bookheaven | The Vanishing at Smokestack Hollow: A Missing Family, a Desperate Plan, an Unsolved Mystery

The Vanishing at Smokestack Hollow: A Missing Family, a Desperate Plan, an Unsolved Mystery by Jake Anderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was one I was of two minds about. One, the author wanted to make it personal as to why he chose to write this (his own chronic health issues and mental health issues) but it became a bit too much about him vs the actual case which became a negative to me. (especially when he took a detour into his own love life. Can't say that I cared about that)

Secondly there were a lot of side quests in this. I have no idea why several other, completely unrelated cases were mentioned in this. Once or twice to illustrate a point I wouldn't have minded but there was a lot of irrelevant material.

The last major negative was there was a lot of repeated material pertaining to the case. This could have been organized a bit better.

Bobby Jamison, his wife Sherilyn, and their six-year-old daughter Madyson, disappeared in the hills of OK, a place known for its reclusive and potentially dangerous residents, not to mention a boat load of meth labs. The only thing that was found was their truck with their dog inside and 32K of cash hidden in the floor. Their bodies weren't found for years (and barely 5% of any of their bodies) in an area that had been well searched making people wonder, had they been killed elsewhere and dumped there latter.

The book starts strong with the police investigation, the cadaver dogs and the search teams/helicopters but when nothing much is found the case goes cold and more or less unsolved. So what is the rest of the book about? The various police organizations investigating it, the FBI, private investigators and tons of citizen sleuths and all their pod casts. In fact, much of the rest of the book is about all the podcasters and online theories.

Were they murdered? Did they die of exposure? Was a murder suicide? Were they mentally insane? Were they drug addicts? Were they drug dealers? Was this a cartel hit? Did their family kill them in order to inherit?

All these theories are floated and since it is an unsolved case, there is no resolution. In the end it's a book I'll be donating, not keeping.

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