# Help me identify this book (mystery/thriller, newish)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-mystery-thriller-newish/533470
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 23, 2010, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-mystery-thriller-newish/533470 "2010-03-23T14:27:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2010, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-mystery-thriller-newish/533470/1 "2010-03-23T14:27:11Z")
Last fall or summer, I read a review of a book that sounded good to me, but now I can’t remember the name and I can’t seem to figure it out. From what I can remember, the premise is that a town is found completely abandoned - dishes left on the table, etc., like everyone left suddenly. Someone comes across the town (years later?) and is trying to figure out what happened. The book switches back and forth between the present day and when the town was populated. It seems like the title was one word (Vanished or Missing or something like that).
It got a good review. Sorry for my vagueness…I’m getting old. Any ideas?
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### Author:  [@Justin\_Credible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Credible)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2010, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-mystery-thriller-newish/533470/2 "2010-03-23T23:21:02Z")
Bumping the thread because I want to know what this book is too. It sounds like something I’d like to read.
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### Author:  [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2010, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-mystery-thriller-newish/533470/3 "2010-03-24T00:15:18Z")
That sounds a lot like [Phantoms](http://www.amazon.com/Phantoms-Dean-Koontz/dp/0425181103) by Dean Koonts. It’s not even remotely recent (1983) but it IS a lot like what you describe. It’s also been reprinted a few times, so maybe that’s what you saw. Here’s a snippet from the review on Amazon for the paperback
> [@](#):
>
> The lights are on in Snowfield, California, a cozy ski village nestled in the Sierra Madres, but nobody seems to be home. When Dr. Jenny Paige returns to the small town, she finds tables set for dinner, meals being prepared, and music playing in living rooms, but there’s no trace of the people who put the water on to boil or set an extra place for company at the dinner table.
Be warned though, a few years back the book was made into a _baaaaad_ movie starring Ben Affleck.
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### Author:  [@Novalyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novalyne)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2010, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-mystery-thriller-newish/533470/4 "2010-03-24T00:51:27Z")
Is it [Abandon](http://www.amazon.com/Abandon-Blake-Crouch/dp/0312537409) by Blake Crouch? It has the alternating stories, which Phantoms does not have.
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2010, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-mystery-thriller-newish/533470/5 "2010-03-24T01:33:41Z")
It sounds a teensy bit like _Eifelheim_ by Michael Flynn, but Eifelheim was a medieval village in Bavaria and the abandonment didn’t happen that quickly. Amazing book though. (Priests and aliens.)
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### Author:  [@shantih](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shantih)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2010, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-mystery-thriller-newish/533470/6 "2010-03-24T08:06:35Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#):
>
> That sounds a lot like [Phantoms](http://www.amazon.com/Phantoms-Dean-Koontz/dp/0425181103) by Dean Koonts. It’s not even remotely recent (1983) but it IS a lot like what you describe. It’s also been reprinted a few times, so maybe that’s what you saw. Here’s a snippet from the review on Amazon for the paperbackBe warned though, a few years back the book was made into a _baaaaad_ movie starring Ben Affleck.
Hey, Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms, yo!
I’m sorry.
Nothing to add that would be helpful.
I’ll go now.
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### Author:  [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2010, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-mystery-thriller-newish/533470/7 "2010-03-24T12:10:17Z")
> [@Novalyne](#):
>
> Is it [Abandon](http://www.amazon.com/Abandon-Blake-Crouch/dp/0312537409) by Blake Crouch? It has the alternating stories, which Phantoms does not have.
That’s it! Thank you! That Publishers Weekly review on your Amazon link doesn’t make it sounds as good as the review I heard, though :).
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2010, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-mystery-thriller-newish/533470/8 "2010-03-24T16:28:00Z")
That **is** a bad review. Odd, because PW seems to like everything. I rarely read anything negative from PW at Amazon.