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Cara Putman’s The Vanished poses really important yet hard questions: what are the right ethical and legal ways to handle stolen items that are found years after the fact? This fascinating novel digs into the how to handle sketchy business deals, difficult employers, extreme stress, and relationship issues, but most of all, it’s about the proper way to handle items stolen from the Jews by the Nazis. When these items turn up decades later in other hands, how does one decide who the proper owner is? What is the right and legal way to handle that? Having just seen a local museum tackling this type of issue, I found this premise irresistible!
The Vanished turned out to be just as compelling as I’d hoped it would be. I couldn’t wait to find out how the stolen art would be handled, and as the issues kept mounting, it became even more intriguing. I especially appreciate the way that this story looked at this issue from multiple sides: from the perspective of the person from whom the art was taken, from the museum currently in possession, from a lawyer trying to sort it out, and from a person responsible for stealing art.
I enjoyed the action sequences, too, and as these kept happening in unexpected ways, this definitely upped the suspense factor.
There were a few threads in this story that I think should have been tugged harder, however. They were alluded to throughout the story, and it turned out that I guessed the overall situation, but it could have been fleshed out much more to add more, even if only in the resolution. I wanted to know more than what was shared; I think the author intended these threads to be either diversionary or interest-building in purpose, but I would have liked for them to have played a bigger part in the story. The resolution of the art plot didn’t finalize – or even answer nearly all of – my questions for these other threads. There was too much left unresolved and unanswered for me there.
All in all, if you like legal or art history stories, then The Vanished is definitely a book to put on your to-be-read list this spring.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author. All opinions are my own.
