Page One: Vanished

Robin Hamilton #2

by Nancy Barr

A dusty old scrapbook in a used bookstore finds its way into the hands of Robin Hamilton, small-town newspaper reporter, who is taking a day off in the tiny tourist town of Copper Harbor, Michigan. The frayed scrapbook's first page holds a photo of Mary Jo Quinn with the dates, 1960-1974. The golden brown eyes from the picture seem to peer into Robin's soul, prodding her to read the newspaper clippings inside that describe the young girl's disappearance on her last day of school. It rocked the small community of Houghton in '74. As Robin shares her discovery, she learns of the disappearance of another girl in Ishpeming, five years later in '79, same age, same time of year, same odd occurrence, vanished without a trace. Robin's mind begins to wonder about these similarities. Girls sometimes run away, the local residents conclude, but when Robin's editor recalls the disappearance of yet another young girl in yet another town of Michigan's Upper Peninsula in 1993, Robin is powerless to ignore the possibility that these disappearances were not runaway girls at all, but abductions and possibly murders. Through relentless inquiries, it appears that five young girls went missing in the U.P. over a thirty-year period. Robin investigates the cases for the newspaper and uncovers disturbing facts and another girl's disappearance after a mysterious intruder warns Hamilton to mind her own business. Racing to reveal a perpetrator, our heroine finds herself in harm's way with unfathomable evil.

303 pages, Paperback

First published May 2, 2007

About the author

A resident Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Nancy Barr grew up in the tiny town of Rapid River nestled at the top of Little Bay de Noc.
Her favorite memories as a young child are of weekly trips to the neighborhood library with her late mother to spend hours poring over books of all kinds. Her love of reading and writing led her to a career in newspaper journalism where she spent several years covering police, courts, schools and local governments and now works at Michigan Technological University.
An animal aficionado, she lives on the Keweenaw Peninsula with three demanding, but lovable, cats. When not writing, Nancy enjoys hiking and photographing the natural beauty that abounds in the Upper Peninsula.
Her novels include "Page One: Hit and Run" (July 2006, Arbutus Press) and "Page One: Vanished" (May 2007, Arbutus Press). She is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America."

Reviews

[Laura DeGrave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robin is in thick of it again when a diabetic girl goes missing.
Time is of the essence on the search for possible suspects.
She connects pieces of the puzzle that no one else sees due to multiple vanishing girls throughout the span over a lifetime.
Typical Robin falls out of the frying pan and into the fire by capture.
Luckily, the missing girl is found alive.
Unfortunately, they were in a macabre scene of deadly proportions.
Will she make it out alive and rescue the lost girls?

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read mostly for the UP setting I thought it was a pretty solid mystery.

[Susanbayscharter.net · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great beach reading, or where ever really. Set in the rugged Upper Peninsula of Michigan starting in Copper Harbor. I couldn't put it down and the ending totally blew me away. More Page One books in the works. Page One: Whiteout.