- Format: Kindle Edition
- File Size: 2455 KB
- Print Length: 403 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1405932570
- Publisher: Penguin (27 Jun. 2019)
- Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
- Language: English
Synopsis
Jess and Heather were once best friends – until the night Heather’s sister Flora vanished. The night that lies tore their friendship apart.
But years later, when a brutal double murder shakes their childhood town, Jess returns home.
Because the suspect is Heather.
What happened to the girl you used to know?
Review
I first came across Claire Douglas’s books a couple of years ago when I read Local Girl Missing, which was a brilliant thriller, so I jumped at the chance to be part of the blog tour for her latest book Then She Vanishes. Jess is a reporter at the Somerset and Bristol Herald and comes across a case that takes her back to her home town of Tilby. Two people have been shot in their own home. This seems a random attack but what makes it interesting is that it is Jess’s best friend from her teenage years, Heather, that is suspected as the killer before she tried to shoot herself. This plot moves between the present and the past, when Heather’s elder sister disappeared, as the many threads weave together to the spine tingling conclusion.
The plot is narrated by Jess and Margot, Heather and Flora’s mother. There are so many different elements that layer the. suspense and tension and make it an enthralling read. There are secrets from the past, what happens between Heather and Jess that destroyed their friendship, why did Jess suddenly move from a high profile job at a London newspaper to a bi-weekly paper in Bristol and of course what happened to Flora all those years ago. In the present the focus is in the murder and why Heather would seemly murder two people she has never met. The suspense and tension build as we are drip fed the answers to these questions as the book races towards its breathtaking conclusion.
As the main character Jess is the perfect for a thriller. She has a secret from her recent past that she hasn’t told her boyfriend and is worried about it becoming known. She also has secrets from her teenage years relating to her relationship with Heather and the disappearance of Flora. Jess seems insecure in her personal life, she has a loving boyfriend and good job but has a fear of commitment and becoming a wife and mother. Going back to her childhood home and reconnecting with Margot, who was like a mother to her whilst her own mother worked a lot, gives her a new perspective on life. You can’t help but have compassion for Margot, one daughter disappeared and now she is facing her other daughter going to prison for a murder she has no memory of committing. She is very family orientated and takes Jess back under her wing.
Then She Vanishes grabs your attention from the opening chapters and holds it for the rest of the book. The chapters from the 1990’s feed our fear of what happened before mobile phones, and how children went out for the full day and had no contact with their parents. The plot is underpinned with a feeling of sinister and unease that stays with you throughout. Very dark in places with the subject of drugs and predatory men, this is a breathtaking, chilling and enthralling thriller, and oneI highly recommend.
Thank you to Penguin books for including me on the blog tour. If you have enjoyed my review I hope you will consider sharing the book love.
