Forty years ago in the small town of Fogg Lake, “The Incident” occurred: an explosion in the cave system that released unknown gases, causing peculiar effects on its residents, such as strange visions and ominous voices. Not wanting the government to get involved, they chalked it up to the hallucinogenic effects of mushrooms. Little did they know these effects would linger through the generations…
Residents Catalina Lark and Olivia Dayton have been best friends for years and own an investigation firm together, using what they call the “other sight” to help with their business. When Olivia goes missing, Cat frantically begins the search for her alone when the town does nothing about it. When scientist Slate Trevelyan shows up, she has no choice but to accept his help even though there’s something about him she just can’t trust. The duo discovers someone is hunting the two witnesses of a murder in Fogg Lake fourteen years ago—the very one Cat and Olivia witnessed as teens, one that they couldn’t prove happened. Cat and Slate’s search for Olivia takes them down a rabbit hole that is far more dangerous and mysterious than they ever expected, and with a killer in their midst, neither of them can foresee who will come out alive.
Titles in the Fogg Lake series include — The Vanishing –
Title: The Vanishing
Series: Fogg Lake #1
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz
Genre: Romantic Suspense, Paranormal Romance
Published: January 7, 2020
Publisher: Berkley
My Rating: 5 stars
The Vanishing is, in my opinion, a master storyteller at her best. From the opening scene until the final wrap-up (for now) sentence I was caught up in this world and never had a moment’s hesitation in believing what was unfolding in front of my eyes. Catalina, Olivia, and Slate were full-blown developed and believable from the start. Slowly getting some of their backstories, why they’ve reacted as they have only increased my fall into this world. The villains are as vile as they come, in varying degrees, and even though I hated them on sight I also understood why they were doing all of this – didn’t agree with it, but it made sense.
Catalina and Slate are sizzling with sparks and impulses from their first meeting, and that feeling only intensifies as their story unfolds. I liked them both so much. They are both fierce in their own ways of dealing with what life has handed them. Both stubborn, at times to a maddening point, but also willing to see another side, another avenue that might work better than their own way. To be fair, Catalina might need a little convincing but she still knows when to instinctively trust Slate’s decisions – and for an already strong woman to place her trust, her fate in another, that is kind of huge.
I’m purposefully not going into the actual plot much for I strongly believe that each reader needs to discover the nuances, the twists, the surprises of The Vanishing on their own. Yet, there were moments when I thought all the carefully woven threads would not be addressed in this first story – I was wrong and what is revealed only made me anticipate the next story in this series all the more.
In all, I loved Catalina’s and Slate’s romance as well as the mystery of Fogg Lake – and the possibilities for the future that are awaiting the next installment of this series. If you love a good, really good Romantic Suspense combined with a strong Paranormal Romance then you’ll want to pick up The Vanishing, like right now, and get started on an adventure that is chilling, emotional, intricate and believable. I’m hoping the wait for the next visit to Fogg Lake isn’t very far in the future for I need to know what happens next.
I own a Kindle edition of The Vanishing.
Available in a variety of formats including the Kindle
