The Vanishing Series 📚

When Mia Evanescence discovers her new husband isn't just controlling—he's lethal—she has one chance to escape. But vanishing from a man she’s learned has both diplomatic immunity and Greek Mafia connections requires more than just running away. It demands becoming someone else entirely.

A desperate rappel from her third-floor home-office window launches Mia into a high-stakes game of cat and mouse, leading her to Delareau, Louisiana—a Cajun town where old money, older secrets, and the darkest kind of family obligations intersect. Cut off from her adoptive family, her business, and nearly all her resources, Mia knows she needs both money and a new identity to survive. She finds an unexpected ally in Jake Brusey, a local bar owner whose extended family runs a criminal syndicate. His growing attraction to Mia makes him break his rule against asking them for help.

When pregnant Leanne Broussard Fortier crosses Mia's path seeking escape from her own dangerous situation, Mia sees both a chance to help someone and an opportunity to secure the funds she desperately needs. Leanne has resources but no idea how to disappear; Mia has the knowledge but no money. Their collaboration sets off a chain of events that will force Mia to expand the skills she needs to stay alive—and help Leanne vanish herself and her baby to safety.

In VANISHING MIA, the first book of The Vanishing Series, Mia's primary coping mechanism—the habit of 'forgetting' forged during her traumatic childhood—begins to crumble amid the devastating events of her present. As the five-book series unfolds, Mia evolves from an abuse victim with defensive skills to a woman of agency playing offense for her life. While evading Aleks's increasingly sophisticated pursuit and helping others effect their own disappearances, she unravels the mystery of her mother's death, her father's fate, and the shattering truth that will force her to decide whether she can trust enough to love again.

Written in cinematic upmarket prose that weaves thematic depth with immersive sensory details, The Vanishing Series transports readers to the sultry, mysterious world of south Louisiana, where the atmospheric setting becomes a character in itself, reminiscent of James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux series; and the UP of Michigan where small town mid-western connections wield unexpected power in the face of threat. A compelling blend of psychological suspense, identity exploration, the effects of trauma and heart-pounding tension that echoes the intensity of GONE GIRL, this serial saga of victimization, survival, reinvention, and ultimately achieving real agency in one’s life will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Mia's five-book journey through the depths of human resilience confronts those who wield physical, emotional, financial, political and technological power to control and destroy—from domestic abusers to criminal syndicates to human traffickers—in a story that will resonate with readers who appreciate artful language serving both literary merit and page-turning thrills.

 © 2024 Phyllis Horne     All Rights Reserved.