Kat Richardson : Vanished
Vanished is the fourth novel in Kat Richardson’s Greywalker series. Not the best book I’ve read this year, by a long way.
We follow Harper Blaine (not to be confused with Harper Connelly from Charlaine Harris’ series!) to London where she has been sent by Seattle’s chief vampire.
The insights into Harper’s past, and the appearance of another Greywalker provide some significant plot points, however, I was a little disappointed by the character’s lack of reaction to pretty much anything. She stumbles along from one crisis to the next, barely pausing for breath, but without any significant emotional response.
The ‘bad guy’ is pretty much absent throughout most of the novel, mainly as Harper has no idea what is actually going on. When she appears towards the last few dozen pages of the novel, she nothing more than a crazed, maniacally laughing cardboard cutout.
An enjoyable little tale, but with the lack of characterisation, probably not one that I’ll go back to.
Also, it’s worth mentioning the trouble I had in actually finding this book! Of the usual sites and shops I’ve looked in, only a couple even showed that the book existed. A quick e-mail to the publisher Piatkus revealed that they weren’t aware of any stocking difficulties, and would look into it.
