WOMAN VANISHES

by Caroline Crane ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1984

Less elaborately idiotic than some of her recent suspense pop-ups (Trick or Treat, The Third Passenger), Crane's new mini-thriller is just completely unconvincing in an ordinary, old-fashioned, brainless way. Business failure Jarvis Kingsley borrows $40,000 from loansharks, then can't repay. (Supposedly Jarvis thought that 5 percent interest a week was ""less than a bank."") The sharks are soon planning to break Jarvis' legs; he skips town. His wife Pauline is left with $100 and wee daughter Kirby. Even worse, the loansharks demand that Pauline repay Jarvis' debt--or else. What to do? Well, the police can't offer protection. So Pauline leaves her Connecticut home with Kirby, fleeing to N.Y.C.--where her brother-in-law Ernie, a downtown restaurateur, offers employment and temporary accommodation. But then, thanks to Ernie's sleazy mistress, the sharks locate Pauline and kidnap Kirby from her day-care center. They demand a $100,000 ransom--which Pauline rounds up, with help from Ernie and gay chum Dudley. The payoff goes askew, however. So Pauline is still under the power of the cartoonish, ludicrously unprofessional gangsters--who now want Pauline to lead them to Jarvis (who has resurfaced) and to kill him herself! Which she doesn't want to do. . . so there's a showdown with the ""thin man"" and the ""fat man"" before the happy family reunion. For a somewhat similar story that doesn't scrape the bottom of the clichÉ-barrel, see Brian Garfield's Necessity (p. 266).

Pub Date: June 1, 1984

ISBN: 0595205402

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dodd, Mead

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1984

Categories: FICTION