Review: A mystery within a mystery!!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 26, 2014
One night, Adam Stoltz simply vanished from the face of the earth. Where is he? What happened to him on that fateful night? Is he dead or alive? Who is behind all this? These and many other questions are posed to try and solve the intriguing mystery behind the disappearance of this young man in Joanne Clancy's 'Traceless'.Adam Stoltz and his fiancee Darcey Ackerman are travelling in their campervan through the desolate Wicklow Mountains in darkness. At one point, another vehicle reaches them and the driver urges Adam to stop, saying there were sparks coming out of the campervan's exhaust. While Darcey waits in her seat, Adam goes out to investigate. Suddenly she hears a loud bang and the next thing she knows is this man entering beside her in the campervan with a gun. He ties Darcey's hands behind her back and forces her out of the campervan and into his vehicle.Darcey manages to escape from his vehicle and hide in the pitch-black thick undergrowth. The attacker tries to find her but after some time he gives up and leaves her there in the cold and dark. After many hours hiding, Darcey hears a car coming through that road and she immediately springs out of her hiding place, stops the oncoming car and is rescued.Led by D.S.George Ellis, an intensive police investigation ensues but from the outset nothing seems to make sense. With no body or murder weapon found, Darcey's strange behaviour and her account of events begin to raise police suspicions and everyone's finger is pointed at her. Gina Jones, a newspaper crime reporter decides to dig deep in this story and is determined to find out what actually happened on that night and find Adam Stoltz.My only complaint with this book is that I would have preferred to see more flesh or depth given to the characters; in my opinion they were left a bit too flat, however, this is quite a good mystery story worth taking the time to read. Ms Clancy's twists and turns keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what really happened till the very end.