The Disappearance: A Novel Based on a True Crime

This book was moving and genuine -- as a reader, I felt like part of the story, which is captivating and honest. This book was hard to put down --I truly felt for Harold and his family, and found myself cheering for them during times of joy, and agonizing with them during times of sorrow. I highly recommend this book to fans of every type of novel, as it expertly weaves suspense, romance, drama, and a few good laughs, as well!

David Hanks would make his mother, Hellen Griffin Hanks, so very, very proud of her only son. "The Disappearance" tells, in excellent detail, the horrid experience the Hanks family was involved in when their beloved mother disappeared, and eventually, years later, the solving of her disappearance by finding her killer and sending him to prison. Hopefully the proven killer will remain in prison for the remainder of his days.

I liked the book very much, reading about Harold from boy to young man to man. All the waggery and pain, plus the impact losing his mother has. The mother is the most important person in the family, and when she's not there annymore, you can say a family falls apart. I liked the timeline in it and the true facts. And for me, from The Netherlands I also get a good impression about life on the other side of the world in hot Georgia.

For full disclosure, David Hanks is my brother-in-law, and I read his book in two sittings. As a person intimately familiar with the environment described in David's book, I can say without reservation that he has captured the essence of the small Southern Georgia community in which we grew up. This fictional accounting of authentic life experiences juxtaposed with the macabre events of his mother's murder, makes for extraordinary reading. "Harold's" emotional journey through teenage years and young adulthood is methodically presented through the series of life events that unfold throughout this book. These events are skillfully paralleled with the eventual discovery and investigation of Harold's mother's body and the prosecution of her killer. This is a must read for all sorts of readers-- it's a thriller, a who-done-it, a tender story of a family's loss, and an expose of the system that eventually brought a murderer to justice.

The author has done an excellent job in this novel of relating, through fiction, the events covering his mother's disappearance and the subsequent discovery of her remains several years later, as well as covering the effects on his own life and feelings.