting two teenage girls near Piper Bay, Florida. With nothing else to go by, Max vanishes in a more mundane way than Ellen did, heading to the Florida island in hope of finding clues. On the island are two dolphin research facilities. The Navy runs a weapons research program that abuses its specimens. A civilian runs the other whose daughter has a strange Doolittle affinity with animals. How all this ties together with the mysterious vanishing of Ellen requires reading part two of VANISHED.

This is an exciting science fiction thriller that is frightening in its simplicity. Using "heretic" theory on the collective mindset of species and what is inherently learned by each new generation, T.J. MacGregor paints a dark picture of animal weapons research. Though an unnecessary gimmick propels the tale forward, readers will feel the rising tension and need to know what happened to Ellen and how her disappearance ties to Alpha, an abused dolphin. Readers will bestow kudos to T. J. MacGregor.

Harriet Klausner