'VANISHED' HAS KEY INGREDIENTS, RATES GOOD SUSPENSE THRILLER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01350R000200740013-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 20, 2004
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: February 11, 1968
• Content Type: NSPR

DMr4M POST
Approved For Release 2005/08/22: @MmRDRMifidM0~1
11 Fabru&ry 1968
STAT
`Vanished' Has Key . ngredi en s, Rates,
VANISHED.` By Fletcher Knebel. Doubleday. $5.95. . _ . 1 Thll,
IF ONE WERE TO CONCOCT a recipe for the-modern , Good Suspense riC
gredients or proportions, but the following should be included:',
a sympathetic character whose behavior is shrouded in mys-
tery, giving some pause to the reader; the involvement of
.people in high places, such as Washington, in which some-
one's reputation or political status is threatened; sex-intrigue,
creating if possible suspicions of deviation; a group of people
who are "in," but who have a propensity for gossip, thus,
threatening enterprise; travel, particularly to- exotic places;
and an. ambivalence in all characters so that the reader '
can never be sure who wears the black hats or Who the
white.
In "Vanished," a prominent Washington lawyer disap-,
pears from the fourth fairway of an elite golf club. At the
same time a celebrated scientist-teacher vanishes, and it is
table hotel in Washington. Then another scientist, a Nobel- `"l
Prize winner, walks into obliv}pn while "attending a top-level 't
conference in Finland. T1 a lawyer is a -personal friend of:,
allows the FBI to, begin investigation, he will not permit
'involvement of the CIA, even when it is discovered that all
three missing persons have left the United States.
The president, coming up for re-election, stands firm in
a policy of no comment and noninterference: Scandal, begins
! lawyer and teacher have been caught in an affair that will ...i
KT^-` That Fletcher Knebel's final resolution to all problems
embarrass the president; a financial blunder of huge propor-
firm. is ,,nnnvanad and flints mvnlvad mllef .-amain in 6idinn ? r.
rumor as if it were truth; the president's adversary in the
coming election has a heyday speculating on perversion, mis-
management
and treason within the president's camp.
of a hiddeYl enco eed For Release' 2~005108f22 CIA-' P88-01350R000200740013-9
At one point the president declares, '.'What is left -of our
open society if every man has to fear a: secret government
agent at his elbow? Who can respect us or believe us when'!'
or at least put up with,
not immune t? the pry ng o~er ,of the Vii --In,~ 1HCty h i~ dliti? i i~tiK to , but{tr b;l i , tt$ ~l: .x wi#` 1> rsaf