"For millions of Londoners, the morning of 16th December is just like any other. But not for Sam Wren. An hour after leaving home, he gets on to a Tube train - and never gets off again. No eyewitnesses. No trace of him on security cameras. Six months later, he's still missing. Sam's wife hires David Raker to track him down, but in this case the secrets go deeper than anyone imagined. For, as Raker starts to suspect that even the police are lying to him, someone is watching."
Vanished, the third book in Tim Weaver's David Raker series, was given to me one Christmas by my mum, who (bless her) doesn't really know much about my reading taste other than, well, I like books. So, after unwrapping the book from the paper and having a glance at the blurb, it laid on my shelf - an anomaly - for some time. One day, I decided to force myself to read it, and, to my surprise, found myself enjoying it. Now I'm a little bit more grateful that my mum doesn't really know what to buy me, because it means I end up with books that I'd never have read otherwise. David Raker is an ex-journalist turned private detective; a man who has lost his own wife to cancer, dedicated to finding the missing. But it all comes at a cost. Sam is a man many believed to have been squeaky clean, but could he have been wrapped up in something much darker than anyone expected? As Raker hunts him down and gets deeper and deeper into the case, the lines become distorted until soon enough, Raker may be hunting a murderer.
Something I love about this book is that it keeps you constantly guessing - you desperately want to know how Sam managed to get off the train unseen, why he left, and where he is now. Unfortunately for us, Weaver is a master of pacing and misdirection; which means that most of the second half of the novel isn't much about Sam at all, but about those that Raker suspects drove him away. Honestly, I can't say much about the plot without revealing something important that you shouldn't know; which just shows you how closely interwoven the story is. It leads you everywhere, to people and places you'd never expect. I really, really, enjoyed it, even though I'd never in my wildest dreams have picked up a detective/mystery/crime novel before this week. I hadn't even read the previous books in the series, although that didn't turn out to be much of a problem.
I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is hesitant about getting into crime novels because, although you can play detective, you don't have to be chief of police to understand what's going on in the novel - though it's professional, it's not at all difficult for the Average Joe to interpret. Vanished is an awesome starting point for anyone who's unsure. But, be warned, the action goes on until the very last page...
Rating: ★★★★ 1/2
Great read, the only thing it really lacks is star quality and hype.
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