Then She Vanishes - Claire Douglas

Description

THE ONLY THING MORE SHOCKING THAN THE FIRST CHAPTER . . . IS THE LAST.

Everything changed the night Flora disappeared.

Heather and Jess were best friends - until the night Heather's sister vanished.

Jess has never forgiven herself for the lie she told that night. Nor has Heather.

But now Heather is accused of an awful crime.

And Jess is forced to return to the sleepy seaside town where they grew up, to ask the question she's avoided for so long:

What really happened the night Flora disappeared?

'Amazing. A twisty whydunnit that I finished in just two days. Smart, gripping and atmospheric, readers will love Then She Vanishes'

Gillian McAllister, bestselling author of Everything But The Truth

Review

It's not often I agree with book blurb  - but this was spot on!

THE ONLY THING MORE SHOCKING THAN THE FIRST CHAPTER . . . IS THE LAST. . . 

The book begins with a quite shocking scene that involves Heather. We then meet Jess who is a reporter and was once Heather's friend when they were young. Of course the editor that Jess now works for immediately sees an in for an exclusive story.

So Jess goes back to her childhood haunts and meets Heather's mother again, who isn't too pleased to see her as Jess left their lives suddenly and cruelly. She also finds that Heather is now married with a child, so how or why would she have committed the crime she is accused of?

This book is a little like the layers of an onion. As you go deeper into it more things keep being revealed, deeper secrets, things that have been left unsaid for years. But, how is it all going to fit together? At one point I thought I had the answer but I was wrong, then came the twist and then a final twist which left me open mouthed.

There are some great supporting characters in the book too - Troy Heather's boyfriend, Jack the photographer who works at the paper, these both contribute to back stories running alongside the main story line. I liked the down to earth feel of the characters - who all felt like people you could meet in real life.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Books for an ARC to review.