The Vanishing Point

by Val McDermid

It's every parent's worst nightmare...tephanie Harker is travelling through the security gates at O'Hare airport, on her way to an idyllic holiday. Five-year-old Jimmy goes through the metal detector ahead of her. But then, in panic and disbelief, Stephanie watches as a uniformed agent leads her boy away - and she's stuck the other side of Security, hysterical with worry. The authorities, unaware of Jimmy's existence, just see a woman behaving erratically; Stephanie is brutally wrestled to the ground and blasted with a taser gun to restrain her. And by the time she can tell them what has happened, Jimmy is long gone. But as Stephanie tells her story to the FBI, it becomes clear that everything is not as it seems with this seeminglynormal family. What is Jimmy's background? Why would someone want to abduct him? And, with time running out, how can Stephanie get him back? A breathtakingly rich and gripping psychological thriller, The Vanishing Point is Val McDermid's most accomplished standalone novel to date, a work of haunting brilliance.

• ISBN10: 140870322X
• ISBN13: 9781408703229
• Publish Date: 13 September 2012
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 29 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: Little, Brown
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[ibeforem]

There is a reason why Val McDermid is so widely respected for her books. The twists and turns of this one prove it.

Stephanie is a ghost writer who ends up with the job of writing the life story of reality star Scarlett Higgins. Unexpectedly, she forms a true friendship with Scarlett, and in the wake of Scarlett’s tragic death, finds herself the guardian of Scarlett’s only child, Jimmy. Until the day he is kidnapped. She hopes the answer to his disappearance can be found in their past.

When the story began, I was a bit skeptical. First, the beginning of the book is full of the worst stereotypes of both Americans and the TSA (not that I plan to defend the TSA much). Second, the thought of Stephanie telling her entire recent life story in the wake of Jimmy’s kidnapping is a bit far-fetched. But, as the book continued, I could suspend my disbelief in favor of it being an interesting bit of story construction. Because Stephanie’s, and Scarlett’s, story captured me completely.

Not that the book didn’t have some problems. For one, the thought of Stephanie going back to England three days after the kidnapping baffled me. I’m fairly certain that if my child (biological or not) were kidnapped while I was traveling in another country, you would have to forceably remove me to get me to leave. Also, Stephanie’s anonymity was suspect, especially for someone who was such a large part of Scarlett’s life. I did manage to guess part of the ending after the first red herring is dealt with, but the full extent of it was a complete surprise. I admired how far McDermid was willing to go.

So overall, I thought this was a very good read, if you can forgive the few parts that don’t quite hold together as well as they should.