"Vanished" - Joseph Finder
Joseph Finder has consistently been putting out fast-paced, intelligent thrillers for several years and his latest effort - "Vanished" - is another excellent novel.
"Vanished" opens with the sudden abduction of financier, Roger Heller. Immediately on the case is his brother, Nick Heller, a former Special Forces member and high-powered intelligence investigator. Nick quickly realizes there are two vanishings - the abduction of his brother and the disappearance of 9 Billion Dollars from a cargo plane bound for Baghdad. Could these two vanishings be related?
As Nick delves deeper, an unflattering picture of his brother, Roger, is formed. He finds out that Roger was on the Homeland Security DO NOT FLY list and that he may have also been blackmailing one of the world's largest military contractors, Paladin Worldwide.
Using high-tech gadgets and relying on his close confidants as well as his prior Special Forces training, Nick Heller gets out of one precarious situation after another. However, what he uncovers may turn everything he knew about his brother and his own personal family history on its' ear.
Joseph Finder knows how to develop a plot and keep the pace going - while never "dumbing-down" the material. Nick Heller is reminsicent of Ludlum's Bourne character and I hope we see him again!