Thank you HighBridge Audio for allowing me to read and review The Vanishing at Smokestack Hollow, A Missing Family, a Desperate Plan, an Unsolved Mystery by Jake Anderson on NetGalley.

Narrator: Chris Abernathy

Published: 99/24/24

Stars: 2.5

There were a lot questions concerning the deaths of this family before this book was written. These questions remain, as well as why. Why did the author choose this true crime to write about?

I read a lot of true crime. For me there was a disconnect. If the narrator wasn't easy to listen to I may have not finished the book. As I read I couldn't lose the why? Nothing was significantly book worthy or helpful in my opinion.

Near the end, the author starts debunking theories and the story spiraled out of control for me. I found myself gasping. I was left still wondering what did he want to achieve.

With no disrespect to this family's loved ones and friends, I hope these murders are solved. I'm not certain who the target audience should be.

I think I need a break from true crime books, as the last few that I've read have been full of personal anecdotes and irrelevant rambling. The information in this book, about the mysterious disappearances and later discovery of the remains of a family of three, is terribly disorganized and gets lost amid a lot of unnecessary filler. Conspiracy theories and Reddit rabbit holes abound. The audio was OK...I thought the narrator's attempts at trying to sound folksy when quoting people in Southeast Oklahoma fell flat. The synopsis calling Anderson a "contemporary master of true crime journalism" is generous at best.

This was the most ADHD compilation of a true crime case. Being an unsolved murder, the author, who had no real connection to the case, bounced around to all kinds of different theories as to what might have happened to the Jamison family. He also inserted his own struggles with pain medication, and other personal tidbits that had no place in a true crime story.

I listened to the audiobook of “The Vanishing at Smokestack Hollow” by Jake Anderson. In Fall of 2009 an entire family from Oklahoma went missing in the mountains. Bobby, Sherilyn and their six year old daughter Madyson Jamison vanished, and their dog was found barely alive in their truck along with a large sum of money. What happened to this family is the heart of this story. Everyone seems to have a different opinion of that and no real conclusion can be reached to date.
If you are a fan of true crime this is a good book that gives you much to think about.

Thank you to Kensington Books and NetGalley for providing me with an audio of this true crime book.

When a family goes missing, everyone goes on alert. Why were they in the mountains, and why would they leave their dog behind? As police look through the car, a large amount of cash was found, leading to even more questions. As they seemingly vanished into thin air, there are relatively no clues to lead an investigation forward.

The author begins on a journey to talk about the family, but it seemed that there was a lot more about the author himself. It was a rather frustrating read, although a case that I would like to read more on.

What happened to the Jamison family? This story was very interesting and intriguing. A family straight up disappears and then their remains are found later, including their young daughter. The author did a great job covering all the possibilities of what happened. I wish there was a solid conclusion and my heart hurts for the remaining family members.

In 2009, an Oklahoma couple and their 6 year old daughter went missing. Their truck was found abandoned with some suspicious contents. Four years later portions of their remains were found. It remains unclear what happened. This book looks at their lives before they went missing and explores their community, seeking possible answers to their fate. Much of that is quite interesting, but where this book goes really wrong is when the author inserts his own physical and mental health struggles into the story and tries to connect that to the missing family. It alters his entire approach to the investigation and tries to force a connection that doesn’t seem to be there.

I am so very disappointed. When I read what this book was about I was so intrigued and thought "Wow, I haven't not heard about this? This should be so interesting!" I was very wrong. I almost DNF this book many times. I think the only reason I did continue reading was because I thought that this was made into a book and there has to be more to it than this and something will come about. It did not. I think the story behind the book is fascinating and I plan on looking into it more and watching some of the mentioned documentaries but this book did nothing for me. It was repetitive, went on tangents that had absolutely nothing to do with the story, and the author talked way too much about himself that had really absolutely nothing to do with the story. I have read many true crime books and some have been unsolved mystery ones and even though they don't have answers they have a clear story line and research. This book is all over the place and feels like the research was so random. To be honest I am not sure how this book was published.

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for the audio arc. All opinions are my own.

The Vanishing at Smokestack Hollow is a true crime unsolved mystery. In my attempt to read more non-fiction that isn't just memoirs, and my love of true crime, I felt like this was going to be a home run.

Unfortunately, the audio fell flat and I don't think a physical book would have been much better. I think this is the problem with unsolved mysteries is that there isn't any new information, it's just best guess. I was hoping for something new, but it wasn't there. Very well researched, but boring.

Rounded up to a 3, The Vanishing at Smokestack Hollow on audio was.....ok. Not great. Not compelling. But, ok.

This true crime case featuring dad Bobby Jamison, 44, mom Sherilyn Jamison, 40, and 6-year old daughter Madyson Jamison is an unsolved mystery. A family goes into the woods and never comes out. The family dog is in their truck along with a boatload of cash, but no signs of life (or bodies). Let me pause here to say I am an absolute true crime junkie. Podcast? I'm there. Dateline? Every week. Facebook groups of "sleuths"? Sign me up. Reddit? Hello, my name is Sue. I just love the stuff. It was a no brainer for me to request this one on Netgalley.

Sadly, despite the opportunity to make this story interesting, somehow it is not. There isn't enough guts to sustain a book of this length. It really does lend itself to an hour long podcast or tv episode without hours and hours of supposition based on????? Based on guesses. Too many guesses.

I also wasn't a fan of all the details unrelated to the mystery which frequently felt like filler to justify a book.

This is a case I had never heard of before, so I went into this knowing absolutely nothing.
Overall, the book kept me interested. And it was well researched for the most part.
It does focus a bit too much on the author at times, in my opinion.
Other times it goes off on long mostly irrelevant tangents. Had the Bigfoot ramblings happened earlier on, I'd have likely considered DNFing it.

Chris Abernathy narrates the audiobook. No complaints.

I received an advance audio copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars (rounded up): If you want to learn more about the case of the Jamison family, reading Jake Anderson's detailed research will definitely get you up to speed on the case, its investigation, and the theories that surround it. I appreciate the effort involved in examining this case and, in particular, Anderson's ability to paint a portrait of the setting/place. This tragedy and its aftermath have a lot of moving parts. At times Anderson seems close to losing control of the different ingredients of the story, making this work seem like a not-quite-final draft, but he does pull it together at the end with as much conclusion and closure as readers could hope for, given the circumstances.

I should note that the book's summary doesn't prepare the reader for the degree to which the author becomes a character in this tale. I realize that this is one approach to true crime, and Anderson is seeking both to build empathy with the reader (for the victims, for himself, and for his approach to the case) and also illustrate points about, among other things, mental health issues, but this means that the focus at times seems to pull attention away from the victims where it belongs. In short, there is a lot of autobiography in this true crime account.

As for the audiobook format, the narrator was excellent, and the reading enhanced the experience of this work. This is a difficult book to rate, but at the end of the day, I am glad I read this, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to gain more insight into this case. My thanks to HighBridge Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to enjoy this audiobook. My opinions are my own.

Thank you to the publisher for an early copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Sadly, this just did not work for me. It started out really interesting then I felt confused about where we were going with the story. This is a really sad case and I do feel that is was taken with care. Just some aspects of the way the book was written I didn't like nor understand why the author/ publishers decided to do it that way. I have glanced at other reviewers and agree with the majority of them.

All in all I didn't know anything about this case and now I do so that's a win. It's a case that probably most people don't know about because coming from a similar town we are the forgotten people of the world.

Audio narration was good.