The only clue is a partial shoeprint at both Emma's home and the hillside where her body was found. In spite of Doug's offering a reward, the crime remains unsolved. Her autopsy is sealed. Doug's and Glenna's marriage ends in divorce. Over a year passes.

Joe Allison, the young, dynamic news-anchor at Doug's TV station, is on the way up. The night before he is to move to a bigger TV market, he's pulled over by the police on suspicion of drunk-driving. A search of his car's glove compartment elicits Emma's long-missing key ring. A subsequent search of his house turns up the running shoes with the distinctive shoeprint from the crime scenes. Joe is arrested and charged with Emma's murder.

Luke Garrison is the former district attorney in Santa Barbara. His remorse over the execution of an innocent man and the messy dissolution of his marriage drove him to leave his position and retreat to near-obscurity in northern California where he lives with Riva Montoya, the ex-girlfriend of a drug dealer. Judge Ferdinand De La Guerra comes looking for Luke. He believes that there is a rush to judgment against Joe Allison and hopes to convince Luke to take over the defense.

Luke is reluctant to return to Santa Barbara for both personal (his ex-wife still lives there) and professional reasons, but he agrees to check it out. What he finds includes questionable police procedures and genuine doubt as to Joe's guilt. A wider investigation with Riva's assistance uncovers scandal and shocking secrets. As the case goes to trial, Luke is hampered in his defense by a number of things including Doug's powerful maneuvering and his own client's lies.

I have enjoyed other J. F. Freedman books including Against the Wind and Key Witness. His plots are well-crafted, the suspense is taut, and he gets the legal details right.

One of the author's trademarks is that his heroes are flawed and difficult to like. Luke Garrison is a typical Freedman hero – there is a distance between his character and the reader that is never bridged over the course of the book. It's easier to feel sympathy for the grieving Doug Lancaster despite his underhanded manipulation of the legal system. Overall, however, the character development is solid. Characters' actions are believable and not merely driven by the complexity of the plot.

Where Freedman excels is in the depth of his plots. In legal thrillers it is usually a given that the true criminal will be exposed and the hero will discover the truth that has eluded the other characters. In Freedman books, this conclusion seems less certain than in many others of the genre, and the plot twists are unexpected. (I didn't start suspecting the real murderer until late in the book.)

In spite of a slow beginning, once the story gets going it is impossible to put down. Fans of legal thrillers will want to check out The Disappearance.

--Lesley Dunlap