Customer Reviews

Vanished

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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

I am a very smart person. I am in the 7th grade and read on the high school level. My mother is a fan to all mysteries and
T.J MacGregor. She read the book one day and she was telling me about how i would love it. So she covered the sex parts and gave me the book. After a couple of days I finally finished the book. I loved how she put in the loving feeling for animals. I also loved how she put a mystery of science in the book. There is really no word great enough for this book. Its just remarkable!

This was a book that hooked me from page one. It was definitely a page-turner. I was confused by some of the details, though, and disappointed by the ending. It's a literary episode of "The X-Files," which leaves the reader with more questions than they started with. Still a fairly good suspense read despite the flaws.

T J MacGregor is a good writer-- it's too bad she didn't have a plot to match her writing. The plot, such as it is, has to do with Fortean phenomena (people vanishing into thin air, strange animal behavior, yadayadayada) which is somehow related to Man messing with the Environment. It all ends in a fuzzy feel-good New Age pep rally involving dolphins and flutes. If you want to read a (somewhat) better novel on this theme, check out Wilson Tucker's Ice and Iron. Or better yet, read Charles Fort's Book of the Damned, Lo!, Wild Talents, and New Lands.

If you like dolphins,dogs, kids, romance, strong heroines,nice men and a book that you can't put down read this book! As a MacGregor fan I have watched her move from South Florida mysteries to this new genre of psychic fiction. She never disappoints and not only that she can still make me anxiously page forward to make sure the characters have survived the bad guys. If your life is boring at present...pick up Vanished...it will make you sit up and take notice.

Sadly, this novel cooks for its first two thirds, but dies in the end, because MacGregor does not really explain what the heck has really occurred. Too bad...the plot is interesting and imaginative, if a little too Koontzish, but there are some good characters, some chilling moments, and a sense of impalpable dread. Unfortunately, by the time the novel resolves (or does it) itself, the reader is left to wondering what went on. Which time did these people really exist in? Maybe someone out there can figure it out for us???

I've been a fan of T.J. MacGregor for years and Vanished is her most imaginative book ever. It's a thriller with elements of sci-fi, a story with which nearly anyone can identify. Highly recommended!

There is so much action, you just can't put it down. This is the third book I've read by T.J. MacGregor and she hasn't disappointed me yet. Her characters are unique, her plot frightening - a combination that created an excellent book.