Vanished

By: Joseph Finder

Narrated by: Holter Graham

Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

Nick Heller is tough, smart, and stubborn. And in his line of work, it's essential. Trained in the Special Forces, Nick is a high-powered intelligence investigator - exposing secrets that powerful people would rather keep hidden. He's a guy you don't want to mess with. He's also the man you call when you need a problem fixed.

Desperate, with nowhere else to run, Nick's nephew, Gabe makes that call one night. After being attacked in Georgetown, his mother lies in a coma, and his step-dad, Roger, Nick's brother, has vanished without a trace. Nick and Roger have been on the outs since the arrest, trial, and conviction of their father, the notorious "fugitive financier" Victor Heller. Where Nick strayed from the path, Roger followed their father's footsteps into the corporate world. Now, as Nick searches for his brother, he's on a collision course with one of the most powerful corporations in the world - and they will stop at nothing to protect their secrets, in Joseph Finder's thrilling Vanished.

©2009 Joseph Finder (P)2009 Macmillan Audio

Good, although convoluted plot, narration suffers

I love Joseph Finder's novels, but always wish he would have someone like Scott Brick narrating. I couldn't stop wincing the entire reading because, although smooth and skilled, this narrator always sounded too young. He reminded me of the very young cop in the Chris Grabenstein John Cepak books, Danny Boyle. I wanted this protagonist, Nick, to sound like the man of experience he was and just a bit more mature. His depiction of a 15 year old boy in the book was tedious, as the voice sounded whiny and cracked way too much. I heard the interview at the end between him and the author, where he said he could make the distinction between voices easily by cracking the teen's voice; but this sounded overly snivelly. I think he is not yet there as far as character differentiation, and it distracted from the good story. The plot was unnecessarily convoluted, and appeared to be going for a surprise ending, which it did; but then it was all wrapped up too quickly and without adequate groundwork or explanation. It was like he reached his word limit and just ended it. Good read, though.

Interesting but not entertaining

The introductory chapters are interesting and captured my attention, but after chapter 2 or 3 it seemed pretty slow - enough to keep my attention, but slow. I see other reviews said the voices for the wife and son were annoying, I didn’t find them too bad (although if the son were more of a main character, I might have) but the narrator’s voices in general weren’t great - many of the female voices were deeper than most of the male voices.

FUGAWDZAKE... STOP IT!

OK... Holter Graham, the actor who read 'Vanished', apparently really thought out his interpretation of this novel's characters. Maybe if he thought a lot less he might not have found these, perhaps accurate, teenage voices? There's a reason people don't like to listen to whiny snowflakes in the real world. And a larger reason they don't want to hear them in escape-fiction. Worse, the extreme interpretation seeped into other characters.

Maybe Joeseph Finder's a terrific author... this was my first exposure to the guy. Maybe... But I've been to plays where the stage lighting was so determinedly distracting that... Well there's an adage, "When a critic starts reviewing the scenery, the play's in trouble." Ditto the interpretive voice of an Audible Book reader.

I'd like to go deeper than that. Can't. Don't waste your credit on the put-offing cerebral and equally annoying dramatics of Holter Graham - unless or until... Audible hires a director to tell this perhaps gifted guy...

"Hey, you know what you're doing with that voice? Well... FUGAWDZAKE... STOP IT!"

Nice set-up builds to abrupt end

I have listened to all of Joseph Finder's books to date and find his books and characters an entertaining listen. At first, this one did not disappoint. Although the set up is different this time around, with the hero not a corporate insider, the environments will be familiar to fans of Finder. The narration by Holter Graham was engaging and not distracting in the least.

The only beef I have with this book is the ending. After 8+ hours of intrigue, the ending caught me off guard... and not in a good way.

Narrators are so important...

I have 971 titles in my library and have finished all but one book. I quit the book because of the narrator. This may be the second time that I do not finish a book and it is because of the narrator. I find myself wandering and having to go back and pick up the story again. His voice isn't actually that bad, the problem arrises when he tries to be the sister in law or the teenage son. He becomes nasal and whining. I will continue to listen to this and hope that I can remember the story line by the end.

Thoroughly Entertaining!

Joseph Finder is a master of his craft...and suspense is definitely his craft. The narrator, Holter Graham, is superb. I've listened to him in other works. He has an awesome voice for this style of writing. The characters came alive..and, well, went through a lot of changes throughout the story. The reader and the novelist=Great Listen!

Not a great narration

If you could sum up Vanished in three words, what would they be?

Interesting story. It has lots of charm and plot turns. I liked that part. I found teenage Gabe to be an irritating and grating character. That is probably the narrator's interpretation. I tried restating, in a non-nasal, non-whiny voice and they did not seem so irritating.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

The plot was sometimes hard to follow and required some lax standards for consistency, but it was quick moving and exciting.

Would you be willing to try another one of Holter Graham’s performances?

Probably not if they include doing a lot of dialogue. Maybe if she was reading non fiction

Vanished

Good story line... Kept you guessing all the way.

good not great

Read the Bourne Triology then Nelson Demille John Corey sp? books and Up Country and especially Word Of Honor ......and you too will feel this book is not in the same league.

Decent story but you never really care how it ends...only that it ends.

I devour books but this one was a let down

great book, despite some narrator weakness

This was my third Joseph Finder, after Paranoia, then Power Play, and I enjoyed it just as much as the other. I don't like too much explicit violence and one can avoid it if needed. I too found the teenage son's voice horrible, but otherwise enjoyed it. There was a few minutes of the author and the narrator talking about how to bring reading/acting a book to life, which was enjoyable. The author apparently liked the portrayal of the teenage son, but perhaps he was being polite! I'm not crazy about children or young people suffering as it upsets me too much, but perhaps that weird voice made him so unpleasant, I didn't care as much????