Vanished by Tim Weaver (#3 in the David Raker series) // Review

"For millions of Londoners, the morning of the 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 witnesses. 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 the David Raker series, was given to me as a Christmas present from my mum, who (bless her) doesn't really know much about my taste in books. So, after unwrapping the book from the paper and having a skim through the blurb, it was placed on my bookshelf - an anomaly against my otherwise Young Adult collection - for some time. One day, when I finally decided to read it, I actually found myself enjoying it. Now I'm a little bit more grateful that my mum doesn't really know which books I'll enjoy best, because I end up with ones I wouldn't normally read. David Raker is an ex-journalist turned private detective; a man who has lost his wife to cancer, dedicated to finding the missing. But it all comes at a cost. Sam is a man that many believed to be '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, everything becomes more and more unclear until soon enough.. Raker may be hunting a murderer.

From the start, the storyline sucks you in. Where is Sam? How did he get off the train? Why did he leave his wife? Unfortunately for us, Weaver, a master of pacing and misdirection, denies us the answers for hundreds of pages. Every unexpected event is closely related with another; so much so that I probably can't reveal any more about the plot than I already have, without bringing the entire thing down. The search leads Raker (and you) everywhere, to places and characters you'd never expect. I think that would prove true for long-term Tim Weaver fans who have read the previous David Raker books, too. Vanished was my first Tim Weaver read, but I didn't feel that it hindered me in any way. It can be read as a stand-alone. I would very much recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading from crime/mystery/thriller genres, or if you just fancy something different and jam-packed with tension. You don't have to be Chief of Police to understand what's going on, either. It's easy enough to get your head around even if you're new to the genre - but at the same time, you don't feel like you're losing brain cells as you're reading it. But be warned... the action continues until the very last page...

Rating: 4 stars
A great read! The only thing it lacks is star quality and hype.

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