When He Vanished

by T.J. Brearton

A HEART-POUNDING THRILLER WITH A STUNNING TWIST

WHAT IF YOUR HUSBAND DISAPPEARED AND THE POLICE THOUGHT YOU MIGHT HAVE KILLED HIM?

Jane Gable returns from her shift at the hospital one night to find her two children asleep in bed and her husband gone, his phone and wallet left behind.

John has long been a responsible and dependable man, maintaining a predictable schedule. He is a former alcoholic, and so Jane fears he has relapsed and may be in trouble.

An ‘old friend’ of John’s, Bruce Barnes, turned up on their doorstep the day before his disappearance.

Jane’s son Russ had seen a mysterious blonde woman at the house.

An SUV keeps showing up. Jane feels watched and under threat.

Then John’s abandoned car is found with blood on the steering wheel and Jane fears the worst. And there is a revelation that will make her question her own sanity.

Jane desperately begins investigating on her own. Suspects include her ex-husband, her stepbrother, and the mysterious blonde.

Is she being framed? Can she even trust herself?

HOW FAR WILL SHE GO TO SAVE HER FAMILY?

Perfect for fans of Rachel Cain, Harlan Coben, or Julianne MacLean.

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT WHEN HE VANISHED

“A chilling mystery with plenty of twists and turns which will keep you guessing until the very end.” Barbara

“Had me from the first page and didn't let go until the last.” Gail

“A great book.” Lesley

ALSO BY BEST-SELLING AUTHOR T.J. BREARTON
Titan Series - HABIT, SURVIVORS, DAYBREAK, BLACK SOUL
Tom Lange - DEAD GONE, TRUTH OR DEAD
Kelly Roth - THE HUSBANDS
North Country Books - DARK WEB, DARK KILLS, GONE

Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Amazon, Suspense, Crime

284 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 14, 2019

About the author

Timothy James Brearton lives in the Adirondack Mountains with his wife and three children. He's loved thrillers and police stories for most of his life. HABIT follows broken cop Brendan Healy down the rabbit hole of a human trafficking conspiracy. DEAD GONE delivers Florida cop Tom Lange into a criminal underworld and THE KILLING TIME introduces FBI agent Shannon Ames, a country girl in the big city.

http://tjbrearton.net/about

Reviews

[Linda Strong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jane Gable returns home from her shift at the hospital to find her children are both sleeping ... but her husband, John, is missing. He has left no note, no text message, hasn't talked to their kids about leaving for an errand, perhaps ... nothing.

Has it something to do with a man calling himself Bruce Barnes ... an old friend of John's who showed up on their doorstep the day before he disappeared?

Their young son told Jane that dad had been talking outside to a blond woman while she was at work. Who is she? Could John be having an affair?

And who is driving the SUV that seems to follow her everywhere?

Then John’s abandoned car is found with blood on the steering wheel and Jane fears the worst. And there is a revelation that will make her question her own sanity.

This is a super-duper thriller with twists and turns that boggle the mind. The author's depiction of these characters brings them to life on the pages. The story is riveting from the very first page to the very end.

Many thanks to the author / Joffe Books / Books n All Book Promotions / Netgalley for the digital copy of this thriller. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually very much enjoy Brearton's crime fiction but this was not quite up to the same standards as its predecessors. Sadly, I found it rather monotonous and had to push myself to complete it despite wanting to put it down to pick up something better. There are ample twists and turns, however, many of them I, and many other seasoned thriller readers will predict long before they happen; you could pretty much see where the plot was going.

On the other hand, it's well written as always with Brearton although that isn't enough to award it any more than two stars I'm afraid. It really could've done with better editing and deeper attention to detail regarding character development. Overall, this is far from the author's best work, however, I would pick up another of his novels in the future which will hopefully have better page-turner potential. Many thanks to Joffe Books for an ARC.

[Louise Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jane Gable returns home from her shift at the hospital one night to find her children asleep in bed and her husband gone, his phone and his wallet left behind. John had always been dependable. He a former alcoholic, has he relapsed? As an old friend of Johns had turned up the day before he disappeared and Janes son had seen a blonde woman at the house, is there a connection? The book is full of twists and turns. It's quite a chilling read. I was gripped from the beginning wanting to know what had happened to John. The book kept me guessing all the way through.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Joffe Books and the author T. J. Brearton for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a 3.5 star read.

An enjoyable psychological crime novel. Not riveting but not bad by any means. I definitely shouldn't have punted it when I was given the opportunity to read it as an ARC, so I'm glad I've now read it.

[Nila (digitalcreativepages) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a slow burn thriller where a nurse wife Jane returned home post her duty and found her writer husband John had disappeared at night leaving the sleeping children alone. Then came the cops, and the investigation started.

My first book by author T. J. Brearton saw my interest peaking at points when the different clues and red herrings came to light at strategic points. John’s abandoned car with the blood streaks, old high school friend suddenly popping up for dinner, a blonde found meeting the husband at night, a mysterious mail found in spam, a depleted bank account, a murdered drug dealer, and a bounty hunter, all brought out the sparks of excitement.

My niggles too came along with it, the story was very slow and quite predictable. The twists were quite unexpected but didn’t really thrill me.

Overall a fun read.

[Books 'n' All Promotions · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read

This is a stand alone thriller by the brilliant TJ Brearton that many Crime Fiction readers will enjoy.

Jane and John are struggling through day to day life as many couples do. Life is not perfect and they have their arguments but on the whole they are happy. John is a struggling author and Jane is a nurse practitioner.

Life is carrying on when a face from John's past arrives on the doorstep. From that point their lives start unravelling. Jane returns from work in the early hours of a morning to find the children alone and John is missing.

Where did he go and why? The Police suspect Jane and she is left with little choice than to do her own investigating to try to find out where her husband has gone and prove her innocence.

John is a troubled character. He had a difficult childhood and is a recovering alcoholic. Jane is stronger but also has a troubled past. They are realistic characters and their history adds to their personalities to create complex people that the reader gets to know along the course of the book.

There are many twists and turns along the course of the story. The book does slow down a little around the middle but I would encourage readers to bear with it as it does pick up significantly a bit further on.

An enjoyable read.

[LJ (ljwritesandreviews) · Rating 3 out of 5]

So like most psychological thrillers, I feel like the less I say the better because I don’t want to spoil it for you, which makes reviewing it that bit harder but I’ll try my best!

Jane comes home from her night shift to find her writer husband John has disappeared leaving their two children alone in their house. John is usually so responsible and level-headed but he seemed to have changed after the arrival of his old friend Bruce Barnes.

After his car is found abandoned, Jane feels that she’s a suspect and goes about investigating herself, finding that her husband has secrets that will put their family at risk. Will she find out the truth before it’s too late.

This is a stand-alone psychological thriller by TJ Brearton that I think would really appeal to those of you who love a good bit of domestic noir.

I felt for Jane so much, she’s got a troubled past which really comes back to haunt her through the course of book. Her desperation and paranoid really comes off the page, so much so, I found myself looking over my shoulder occasionally as I was reading it.

Truthfully it wasn’t the most shocking or twisty book I’ve read this year but it’s a good solid thriller with plenty of drama.

When he vanished is drama packed mystery with realistic characters that was both unsettling and intriguing.

[Joanna Larum · Rating 3 out of 5]

John and Jane are a happy couple with two children. He is an author and she is a nurse practitioner. Then a man from John's past turns up and their lives suddenly spiral out of control. Jane returns home after a night shift and discovers that John has disappeared, leaving their children alone in the house. Suspicion falls on Jane and she realises that she needs to investigate to clear her name, especially when the police find John's abandoned car with blood stains inside it.
Written from Jane's point of view, the story takes us through how she sets out to find John and the worries that she has which grow with every clue that is found.
The action is interspersed with descriptions of Jane's mental state as she succumbs to the pressure of having her husband leave in this way. It is good to get inside the main character's head, but I did find it hard going in some parts and I was occasionally more irritated by her than sympathetic to her. There are many twists along the way as all good mystery stories possess, so it isn't predictable. One for a rainy weekend!

[Elaine Tomasso · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would like to thank Netgalley and Joffe Books For an advance copy of When He Vanished, a stand alone thriller set in upstate New York.

Jane Gable returns from work to find her children sleeping and her husband, John, missing. When his car is found abandoned with blood on the steering wheel Jane comes under suspicion and desperately tries to make sense of some odd incidents, an SUV following them, the sudden appearance of John’s childhood friend, Bruce Barnes and John’s aversion to him a mysterious blond her son says he saw at their house.

I thoroughly enjoyed When He Vanished which is, perhaps, not as tense as some of Mr Brearton’s other works but still has a good plot with plenty of twists and turns. It is told in the first person by Jane Gable so the emphasis is on her experience. It is not pretty when the little evidence there is puts her under suspicion and all her family secrets are gradually revealed. I found it very realistic the way little, seemingly unrelated details can be twisted to any narrative the interpreter chooses as is seen when Jane hears about the town gossip. The solution, when it comes, is ingenious.

There is a crime in this novel and perhaps not the one the reader expects but the emphasis is squarely on how Jane reacts to John’s disappearance. It is an addictive study of disaster in a mundane household. They are in a rut and Jane is at a loss to explain John’s actions. She comes up with various scenarios, a drunken binge, another woman etc. but the more she investigates the more she realises something is wrong. It is her strength of character and drive that push the novel forward.

When He Vanished is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

[Ted Tayler · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Less said the better"

I couldn't get into this one at all. High hopes dashed, I'm afraid.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first book by T.J. Brearton. Though the theme is one I’m very familiar with, it did manage to pique my interest from the getgo. After all, a new cast of characters, different situations, some questionable “friends,” and . . . well, you get it. I couldn’t wait to see how it would turn out.

It did manage to keep me vacillating from this person to that person as I flew through the pages. At times it became slightly predictable, but not enough that I could guess the ending. However, as readers know, the end can pretty much make or break a book. (As an aside, I wonder if the twist at the end might have raised the rating on The Silent Patient?)

Sadly, the end of When He Vanished just didn’t do it for me. Yes, there was a bit of a twist, but not enough to completely win me over.

I received an ARC from #NetGalley and #Joffe Books. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and give my reviews of this book.


What Concerned Me:
In the past year, I’ve read several books regarding “disappearing acts” by spouses.

What I liked Best:
Brearton managed to catch my attention and take me on a wild ride through much of the book. For me, it was a definite page-turner!

I would rate it 3.5 stars. But I always round up considering all the time and hard work an author puts into giving birth to his written creation.

For more reviews: https://pickagoodbook.com

[Booklover BEV · Rating 4 out of 5]

When he vanished

The story starts off with Jane Gable returning back home after work to find her husband John missing and her two children both still sleeping alone in the house. She is really worried and his car is found abandoned. A mystery that as you keep reading has plenty of twists. It's a stand alone thriller that contains a lot of drama was just a few pages I found in the book that I felt lingered but had to carry on till the end to find out. Overall I enjoyed it.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I have read by this Kindle-published author, and I thought it was excellent. In this story, Jane and Jack Gable live in a small community where they are raising their son. Jack is a writer and Jane works as a nurse at the local hospital. Their lives seem to be going along pretty well. Then an old high school friend of Jack's, Bruce Barnes shows up after many years. Jane invites Bruce and his wife, Rainney, to dinner, but something feels "off" to both Jack and Jane. Jack is a recovering alcoholic and has been sober for many years. One morning when Jane wakes up, she notices that Jack is not home at all, although he left his wallet and cell phone behind. His car is gone and he has left her no note with any idea of where he is or what may have happened. Frantic, Jane reports Jack's disappearance to the police. Not long after that, his car is found in an odd place with the keys still in it, and blood on the steering wheel. The police do blood typing on the blood, and it seems to be a perfect match for Jane's blood type (type A, the rarest type of all). The attention of law enforcement is directed to Jane, and desperate for answers, Jane decides to do some investigating on her own. She looks in Jack's home office, and notices a bottle of Jim Beam whiskey on the sideboard. Jane is fearful that Jack has gone back to drinking alcohol since he, after modest success with his previous book, develops writer's block. After further searching, Jane knows that no matter what has happened, she will have to continue working in order to support herself and her son. Bruce tells Jane he will call her and help as much as he can to find Jack, but this leads to a dead end when Bruce's phone number is disconnected. Somehow, Jane knows that Bruce is behind Jack's disappearance, but that is all she knows. The she gets a phone call from a woman named Olympia, asking Jane to meet her. Olympia tells Jane that she does not know where Jack is, but that Bruce and is wife, who is dying from lung cancer, left Jacksonville, Florida, under less than favorable circumstances. Olympia is the spokeswoman for a drug cartel, and it seems that Bruce and his wife left after stealing cartel money so that they can afford the wife's medical treatment. Of course the cartel wants their money back, and track Bruce down. But what happened to Jack? I read this book very quickly because I wanted to know the whole unvarnished truth. The writer deliver on this, and I look forward to reading other books by this author.

[Sharon Rimmelzwaan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first book by TJ Brearton, it is a standalone story. It is set in Upstate New York and centres on a family, which is seemingly mundane.The story is told from the wife and mothers view, Jane, who is a nurse pratitioner and tells the story of her husband, an ex alcholic writer with their 2 kids. Everything is going like normal, until one day a stranger calls to their house, a stranger to Jane, but an old friend of John. From there the madness begins.

I enjoyed the book even though it slowed a little in the middle, it is worth perservering as it picks back up. The twists were there as well, plenty of them. I would definitely recommend this book for a good read!

[Teresa Kaiser · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed, it held my interest from beginning to end. The story became very complicated toward the end and had a surprising twist. This is my first read by T.J., and I want more. Thank you T.J.B.

[Kathy Brackin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy read this story u pretty good 👌🏻👍🏻

[Kay Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast-paced page-turner

This gripping thriller reads like a boulder rolling down a hill. At the tip top we meet a family going about their normal, average lives when out-of-the-blue something totally out of left field bursts in. From that point, everything falls apart one mysterious piece at a time, each piece more surprising and crucial than the last. Readers are left questioning every character, every situation and the need for answers feels like a need of water while stranded in the vast desert. The writing, characterization and world building are absolutely superb. This is a must-read. But beware, it will keep you up late into the night frantically turning pages and whispering to yourself, 'just one more chapter."

[Soozee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a gripping read! The premise is that Jane returns from work one evening to find her husband John has disappeared, leaving their two children alone. This then sets off a rollercoaster ride as the evidence mounts. Has her husband run off with another woman, gone back to drinking, or turned to drug dealing to finance his failing career? The discovery of his car, complete with bloodstains, raises the stakes as Jane begins to accept the worst may have happened. Entwined around the tale is the sudden re-appearance of an old school friend, who John did not seem keen to see in their home and had never previously mentioned. Do we ever know the people we share our lives with?

We are unsure who is the culprit and who is the victim as the book races to the final climax. Pacy, entertaining, a good plot and realistic characters, I really enjoyed the tale.

Thank you to NetGalley and Joffe Books for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

When He Vanished is a slow burn thriller that had some good twists and turns, as well as some really good characters.

TJ Brearton is really fantastic and bringing the twists and turns. I really enjoyed the surprises and the plot kept me invested all the way through.

The only issue I had was that there were points that were just a bit too slow for my liking. That made it difficult to get through those parts. However, overall I really enjoyed this one and recommend it!

*I received a copy of this book as part of a blog tour with Books N All. All opinions are my own.*

[Jennifer Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an easy, 2-day read that did have some surprises I wasn't expecting. It's thrilling without being overly unnerving, though something fell in my house around midnight while I was reading and I must admit, it made me jump.

It felt like the author weaved mental instability into the main character without giving enough credibility or justification. Sometimes I thought to myself that certain lines seemed thrown in to make the plot thicker. There wasn't enough reader experience with the main characters to make all of the plot lines believable.

[Ruth Matheson · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of us who read a lot of UK based murder/mysteries, then TJ Brearton's books are like a breath of fresh air. Based near the US/Canadian border, they are both procedurally and geographically interesting along with the plots!
In this novel we have a missing husband - presumed dead, murder, drugs and a wife trying desperately to hold it all together for the sake of her children. The book swings to and fro making the reader wonder if the husband is alive or dead and who the real felons are. The clues are there however it is putting them in the right order which makes the book an interesting read. I enjoyed it and would recommend.
Thanks to Joffe Books for the ARC to review.

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

When He Vanished by T. J. Brearton is an exciting thriller that I enjoyed. When Jane Gable comes home from her shift at the hospital, her husband is missing, and their two children are home alone. The story moves at a fast pace and kept me guessing til the end with all the twists and turns! I absolutely loved it. It hooked me in from the first page. It was filled with drama an emotional roller coaster. I will be reading more books by this author. I recommend this book.

I reviewed a digital arc provided by NetGalley and the publisher. Thank you.

[Isaac Kirzner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is my personal introduction to T.J. Brearton. I am gratified to report that he meets all the criteria of what it takes to come up with a totally rewarding book. Reading this book has not just been a pleasure; it has been an experience.

[Joann 'bartunek' prashek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twists and Turns

Slow read at times, but not enough to make me put the book down. I will definitely read other mystery/crime novels by the author.

[Lynne Biniker · Rating 3 out of 5]

As John and Jane were driving home one evening, a black SUV almost ran them off the road. At first Jane thought it was just a one time thing but she started noticing the black SUV every where she went. Their life has been pretty “normal” until these strange events. The black SUV, an unwelcome visit from John’s high school friend, and a husband that vanishes one evening. Life is never the same again!

[Donna Mallery · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently discovered this author, and I’m so glad I did! His stories have different topics than the over saturated domestic thrillers! This book has an easy reading style that makes me keep on reading! I will continue to read his books!

[Kevin Marsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant book. An interesting story that had me hooked from the start. Great characters and well paced plot. A recommended read.

[Marla Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicely plotted suspense read with a somewhat disappointing ending.

[T Olsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately, this well written story has a weak plot, and there isn't much suspense besides the mystery.

[Pattyh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good book and it had a lot of twists.
Fast paced and solid writing.
Characters were good and I was surprised by the ending
4 stars