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Perseus Breed
ONE BY ONE THEY DISAPPEARED
Valerie was gone. Dinner was on the stove cooking; the swing on the porch was rocking. And she had vanished forever. But her young boyfriend Borley Share would never abandon his search for her. He remained haunted by her eerie painting of another world, by her sketch of the dark-haired strangers, by her suspicion that she was adopted.
Decades later, Share, now a New York psychologist, had not abandoned his quest. Instead he discovered a terrifying pattern of pretty women who vanished off the face of the Earth every thirty years.
Now the time was coming when the mysterious disappearances would start again. And the victims would be women like his beautiful patient Nicole—a girl tormented by a dream that she had been adopted and destined to vanish unless Share discovers the shocking truth in time.
...Where have these women gone? What is their terrifying fate?
Valerie was gone. Dinner was on the stove cooking; the swing on the porch was rocking. And she had vanished forever. But her young boyfriend Borley Share would never abandon his search for her. He remained haunted by her eerie painting of another world, by her sketch of the dark-haired strangers, by her suspicion that she was adopted.
Decades later, Share, now a New York psychologist, had not abandoned his quest. Instead he discovered a terrifying pattern of pretty women who vanished off the face of the Earth every thirty years.
Now the time was coming when the mysterious disappearances would start again. And the victims would be women like his beautiful patient Nicole—a girl tormented by a dream that she had been adopted and destined to vanish unless Share discovers the shocking truth in time.
...Where have these women gone? What is their terrifying fate?
- GenresScience Fiction
206 pages, Paperback
First published August 15, 2014
1 person is currently reading
12 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Egan
17 booksLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 19, 2025
A missing women mystery, a pair of otherworldly villains, and one obsessed investigator make for a quick and engrossing read even though the answers, when they come, are hardly surprising to anyone raised on sci-fi clichés. Disappointing ending however, like being set-up for a sequel that never arrived.
March 23, 2025
Good concept but the ending is kind of creepy. The epilogue implies there could be a sequel, but considering it's been nearly 40 years since it was published that will probably never come, although it would be cool if it did.
June 19, 2009
Kevin Egan's first (only?) novel presents an interesting theory: Those socially-faceless among us -- who would miss them if they were to vanish for thirty years, only to come back looking exactly the same?
Egan explores the theme, vicariously at first, then drudgingly toward the end of the novel. In fact, one almost wishes that the main character (one Professor Borley Share) would similarly disappear in his fancy automobile. Share's girlfriend vanishes one day - 29 and at home, preparing to boil up a pot of pasta, when the steam rising from the water becomes more transient than she. Enter "Detective" Professor Share.
Prof. Share notices something unusual: In and around the New York City area, dozens of women have disappeared at thirty-year intervals since the Civil War. (Real-life statistics show that this is a fairly common occurrence every year - not just every third decade, but never mind.)
A loud rumbling is felt throughout the bowels of the novel.
Prof. Share dedicates his life to finding out what happened to his sweetheart thirty years prior. He places ads in psychiatric journals and magazines, asking for "study volunteers" who happen to meet a very strict set of criterion: They must be women who have had a life-long "adoption fantasy," and who have experienced regressions into childish behaviours at some point in their adult lives. This, Prof. Share is certain, is key in decoding whatever became of his
girlfriend, and is not some bizarre perversion of his. And, as it happens, he stumbles across his Miss Right who just happens to have browsed the very magazine ad in a waiting room.
At this point, a moist burst of flatulence bursts from the plot line.
During the course of his investigation, Prof. Share discovers a duo of aliens - who happen to talk, dress, and look exactly like human beings - responsible for the takings of these women. They're using the women for incubators because, in their advanced eyes, it is far more economical to travel through space for a thirty-year round-trip and abduct over one hundred earth women (who, it might be added, were prepped and deliberately kept socially isolated for this future purpose) than to simply impregnate themselves on their home planet. "Our resources are not devoted to the raising of children," says the evil alien villainess. No - they're too busy spending resources on far-fetched abduction schemes.
And of course, the primary evil alien - who can debilitate with a flick of his finger, or kill with a sleight-of-hand - can be killed by a good old-fashioned throat-stomping by an old Earthling professor. And his female partner, responsible for the "genius" behind this plan, never thinks to change her disguise after being discovered by a private detective. Instead, she's more than willing to supply Prof. Share with all the critical information he needs after being put into a simple hogtie by him (single-handedly, no less). Uh-oh... the gig's up! Hundreds of years worth of interplanetary secrets divulged because of a three-foot length of rope.
By the end of the novel, the rumbling blaats and bluurfs become a steady flow of full-on crap. Not just one steaming, heaping pile, but a virtual trail of excrement which leads right up to... the author's bio, along with mugshot, as if to show the reader who is responsible for the literary crime they had just been subjected to.
Lots of red herrings, throw-away imagery, and flat-lined personalities which lead up to... no place special. Mr. Egan claimed to have done the bulk of his writing whilst riding on the New York commuter train.
It's just too bad that he didn't throw it under the train, one of those days.
Egan explores the theme, vicariously at first, then drudgingly toward the end of the novel. In fact, one almost wishes that the main character (one Professor Borley Share) would similarly disappear in his fancy automobile. Share's girlfriend vanishes one day - 29 and at home, preparing to boil up a pot of pasta, when the steam rising from the water becomes more transient than she. Enter "Detective" Professor Share.
Prof. Share notices something unusual: In and around the New York City area, dozens of women have disappeared at thirty-year intervals since the Civil War. (Real-life statistics show that this is a fairly common occurrence every year - not just every third decade, but never mind.)
A loud rumbling is felt throughout the bowels of the novel.
Prof. Share dedicates his life to finding out what happened to his sweetheart thirty years prior. He places ads in psychiatric journals and magazines, asking for "study volunteers" who happen to meet a very strict set of criterion: They must be women who have had a life-long "adoption fantasy," and who have experienced regressions into childish behaviours at some point in their adult lives. This, Prof. Share is certain, is key in decoding whatever became of his
girlfriend, and is not some bizarre perversion of his. And, as it happens, he stumbles across his Miss Right who just happens to have browsed the very magazine ad in a waiting room.
At this point, a moist burst of flatulence bursts from the plot line.
During the course of his investigation, Prof. Share discovers a duo of aliens - who happen to talk, dress, and look exactly like human beings - responsible for the takings of these women. They're using the women for incubators because, in their advanced eyes, it is far more economical to travel through space for a thirty-year round-trip and abduct over one hundred earth women (who, it might be added, were prepped and deliberately kept socially isolated for this future purpose) than to simply impregnate themselves on their home planet. "Our resources are not devoted to the raising of children," says the evil alien villainess. No - they're too busy spending resources on far-fetched abduction schemes.
And of course, the primary evil alien - who can debilitate with a flick of his finger, or kill with a sleight-of-hand - can be killed by a good old-fashioned throat-stomping by an old Earthling professor. And his female partner, responsible for the "genius" behind this plan, never thinks to change her disguise after being discovered by a private detective. Instead, she's more than willing to supply Prof. Share with all the critical information he needs after being put into a simple hogtie by him (single-handedly, no less). Uh-oh... the gig's up! Hundreds of years worth of interplanetary secrets divulged because of a three-foot length of rope.
By the end of the novel, the rumbling blaats and bluurfs become a steady flow of full-on crap. Not just one steaming, heaping pile, but a virtual trail of excrement which leads right up to... the author's bio, along with mugshot, as if to show the reader who is responsible for the literary crime they had just been subjected to.
Lots of red herrings, throw-away imagery, and flat-lined personalities which lead up to... no place special. Mr. Egan claimed to have done the bulk of his writing whilst riding on the New York commuter train.
It's just too bad that he didn't throw it under the train, one of those days.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews