Sandra (mycatscanread) - reviewed on 1/30/2015 + 174 more book reviews

Any book that begins with a first sentence like this one does has me hooked for the next 486 pages. "The moon, two days past full, hangs low and forbiddingly cold, diamond hard in the late winter dead-of-night sky." This sets the stage for a shocking story of a 14-year-old girl from a very affluent family who goes missing from her California home in the middle of the night during a sleepover with two of her teenage friends. The parents, Glenna and Doug Lancaster, are distraught over the disappearance of Emma,their only child. Eight days later Emma's body is found.

An arrest is finally made for the kidnapping and murder of Emma Lancaster, and a lawyer who had left his California practice several years ago is convinced to come back and defend Joe Allison, the media celebrity, who is accused of the crime. Luke Garrison is back in the courtroom and up against some very tough odds to beat.

The majority of the book is taken up with Luke's research and interviews before the trial and then the explosive trial. There isn't a dull moment as one surprising find after another comes to light. There are so many twists and turns along the way that as soon as I thought I'd solved the case something else would pop up in the evidence and I was wrong again. But the end does come and with it a twist that I never saw coming.

The Disappearance is a very well and tightly written legal thriller that has very well-developed characters that I cared about. I wasn't anxious for the book to end simply because I didn't want to leave the suspense of that courtroom and the characters themselves. (from my Amazon review)

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