JDCMustReadBooks

By Elizabeth Heiter

Series: The Profilier #2
ISBN: 9780778317388
Publisher: Harlequin/Mira
Publication Date: 12/30/2014
Format: Paperback
My Rating: 4 Stars

A special thank you to Harlequin, Mira and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Elizabeth Heiter returns with VANISHED, Book #2 in theProfiler series, after the gripping debut HUNTED, where we once again catch up with Evelyn Baine, FBI profiler. She returns to her home town for another child abduction case in Rose Bay, South Carolina for a suspense psychological mystery thriller with a mixture of light romance and intrigue.

Evelyn, is working in Aquia, Virginia with the FBI’s BAU (Behavioral Analysis Unit), and has been haunted since she was twelve years old where in the first book she learns a key piece of information about her best friend Cassie’s disappearance that her grandparents had hidden from her for seventeen years.

Cassie, Evelyn’s best friend, disappeared after a series of unsolved child abductions. The only clue was a nursery rhyme left at the scene, claiming Evelyn was the also the next victim.  Now many years later another girl has gone missing in SC and the Nursery Rhyme Killer is back or possibly a copycat.

Evelyn has been haunted, driving her to work with the FBI as a career, due to this traumatic event years ago, and is now determined to uncover the killer behind the latest girl’s abductions.  Evelyn is sharp and she knows how to think like a killer – whether a serial killer, arsonists, bomb-maker, child abductor or terrorist, as she has crawled around in all of the twisted minds. She had learned their fantasies, and figured out their next moves and chased them down. But no matter how many she found, there were always more.

Now, Julie Byers, Cassie’s mom is calling her, the little girl next door who had come over the day Evelyn had moved in with her grandparents and announced they were going to be best friends.  For two years they had been inseparable and one night Cassie had disappeared from her bed, and in her place her abductor had left his calling card, a macabre nursery rhyme. She never came home. Why would she be calling now – could they have found her, eighteen years later?

Evelyn had left Rose Bay at seventeen after her grandmother had gotten sick and her mom had suddenly shown up again. She had never gone back, nor talked with anyone in more than a decade. However, she is calling to tell her the person who took her was back. The trail had been cold for years and now appears he is abducting again - The Nursery Rhyme Killer is back and she returns to put an end to this nightmare.

Kyle is also an agent with a different division in the FBI and is on a different assignment in the same town as Evelyn, which made for a nice addition to the story. I enjoyed Evelyn’s strong character as she makes peace with her ghosts for a satisfying and engaging read, with many twists and turns to keep you guessing.

It sounds as though Evelyn may return later in 2015 which involves a hostage situation and an emerging terrorist threat – Look forward to reading more from this author, and the next in this gripping series!

Fans of Allison Brennan, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Tess Gerritsen are ensured to enjoy this fast-paced suspense thriller.