The
Vanishing
by Jayne Krentz is an action-packed story that relies heavily
on the paranormal. The psychic element adds to the suspense
along with murder, conspiracies, and a kidnapping.
The story opens fifteen years earlier, where two teenage girls,
Catalina Lark and Olivia Dayton, witness a murder in a cave.
Convinced the girls were hallucinating, their story was dismissed.
Readers find out how the government was running paranormal
experiments in the mountains close to a town in Fogg Lake,
Washington. After a gas explosion, residents of the town started
having visions. But after the government sent representatives
to find out what happened, the residents blamed their “hallucination”
on food subjects, as they were determined not to become research
subjects. Some Fogg Lake descendants, including protagonists
Catalina and Olivia, were later born with “another sight.”
“I based the story on serious governmental paranormal
research going on in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. There were a lot
of facilities built. It was a type of arms race with the Soviet
Union, who was also exploring paranormal research. In hindsight,
I think both countries went a little crazy with it. But for
me, it makes good plot material. I thought about what could
happen after it was shut down. My Bluestone Project is based
loosely on the Manhattan Nuclear Bomb project. There were
several scattered lands that were isolated from each other
for security reasons. These places were put in non-populated
areas. I wanted to show how the government ran secret labs.
I wrote “The Foundation” as an undercover government
agency that is devoted to studying the paranormal, policing
those who went rogue, protecting those with ‘talents,’
and handles crimes that often go unobserved because they don’t
look like crimes to the police, but they look like natural
disasters or deaths.”
Fast-forward to the present day where Cat and Olivia open
a private investigation firm in Seattle. To help solve crimes,
they rely heavily on paranormal gifts: Cat has visions of
the past, and Olivia can read auras. After Olivia suddenly
disappears, Cat fears it has something to do with the murder
they witnessed fifteen years earlier. She reluctantly agrees
to help another investigator, Slater Arganbright, find who
is behind a series of recent murders as long as he helps her
find Olivia. Needless to say, a romance forms between the
two.
The story has passion, love, danger, and at times the dialogue
is very humorous. Krentz creates an atmosphere of tension,
drama, and danger.
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