Vanished

Callahan & McLane, Book 1

By: Kendra Elliot

Narrated by: Nick Podehl, Amy McFadden

Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

From Wall Street Journal bestselling author Kendra Elliot.

When an eleven-year-old is abducted on her way to school, the FBI doesn’t waste a moment, sending agents to scour the area and embedding Special Agent Ava McLane with the distraught family. In the eye of the storm is local detective Mason Callahan, whose life is crumbling to pieces - he’s related to the victim, and his longtime confidential informant has just been murdered.

Both he and Agent McLane hole up in the victim’s family home. Every second counts in a kidnapping case, and the stakes keep rising the longer the girl is missing. As Ava and Mason struggle to hold the family together in their darkest hour, the two investigators find themselves drawn to each other.

2015 Overall Daphne du Maurier Award Winner

©2014 Kendra Elliot (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Vanished

What did you like best about this story?

Enjoyed the step by step police and FBI work and partnership. Usually there is so much shown about infighting and who is in charge that it detracts from the mystery. Here it was briefly mentioned and they worked to find the little girl.

Which character – as performed by Nick Podehl and Amy McFadden – was your favorite?

Liked them all can't decide between Ava and Mason. I liked Jake a lot.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes and I did as in one day.t

Any additional comments?

This story and romance skipped some of the old standbys conflicts such them not getting together because of working together, son jealous of sister. It was touching how Jake loved his sis and he kept worrying about her gift lost with his luggage. The romance was good and not just a bunch of steam not appropriate for the situation. A recommended read.

GREAT STORY EXCEPT....

I really enjoyed the storyline of this book, and Amy McFadden is one of my favorite audiobook performers. The progression of this who-dunit unfolded at a good pace, with new clues popping up steadily, keeping my interest from start to finish. The kidnapping of Hanley was just the beginning of all the cruel stunts that were played on her family. Many scenes take place in the family home, giving insight into the various ways humans deal with stress.
If you don't enjoy hearing (or reading) graphic details of other people's sexual encounters then be prepared to skip more than half of chapter 18 and some references in 19. I guess some writers feel they need to incude this sort of thing to sell books.
Aside from that and my reason for removing one star, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to VANISHED.

Performance Issues

Loved the story! I'm a huge audio book fan, but the female performer wore me out. She wasn't able to evoke the emotions of any situation. Every sentence that came out of her mouth sounded snarky and sarcastic. The performance didn't turn me off completely, I discovered this is a series and I'm thrilled to start the next book. I'll just have to deal with that female voice.

Why, oh why?

Why are they changing narrators every other chapter? When listening to a book, the listener likes to get to know the characters and if their voices change every chapter, you find yourself thinking, now which character was that? It's totally annoying. I have six more hours of book to listen to and I hope I can get through it to find out the ending.

Great start to the series!

Police procedurals are one of my cozy, comfort favorite reads. So glad I stumbled across this series. Ava's sister is a nutter, an idiot, and a leech. Wow, just wow. Bring on the next book!
Part of the Kindle Unlimited catalog.

Annoying narration.

I am not done with this book but am finding myself so annoyed I just have to vent. I think I like the story but the narration is so distracting I can't be sure. Why, why, why is a woman narrating every other chapter? This isn't "Gone Girl", it doesn't lend itself to two narrators. The male narrator is fine but just as I'm settling into the story this perky, high pitched voice butts in. I hope I get used to the woman's voice because I have bought two books in this series. Sometimes it seems audio books are simply trying too hard.

This book did not encourage me to read more from this author.

I generally shy away from reading books written by women because so many give me too much information about sexual encounters from the female perspective, which is more than uncomfortable to listen to. Unfortunately many male authors seems to be trying to spice their novels up in similar ways, usually in slightly less disturbing ways. Also novels written by women often seem to contain too much emotion, sometimes, as in this book thanks to the narrator, bordering on hysteria. A female voice speaking hysterically makes me want to cringe. I will never again knowingly listen to an audiobook read by this narrator for that reason. I detest romance novels and this is a mystery romance novel. Women may like it. Who knows? Other than these criticisms, it wasn't a bad novel.

I have mixed emotions on this book.

Good story, but not the best. I think the story could have done without the sex scene. Both narrators were good with the story-telling, but I did not care for their portrayals of the opposite sex. Their voices both bothered me at those times.

Story Great, Narration Not Great

This could have been a ten because both narrator's are very good and the story was excellent. The PROBLEM is that the narrator's switched back and forth between chapters which is extremely irritating. If they had only split the book between the male and female characters it would have rocked! I know it's more difficult to do it that way, but I would have gladly paid the price.

will definitely be listening to more

The story was very interesting and well written, with well fleshed out characters and plot. I enjoy "Criminal Minds" and some other crime drama shows, and this sort of had that feel to it.

Loved Nick's performance, and would have happily listened to him the whole book. I will definitely be looking for more books read by him. Amy did a good job too, but I think I would have enjoyed her performance of this story more if I didn't have Nick to compare her to, but I think that's more a personal preference (while I have enjoyed audiobooks with larger casts, I much prefer a skilled narrator, such as Lorelei King, Luke Daniels, and Nick Podehl).