James Delargy

Vanished by James Delargy is a thriller set in outback WA with an engaging premise. The Kane family move to an abandoned mining town in WA with their six year old son Dylan, but soon the entire family disappears. What happened to them?

This was an intriguing enough premise to draw me in and the mystery kept me plowing through the book to find the answers. The family choose the least run down cottage in the town and try to make the most of their circumstances by engaging in a home improvement project.

The novel unfolds from multiple character perspectives, with each of the parents Lorcan and Naiyana in the past and Detective Emmaline Taylor investigating their disappearance in the present. Both Lorcan and Naiyana have their reasons for leaving family and friends behind in Perth so there's plenty to keep the plot moving.

The fictional abandoned mining town of Kallayee is located in the Great Victoria Desert, and Delargy does an exceptional job of bringing the remote location and the desolate landscape into sharp focus. The writing is also compelling, and I especially enjoyed this insight into the despicable nature of some elements of humanity.

"The unspoken had been uttered, leaving a bitter taste. It was disgusting. It was horrible. And now that it was out in the open, it was a possibility." Page 315

Vanished by James Delargy is highly recommended for fans of Jane Harper or Chris Hammer.

* Copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster *… (mais)

This crime novel is set in the West Australia outback.
2 men appear at the local Police station telling the same story about the other one trying to kidnap him and murder him.
Inspector Chandler Jenkins is the highest ranking officer and is unsure what one to believe.
Gabriel is the one who told his story first he is put up in a hotel, Heath then tells his story he seems more aggressive he is put in the cells.
Gabriel escapes from the Hotel.
Mitch who is the commanding officer for the Police comes to assist Chandler they used to be really good mates. Mitch has climbed up the greasy pole and is being horrible to Chandler. It turns out Mitch is now with Teri, the Mother of Chandlers children and they want custody.
6 Graves are found in the bush. All victims murdered.
The book also flashes back to 11 years ago when Mitch and Chandler were involved in a missing persons search they never found the body. The family of the missing boy eventually accepted he was never going to be found.

It turns out Heath is the good guy and Gabriel is the Murderer he was the brother of the missing boy 11 years ago.
His Parents died in a car crash then he went to live with a Bible bashing couple who brainwashed him.
Gabriel kidnaps Chandlers children he wants to swap them for Heath. Chandler goes against the Police agrees to this but Mitch shoots Gabriel dead.

Now the hunt is on to find Sarah and Jasper, Chandlers children.
Book ends on a cliffhanger are the children found are they alive or dead?

OK book.… (mais)

“A family was missing. They had been in the town and then they weren’t. What they were even doing therein the first place wasn’t yet known. No one should have been there. No one had for close to fifty years.”

James Delargy has followed his impressive debut novel, 55, with another compelling thriller set in Australia’s unforgiving outback, Vanished.

Tasked to investigate the disappearance of the Maguire family, Lorcan, his wife Naiyana, and their six year old son, Dylan, from Kallayee, an abandoned town on the edge of the Great Victoria Desert, Major Case Squad Detective Emmaline Taylor is puzzled by what she finds left behind - a home on the brink of collapse, its contents ransacked; blood smears, though not enough to suggest a fatality; a tunnel littered with chocolate bar wrappers, a dead end, like all their leads seem to be, until she finds a body being savaged by a pack of dingo’s on the outskirts of town.

Unfolding from multiple perspectives, shifting between before and after their disappearance, it soon becomes apparent that the Maguires left Perth to set up home in the remote West Australian ghost town not in the spirit of adventure, but because they had few alternatives available to them.

Though the Maguire’s tell themselves they are in Kallayee to become closer as a family, the cracks in their marriage are obvious. They lie to themselves as much as they lie to each other and eventually neither Lorcan nor Naiyana are particularly sympathetic or even likeable. If not for the presence of Dylan I’m not sure I’d care much what happened to them. I liked Emmaline a lot though, she’s smart, determined and interesting.

Clever plotting ensures there are several possibilities, from the benign to the ominous, that may explain the family’s disappearance. Even though we are privy to information Emmaline is not, Delargy doesn’t share everything with the reader, subtly undermining what we think we know, allowing for surprising twists.

Short chapters ensure a good pace, and the author effectively builds the suspense in both timelines. The desolate, broken landscape creates a claustrophobic, hostile backdrop to the story that adds to the tension.

Vanished is a gripping, atmospheric thriller with an unexpected but satisfying conclusion.… (mais)

55 by James Delargy talks about two very distinct men who confess they have been kidnapped by each other, claiming the other one is a serial killer who has killed 54 other people. This book had me hooked from the very beggining. The action started developing right away but still keeping the readers guessing what was the next move. Though I loved the book, the very abrupt and incomplete ending is keeping me from giving this book five stars. Maybe 3 and a half stars would be somewhat more accurate than four stars, since I would have prefered a closure written down with words instead of keeping us guessing. Even if it was a really horrific one or, maybe, even a happy ending.… (mais)