Jodie Picoult, Vanishing Act

Vanishing Act by Jodie Picoult ( written june 2008) reviewed on radio scilly 2nd October 2008
I have read & really enjoyed a previous Jodi Picoult book (namely My Sisters Keeper which was about having another baby for the purpose of using some of the body parts- bone marrow etc - for an existing child). A very thought provoking book, unlike this one.
Vanishing Acts is about a woman called Delia who works with her dog as a search & rescue team for the local state authority, searching for but not always finding & not always alive, missing people. It involves her dad Andrew, who is a pillar of the community, her life long friends Fritz & Eric. Eric is also the father of Delias child ‘Sophie’. Eric is a recovering alcoholic and a lawyer. Fritz has been in love with Delia since they were kids but knew he couldn’t compete with Eric for her affection.
All their lives are affected when suddenly, completely out of the blue, Delias dad, Andrew, is arrested on charges of kidnapping his only daughter, Delia, 28 years ago in Phoenix Arizona. Delia had always suffered with peculiar flashbacks of memory and had always been told that her mother died in a car crash. She had always wondered why there were no family photos around the house. Delias father is put in prison in Phoenix. Eric represents him but finds it very hard to keep off the booze under the stress. Delia & Sophie eventually go to live in a mobile home in Phoenix so they can be near him and follow the case. The story unfolds and secrets come out.
The one thing Picoult does is research really well. The prison and the Indian reserve are all very cleverly & realistically portrayed.
Vanishing Acts, for me, was hard to get into, in fact I nearly gave up on it. It is a very similar format as per previous books (the same story being told by different people, their thoughts, their side of events, so the retelling is always slightly different). Vanishing Acts started to bore me plus I found myself skipping paragraphs which I found a little long winded (yeh ok I know what you mean – just get on with it) - example: ‘Freedom smells of spores & ragweed & dust & heat & suntan oil & car exhaust. Of hot, buttered daffodils & worms hiding under the soil; of everything that’s outside, when you are in here (here in this case being prison).
So my advice is to stick with it until you are half way thru & even then its safe to skip thru some of her ‘overdiscriptive’ paragraphs & keep up with the plot.
Other reviews from Amazon:
Although it is good it is nowhere near as good as My sisters keeper, The pact and Salem falls. If you have never read a Jodi Pilcoult book before dont read this one first as it doesnt show what a good author Jodi Pilcoult is. I found this book a struggle to finish which is a first for me with one of her books. Jodi Pilcoult is a great author but this isnt a great book.
I found this story more laborious. I didn't bond with any of the three leads - Eric, Delia or Fitz - as they each seemed selfish, one-dimensional and uninspiring. The strands of the story weren't knitted together as tightly either as in previous books.
Where My Sister’s Keeper and Plain Truth totally sucked the reader in and was non-stop the whole way through I found Vanishing Acts somewhat lacking. The idea behind the story was great but I found the story dragging in many places and have to admit that one more than one occasion I gave some pages just a quick scan before moving on.