The Girl Who Disappeared Twice

Forensic Instincts, Book 1

By: Andrea Kane

Narrated by: Jim Colby

Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Andrea Kane brings fans a brand-new series with her romantic thriller The Girl Who Disappeared Twice.

Forensic Instincts—a team of independent maverick investigators comprised of a techie-genius, a former Navy SEAL/FBI agent, a psychic, and a retired FBI dog—must rescue a kidnapped five-year-old girl. But with so many people who could have benefited from the girl’s abduction, tracking down the culprit will push the team to the limit.

©2011 Rainbow Connection Enterprises (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC

Edit the swallowing!!

From the moment I started listening to this book I was ready to email & ask for a refund. I refuse to believe that editing could not remove all the swallowing the author was doing. Not to mention where he decided to break. I had to adjust the speed to get through this tale.

The story itself was good. Had the right amount of "WTW" to keep you interested. I did wish the author went back to the parents and Nanny's triangle. Author made it seem as if Chrissy knew what hanky spanky was going on.

There were a lot of characters to keep up with and I didn't get everyone straight on the FI team until the epilogue. I put that more on the narrator than the author.

I would not recommend listening to this book to anyone who does not enjoy stabbing their ears w/very sharp pencils. I do believe this book would be a great read.

Life is way to short to suffer through bad narrations. Skip listening & read the book!

Ms.Tiff2U!

Twists and Turns

When six year old Felicity is kidnapped from her home, leaving her twin Hope to grow up without her, the reader is immediately into the story within the first few chapters. The plot immediately moves to Hope all grown up with a five year old child of her own who is also kidnapped. What happens next is a law enforcement task force team and an interesting consulting firm, Forensic Instincts who Hope and her husband hire to skirt legal boundaries in hopes of finding Chrissy fast. The plot is fast paced and the reader gets just enough information to solve the case along with the dual teams. There are some unexpected twists and turns that can throw off the reader in solving the mystery, but the entire plot keeps you engaged. The couple of love scenes were poorly written, and completely unnecessary but none of that is enough to ruin the book. The narrator, Jim Colby, is not good. His style is "sing song". It sounded to me like he would come to the end of the line in the book, stop, and then resume at the beginning of the next line. At first it drove me nuts, but then I got used to it and that was simply because the plot was so good. Ms. Kane does a credible job with character development, although some of the dialogue is stilted. What I do hope is that the Forensic Instincts team returns in another book and for my money, a wish for returning characters says it all. Give us more!

slightly clique and cheesy

Would you try another book from Andrea Kane and/or Jim Colby?

Not sure. A little disappointed at the romantic insertions between the lead characters. It's weak and not really necessary to the story line (and if you're into that sort of a book, this angle is really not that interesting).

How could the performance have been better?

The reader reads this entire book like Alan Alda with a slight New Jersey accent, no matter which character he's reading.

Could you see The Girl Who Disappeared Twice being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Yes. Which is why I usually prefer books to television.

Any additional comments?

The mystery itself is interesting. I think the author should focus more on that part of the story, instead of the side character relationships.

Rather predictable, but with a unique plot

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Fewer characters to keep track of, and perhaps one less red herring. The focus needs to be on the private investigative agency and its personnel, especially in this first book of the series. Hone in on them and pay very little attention to the FBI and what it's up to. I came away having no clear picture of anyone in this book, except the dog. It's an interesting idea, just not very well executed, IMO.

Any additional comments?

It's an interesting premise, if a bit far fetched. The idea is that an 'outside the law' investigative agency works independently of traditional law enforcement agencies, conducting their own investigations into major crimes. Using methods that are questionable at best, they gather information that they then pass along to the powers that be, helping to break cases. In this book the FBI was pretty much aware that the info had been gathered illegally, and in real life I doubt it would hold up in court. Fruit from the poisoned tree and all that. But in fiction you have to suspend your disbelief sometimes in the interest of a good story. One issue I had was that I had figured out the bad guy almost from the first page. No on else came along to convince me otherwise, so I was pretty bored. There was also a money drop scene that was never followed up on. The money was left in a highly public area with plenty of video surveillance, so they could have just gone over the videos to try to identify the culprit. This wasn't done, and that's a pretty big hole in the story. The main female lead has an FBI boyfriend, and they have a strong sexual and emotional connection. After a couple of fade-to-black bedroom scenes, they suddenly have a graphic, extremely detailed sexual encounter worthy of a romance novel. I'm not shocked by sexually explicit material, but it was out of place here and felt forced. If the author was determined to include it, she should have done so in the first love scene, not this far in. All in all, this story needed to be tightened up, eliminate a character or two, get rid of one or two cliches, and focus much more tightly on the private investigative agency. I'll probably read the next one, but if it's no better, I'm done with this series.

Ho-Hum. And Predictable.

What did you like best about The Girl Who Disappeared Twice? What did you like least?

I could listen while I slept and not really miss much!

Has The Girl Who Disappeared Twice turned you off from other books in this genre?

Not the genre, but this was the first from this author, and, well, the last.

What three words best describe Jim Colby’s performance?

It was just ok.

Could you see The Girl Who Disappeared Twice being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Probably - house-wifey drama some people might really eat up.

Any additional comments?

I didn't hate this book. I really didn't. But it was a poor and inconsistent portrayal of children 5 and 6 years old. I mean - six year olds being soccer stars? And what 5 year old has the keys to the house and a cell-phone (Maybe I'm behind the times). And it WAS very predictable. And not all that interesting.

I'll pursue the series

This was a fun surprise first in a series. Enjoyed the story, good narration and characters. The story group is a step to the left of normal with open minded approaches to unyielding methods which other law enforcement agencies have employed for ages. Unique is always most intriguing.

Great mystery!

This is the 1st one I have listened to in this series. I will be adding more.
This involved child abduction, and several agencies working together, local FBI, and a new company that is the star of the book. With highly trained individuals and not tied down by red tape, they get things done.
Well written never a dull moment and true to life for a fictitious story, that could happen or probably has somewhere.

kept me listening

good book. wish the narrator would have made switching to different characters more distinguishable. got kind of confusing at times.

The Girl who Disappeared

Pretty good book. I liked the characters and look forward to the next one. The narrator was ok, however there were times the characters were blended together... hard to differentiate who was talking. I will probably get the next book.

Poor narration.

Hard to listen to the narrator swallow and smack all the time. I swear i heard his stomach growl a couple of times, too. It was very distracting.