Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Vanished - Kat Richardson


Vanished
A Greywalker Novel
Kat Richardson
Roc

Urban Fantasy

As a Greywalker, Harper Blaine can move between the normal and paranormal worlds. She’s even starting to get some control over the whole process. Then she hears from an ex. That’s never easy, but especially difficult when that ex happens to be dead, and contacting you by phone from the other side. From what Harper knows about the way things work, there has to be something very important attached to his appearance. She travels from Seattle to Los Angeles to the site of his death in an attempt to contact him. He tells her that it’s time for her to learn exactly what she is; and that she needs to look at the past.

A big part of her past is right there in Los Angeles. Her father committed suicide in his office when she was a child. His office building is still there, and Harper manages to get inside and find the approximate location of her father’s violent death. Instead of finding her father – or a time-loop phantom of him – she finds a sort of cosmic hole. That sort of thing doesn’t happen by accident. Her mother still has her father’s old journals, giving Harper a window into what seems like madness.

But her investigation of her past is cut short when Edward, the leader of Seattle’s vampire community, sends her on an urgent trip to London. It seems his people there have cut off all contact. Harper agrees to go partly because of a nightmare she’s had about Will, her most recent ex. Edward seemed to be mostly worried about his assets. But things in London are so much worse than he ever imagined.

For those new to this series (GREYWALKER, POLTERGEIST, UNDERGROUND) the author sketches in the salient details. For those who have been reading the series since the start – and I recommend it – there are some very interesting scenes here, involving Harper’s past. These revelations are balanced nicely with a healthy dose of action and some interesting new characters. While this novel is relatively self-contained, the author leaves it open-ended, and it’s clear that there’s more to come. This series has only improved over time, and I look forward to the next installment.

Rating: 8
August 2009
ISBN# 978-0-451-46277-0 (hardcover)

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