Vanished (2013)--A Book Review--and Part of a Blog Tour =D

Title: Vanished (Book 1 in Private Justice Series)
Author: Irene Hannon
My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

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Synopsis From Book's Back: Reporter Moira Harrisons is lost. In the dark. In a thunderstorm. When a confusing detour places her on a rural, wooded road, she's startled by the sudden appearance of a lone figure caught in the beam of her headlights. Though Moira jams on her brakes, the car careens across the wet pavement--and the solid thump against the side of the vehicle tells her she hit the person before she crashes into a tree on the far side of the road. 

A dazed Moira is relieved when a man opens her door, tells her he saw everything, and promises to call 911. Then everything fades to black. When she comes to an hour later, she is alone. No man. No 911. No injured person lying on the side of the road. But she can't forget the look of terror she saw on the person's face in the instant before her headlights swung away. The person she hit had been in trouble. She's sure of it. But she can't get anyone to believe her story--except a handsome former police detective, now a private eye, who agrees to take on the case.

From the very first page, readers will be hooked into this fast-paced story full of shocking secrets from fan-favorite Irene Hannon. Vanished is the exciting first book in the Private Justice series: Three justice seekers who got burned playing by the rules now have a second chance to make things right.
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My Review:
A couple of years ago, I never would have pegged myself as a lover of Christian romantic suspense. Then I was introduced to Irene Hannon and it has been full steam ahead ever since. Beginning with her "Heroes of Quantico Series" and then her "Guardians of Justice" series, I found Irene's writing entertaining, suspenseful yet not scarily so....and I knew I wanted more. You have to imagine how excited I was while, in interactions with Irene on Twitter, I was given the opportunity to review this book before its release date!

Immediately, I found myself hooked. The tale of a mysterious encounter on a lonely desolate road just has a way of getting one excited ;-) You feel Moira's drive throughout the entire story--her quest for justice, for someone to believe her. She's a likable character and frankly, I appreciated that she isn't a pushover or one who doesn't have her own opinions. And as to the male character in the story--private investigator Cal Burke--I thought he was fantastic. He has own secrets to share with us, the reader, and ones with Moira.

My one gripe with Christian fiction can be that the villain is never dastardly enough; he always has some redeeming quality. I won't give away the book, but there is a lot to hate about the perpetrator. On the flip side, there is a lot to love about the fellow P.I's that Cal works with: Conner and Dev. Knowing that the subsequent books will follow these guys makes me very excited! Hopefully there will be a casual reference to a character from former books in "their" books. This one does: see if you can find it! ;-)

You won't be disappointed if you pick up a copy of "Vanished!" I sure wasn't and I look forward to book 2 in Fall of 2013.

**Much thanks to Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, for providing the book for reviewing**