The Cold Vanish, Jon Billman

★★★

The Cold Vanish opens with a staggering number: 600,000 people vanish every year.

Some of the missing are eventually found, usually the product of suicide, unexpected weather, rugged terrain, and lack of planning. But there are many other missing people whose disappearance is not so easy to explain away. 

The central story (although told haphazardly through the book) is of Jacob Gray, who went missing in Olympic National Park. He is one of the cases which still boggle the mind today with no evidence of struggle or misdeed; he just stepped off the road and vanished. And although the story of Jacob Gray is a mysterious case in and of itself, the author chooses to focus on Jacob’s father and his multi-year search for his son. The search, though heartbreaking, can be a bit mind numbing as we read of his numerous attempts to find his son: leaving notes, diving in ice cold rivers, hiking countless miles of rugged terrain, even teaming up with some local Bigfoot researchers (more on this later). 

Throughout the book there are other stories of the missing. A few stories were given a full chapter while others were given just an off-hand paragraph. This collection style of small, medium, and long asides as well as the retelling and elaboration of Jacob’s story made the book read like a pinboard of notes: mysterious but difficult to follow. 

The author effectively highlights the disconnected efforts of search-and-rescue teams tasked with finding the missing. The limited budgets, jurisdictional red-tape, limited window for search, lack of effective databases for tracking, inexperienced crime scene techniques, and the countless other insurmountable hurdles for investigators of missing people. There is also a varied cast of characters who dedicate their lives to searching the wilderness for missing people including search-and-rescue self-described “bushmen” and bloodhounds with their trainers. 

Which leads me to Bigfoot. The author makes a decided choice to highlight a renowned Bigfoot searcher David Paulides as an experienced wilderness researcher with his high-tech equipment and years of experience traipsing the wilderness. But throughout the book there are also mentions of portals to other dimensions, UFOs, aliens, ghosts, and more. I would have preferred these paranormal theories to be relegated to one chapter and a clearer analysis of why we seek out other explanations when we just can’t explain something. Because as it sits now the off-hand mentions of paranormal phenomena serves to diminish the honest efforts of search-and-rescue teams and the true heartache experienced by the victims’ families. 

Unlike other true crime books, there is no hard-hitting crime in this story to shock the reader into turning the page. There is no collective investigation to follow for the reader to analyze themselves. And there is no resolution for many of these stories which ultimately make this a difficult book to finish. 

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.