Vincent Zandri's "The Remains" is a thriller of the first water. As noted in the title, I finished it in a single night; I simply could not stop reading!Zandri's protagonist is Rebecca Underhill, an art instructor. As a young teenager, she and her late sister, Molly, were abducted by one Joseph William Whalen ... who is released from prison at the beginning of the book. Contemporary with that event, Rebecca starts getting mysterious text messages that either say just her name or "Remember."On top of it all, one of her students, an autistic savant called Franny who is a gifted and famous artist, has begun giving her paintings that have words embedded in them. And yes, all of these things are related.Zandri creates interesting characters who are multi-dimensional. No one is perfectly good or bad, and many people have secrets that they guard closely. The tale is fast-paced and gripping, as well as entirely plausible. This is definitely a character-driven story, and one of the finest I've read in a good while.Highly recommended for fans of thrillers or literary fiction.(Review based on uncorrected advance proof.)
