Vanish by Tess Gerritsen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This tale is told in two timelines. Some Russian women are lured into what they thought would be good-paying jobs in America, but instead are smuggled in, abused, and forced into prostitution. The other story line involves a woman detective with Boston P.D. (Rizzoli). She’s pregnant and at a later point in the book, gives birth, her first child. Her husband is an FBI agent, but he’s a relatively minor character. Isles is the medical examiner, but she plays a relatively minor role in this one, too. She’s there mainly so the author can describe grisly autopsy scenes. The two story lines merge after a hostage situation arises. Of course there’s a conspiracy at the highest level of government and the prego detective has to solve it while on maternity leave. It’s all ridiculous and very disappointing. I listed to the audiobook and that was a big mistake, too. The reader does a good job when not doing Boston cop dialogue, but her Boston accent is awful – or I should say, it may be accurate (I don’t know as I’ve never lived in Boston), but the sound is so nasal and grating that it is very unpleasant to listen to. The story is also unnecessarily gory and full of gross stuff, both sexual and visceral.