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Val McDermid

The Vanishing Point Kindle Edition

by Val McDermid (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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“Marked by [McDermid’s] trademark stunners, including a climax that packs a vicious punch. And readers are again left to marvel at her ingenuity.” —Jay Strafford, Richmond Times-Dispatch

From one of the finest crime writers we have, The Vanishing Point kicks off with a nightmare scenario—the abduction of a child in an international airport. Stephanie Harker is in the screening booth at airport security, separated from Jimmy Higgins, the five-year-old boy she’s in the process of adopting, when a man in a TSA uniform leads the boy away. The more Stephanie sounds the alarm, the more the security agents suspect her, and the further away the kidnapper gets.

It soon becomes apparent that nothing in this situation is clear-cut. For starters, Jimmy’s birth mother was a celebrity—living in a world where conspiracy and obfuscation are excused for the sake of column inches. And then there are the bad boys in both women’s pasts. As FBI agent Vivian McKuras and Scotland Yard Detective Nick Nicolaides investigate on both sides of the pond, Stephanie learns just how deep a parent’s fear can reach. And the horrifying reality is that she has good reason to be afraid—for reasons she never saw coming.

“[McDermid’s] work is taut, psychologically complex and so gripping that it puts your life on hold.” —The Times (London)

Print length

449 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Atlantic Monthly Press
Publication date

October 2, 2012
File size

2708 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“[McDermid’s] work is taut, psychologically complex and so gripping that it puts your life on hold.” —The Times (London)

“Masterfully handled, and McDermid’s ability to wrong-foot the reader remains second to none: highly recommended.” —The Guardian

“The Vanishing Point . . . is marked by [McDermid’s] trademark stunners, including a climax that packs a vicious punch. And readers are again left to marvel at her ingenuity.” —Jay Strafford, Richmond Times-Dispatch

“McDermid knows crime, but more importantly, she knows the dark side of men and women and the havoc they can wreak on each other’s lives. . . . The Vanishing Point is a stand-alone and does it ever. . . . Th[e] opening is shocking, edge-of-your-seat unnerving and violent on different levels. The reader is immediately drawn in by Harker’s overwhelming panic and fear. It’s taut, smart, vivid writing.” —Victoria Brownworth, Lambda Literary

About the Author

Val McDermid is the author of twenty-five previous best-selling novels, which have been translated into over forty languages and have sold over ten million copies worldwide.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B008DYIC50
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Atlantic Monthly Press (October 2, 2012)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 2, 2012
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2708 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 449 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #12,114 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #82 in International Mystery & Crime (Kindle Store)
- #121 in International Mystery & Crime (Books)
- #430 in Police Procedurals (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
1,431 ratings

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Val McDermid

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Val McDermid is a number one bestseller whose novels have been translated into more than forty languages, and have sold over eighteen million copies. She has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year Award. She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009, was the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2010 and received the Lambda Literary Foundation Pioneer Award in 2011. In 2016, Val received the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and in 2017 received the DIVA Literary Prize for Crime, and was elected a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Val has served as a judge for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Man Booker Prize, and was Chair of the Wellcome Book Prize in 2017. She is the recipient of six honorary doctorates and is an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda’s College, Oxford. She writes full-time and divides her time between Edinburgh and East Neuk of Fife.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5

1,431 global ratings

5 star		46%
4 star		24%
3 star		16%
2 star		6%
1 star		6%

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D. R. Meredith

A Suspenseful Page-Turner

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 11, 2012

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The Vanishing Point I have been a fan of Val McDermid since first reading A Place of Execution years ago, and she retains the same deft touch with language and insightful psychological characterization she possessed then. Where The Vanishing Point differs is the level of suspense and her greater use of flashbacks. From the moment ghostwriter Stephanie Harker steps off her international flight at O'Hare Airport with five-year-old Jimmy, whom she is in the process of adopting, until the unexpected resolution in the last paragraph, the reader is caught in an ever-tightening coil of suspense. McDermid draws the reader into the story, or at least, this reader, with a description of the tedium and irritation most of us are feeling as airport security becomes more physically intrusive. As Stephanie is directed to small cubicle for a more thorough search when surgical pins in her leg set off alarm bells, she witnesses little Jimmy being led away by a stranger. When she tries to tell the TSA inspectors what is happening, they suspect her of being a terrorist and trying evade airport security procedures. She is arrested and handcuffed. By the time FBI Agent Vivian McKuras interviews Stephanie, Jimmy is gone, kidnapped by a stranger who has carefully kept his face hidden from security cameras. As the search continues for Jimmy, McDermid uses flashbacks to expose Stephanie's life and explain why she is the guardian of the orphaned son of a British celebrity. As we share her growing desperation to find Jimmy, we are unable to escape the sense that the boy must be dead, that only grief and guilt await Stephanie. The suspense generated by the neovel is almost unbearable, and the resolution shocking. I highly recommend this novel and all others by McDermid. She never disappoints.

4 people found this helpful

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Julia Rohatyn

Vanished at the end

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 28, 2021

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I think that Val McDermid is a phenomenal writer and this book did not diminish this judgment. She gets you by the throat in the first chapter. But. I found the very end, on the last page, disappointing because, without creating a spoiler, I do not think that she brought the heroes of the story to a psychological point where the action is believable. And, McDermid is capable of doing it and does it in so many of her books. That is the only reason for not giving it five stars. 4.9 would be more accurate.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 19, 2019

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Wow! What a twisted ending! This is a great psychological drama. Stephanie is a ghost writer hired to do a book on Scarlette the Harlot, a reality TV star. Stephanie is at first not interested in doing the book but as she gets to know Scarlette, she finds that Scarlette is smarter than she wants most people to think she is. Gradually, Scarlette is able to mend her reputation starting from the time she becomes pregnant. Scarlette finds that she has breast cancer while filming a segment on breast cancer in younger women. When she finds that she is dying of cancer, she makes Stephanie promise to take care of her son, Jimmy. On their way to Disney Land, Jimmy is kidnapped at the TSA terminal in the airport.

The thing that I didn’t like most about the book is that the backstory tended to drag. The twisted end to the story was not expected and was very scary.

4 people found this helpful

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D. Kaspersen

"Must Read" Beginning - Perfect Description

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 15, 2012

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I have been telling every frequent flyer I know, even the non-readers, that they must read at least the first two chapters of this book. Val McDermid has captured the absolute reality of the TSA experience in a few brilliant gripping pages.

The rest of the book is very good and I would probably have rated it excellent except that her "A Place of Execution" has captured that ranking, probably for all time. The psychological insights of A Vanishing Point are incredible and provide the basis for more twists and turns than can be expected and - after taking a quick look at some of the other reviews posted here - perhaps even grasped by some readers. I found myself thinking about the characters and events for many days after reading this book.

3 people found this helpful

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Cissa

A page-turner! but- the pace obscures some difficulties

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 1, 2020

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Lots and lots of twists!

I turned the pages of this novel with bated breath!

NOT a woman-in-peril novel- the women in this one are all agents in their lives.

I gave it 3 stars rather than 5, since I am not convinced that some of the key plot points made all that much sense. I don't want to get int more detail because SPOILERS, but I just don't see how it'd work.

Somewhat recommended.

2 people found this helpful

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J. Woodbury

Perhaps "slip sliding away" rather than "vanishing"?

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 18, 2013

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I've had a harder time getting into this McDermid book than any of her others. That isn't to say that the writing isn't up to her usual superb quality but, rather, that this story takes its time getting to where it is going, and I'm used to instant gratification with McDermid's books, even when she has me reading well into the night. The character development, always associated with the best of the British writers, is dense and calorie-filled. McDermid can put us into her characters' heads at a keystroke -- but it would be nice to be able to care more about those characters once we're there!

One person found this helpful

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Susan

mad, shocking, unexpected twist on the last page

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 10, 2014

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As parents we can all relate to this nightmare of our child being snatched in front of our eyes. Being tazered by airport security while she is trying to save her son made me really angry but it was true to life in the way everyone is treated by some of these organizations who seem to think that the threat of terrorism gives them carte blanche to act like the gestapo. Anyway that rant aside. As she is kept in custody she starts to fill in the back story to an FBI agent. It is full of twists and turns. The 'bad guy' is most unexpected and the final chapter completely throws you. After the last page I was left thinking" But, but, but, you can't do that!!!"

2 people found this helpful

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LJ

Winner

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 1, 2021

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This was true McDermid and kept me on the edge throughout. Nobody is who they seem, everyone as a secret or more, and real life felt like the sham.

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Vivq

Zero stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 13, 2020

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I can't believe that Val McDermid wrote this book. I've read many of her books and enjoyed them but this one is terrible. The plagarisation of Jade Goody's life was bad enough but the gripping psychological thriller never emerged. I had sussed what was going on quite early on but kept going believing that I must be mistaken. The red herrings were the size of whales and the construct of the main character telling her book sized story to an FBI agent while they searched for the missing child was ridiculous. Will not be reading any Val McDermid anytime soon

9 people found this helpful

Disappointed

Not one of her best.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 27, 2021

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I have always been a fan and looked forward to this book. Unfortunately, it has been a bit of a letdown. The main parts of the story are a carbon copy of actual reality shows and their stars which are so obvious as to be a bit silly. Why repeat the real life of Jade Goody when you have the opportunity to write something else? Merely changing where the cancer strikes does not make it original or interesting. The main character tells her story by way of using an extended interview with the FBI which becomes so laboured as to be unbelievable. So by the time I arrived at the ending, which was not unexpected, I had lost any sense of being involved with the story. I hate to finish a book with the sense that the ending was just unbelievable and trite. Definitely not one of her best!

4 people found this helpful

Nick Dougan

I prefer Tony Hill and Carol Jordan – but don't be put off - this is a novel that’s worth the read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 5, 2017

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Accepting a friend’s accusation that I am a completist, I am steadily working my way through Val McDermid’s books. I have done Tony Hill/Carol Jordan(and awaiting the imminent delivery of the next one), done Karen Pirie, done Lindsay Gordon. Some are better than others – but I have enjoyed them all. I saw Ms McDermid on University Challenge – where she was an excellent team captain – and the heard her Desert Island Disc choices, and decided I ought to read some of her work. Still enjoying the decision!

I was conscious that this stand-alone (non-series) novel had a lower rating than most of her books when I bought it. I was initially discouraged by the improbably long interview (with an FBI agent at Chicago O’Hare airport) in which the immensely involved back story is laid out. The interview would not plausibly have spilled out that way in the time that was attributed to it in the text, let alone the amount of time it would actually have taken to say the words. (Having listened to most of it on Audible/Whispersync, I know whereof I speak.) Once we break out of that phase, however, the narrative picks up pace and became much more enjoyable.

I found the denouement credible (within the accepted boundaries of what is, after all, crime fiction). I was getting there with understanding where the story was going, but was mostly one or more steps behind the author. The ending is a bit abrupt, but not one of those deus ex machina endings that so firmly signal that the author had reached his or her word target, and then some, and figured that he (or she) didn’t have to write more.

This book is worth it. I am surprised at the number of one-star reviews it has received. I am surprised that so many people think that no middle-class ghost writers might be able to forge a friendship with ex-reality TV stars. I had long since stopped watching Big Brother when Jade Goody appeared on it, but, like the character in this book who is (incontrovertibly) based in part on her, she was not, actually, a one-dimensional person and I recoil from the suggestion that that is a reasonable way to categorise our fellow human beings.

I prefer Tony Hill and Carol Jordan – but this is a novel that’s worth the read.

As mentioned, I ordered the whispersync audio track. I thought that actress who read it was reasonably good. For the main character, her accent – middling middle class English – was perfect – but she couldn’t really sustain the working-class Leeds accent of Scarlett, nor that of the languid upper-middle class ex Guards officer George. Not a major issue, but a slight distraction as I heard her voice return to her middle-middle norm. Rose Leslie would have been better!

9 people found this helpful

Bob Hurley

Scarlett Woman

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 11, 2022

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This book is about a working class woman who manages to find her way out of the working class background she grew up in and out to the life of a superstar. Deep down she is the same woman and the rest is all a skilful act. The acting is the main thread of the book right up until the last page where her act is finally rumbled. Quite a difficult read but typical Val McDermid thriller that drags you from one emotion to another, gives you shivers down your spine. I only gave it 3 stars as I did not think it was as good as other stories she has written. Having rated them 4 or mainly 5 I felt this one was a 3. As ever great writing.

DR Naturegirl

I wasn’t expecting that ending!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 26, 2021

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A different sort of book than the ones I’ve previously read from this author. It took me a while to get into to be honest - reality stars, paparazzi, ghost writers - the subject didn’t really interest me.

The ‘vanishing point’ is quite a long way into the story and most of the build up is told as reportage. It is cleverly done, when you see what’s going on. The characters - love or loathe them - are fairly complex and the story did hook me eventually. Not my favourite book, but interesting enough.

*No spoilers *

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