Review: Vanishing Point

Frankie, a woman in her mid-forties, is on a train in Belgium. Suddenly, she sees the face of her long-lost love in the window of a train going in the opposite direction. There is only one problem - that man is dead and Frankie went to prison for his manslaughter.

There are five women, living separate lives, apart from in one way - they are all involved in a relationship with the same man. If everything goes according to his plan, never the twain shall meet, but slowly, the lives of these five women start to intersect, with disastrous consequences.

'Vanishing Point' is an interesting novel in that a large part of it contains little or no action. Smith spends a long time describing the lives and events of the different women and paints various idyllic pictures of family life, with the women in the blissful ignorance that their husband has been deceiving them. However, as the novel reaches its conclusion, Smith seems to decide that there is a need for an exciting denouement, and throws in a brief couple of pages of a fight onboard a train. This appeared rushed, and not the best way of concluding the story.

Furthermore, the reader is given scant information about the villain. It may well be Smith's intention that he remains a man of mystery throughout the tale, but I felt that it would have been nice to know more about his motivation and how he came to do the things that he did.

Overall, 'Vanishing Point' is a perfectly readable novel but it needs to be more fleshed out. Whilst history and back-story is important for the characters, this should not come at the expense of action and development of the plot in the modern day. 'Vanishing Point' is a summer read, where the pages will fly by, but the reader will not be left with anything of real substance at the end.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Luke Croll - RAM

Book Review: Vanishing Point