The blurb gives the game away
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The blurb
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?
The Review
This isn't particularly a bad thriller (and isn't that just how all the best reviews start...?), it's just that I've read a lot better, and actually, I've read better by Claire Douglas. Do Not Disturb, by the same author was both genuinely creepy and surprising. I utterly loved it. It made my skin crawl... in a really good way. If you want to read one of her books, then read that one - it's in a different league to this.
For me this just doesn't follow suit. The writing itself is her usual blend of excellent characters and a carefully crafted story. But there were no real surprises. I cannot get on board with the blurb: 'The only thing more shocking than the first chapter is the last...' - and I can't understand the claim.
In the first few pages we learn that Heather, who seems to all intents and purposes to be a normal suburban mother, has shot dead 2 random people out of the blue. 'Why on earth would she do this', you probably won't ask yourself - BECAUSE IT'S WRITTEN ON THE FRONT COVER. The blurb has already told you that her sister, Flora, went missing when they were both children, so it's not a great leap for the reader to now assume that this killing is actually not-so random, and has to do with retribution for what happened to her sister.
Then we dance around the houses while several red herrings are dangled, until we come back round to realising that what we had assumed in the first place, is in fact true. Also, there's a big cast of characters and a complicated web of connections between them, some of which seemed a bit far fetched.
Douglas is an author I massively rate, but this one just wasn't for me. Don't let it put you off reading her other work though, as she's chucked out some excellent thrillers.
Then She Vanishes was released on 27th June 2019 by Penguin UK - Michael Joseph.
Big thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for the free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.