Then She Vanishes by Claire Douglas #blogtour

Today I am delighted to be sharing my review of Then She Vanishes as part of the blog tour.

About this book…

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? 

My review…

I absolutely loved this book (much as I have loved all of the books by Claire Douglas!) and couldn’t put it down for one minute once I had picked it up! It ticked all the boxes for me-psychological thriller, unknown narrator, unreliable and unlikeable characters and lots of shocking twists and turns. In fact, the last few pages were just as gripping as the first few and it didn’t let up the tension in between them either!

Jess is a reporter who hears of a recent double murder and is reminded of a friend of hers from her teenage years who had the same name and lived in the same location. So (of course!!!) Jess goes off to investigate further and finds out that it is indeed the same girl. But several years have passed since they last saw each other and it wasn’t a friendly goodbye so Jess has to reconcile this double murderer with the best friend that she constantly used to have in her life. But Heather has had a lot of sorrow in her life so far so could it have been something in the past that pushed her to commit such a heinous crime? Jess is determined to look backwards to find out…even if it takes its toll on her personal life.

Then She Vanishes racks up the tension early on in the narrative as Jess takes on other journalists to get her story. She’s feisty but fair in her pursuit but her determination often made her cross lines I thought were a little unethical, especially once her journalism past is revealed. I did love the way her goals started to change the more she found out about the case and felt that her character was well developed in that respect. Her boyfriend was a character kept in the background more than I had expected as the author used work colleagues and acquaintances instead for Jess to bounce off. Heather was only seen as a young 14 year old for most of the book so it wasn’t until later in the narrative that things began to make sense about what happened all those years ago.

I was gripped from start to finish by this book and became as immersed in the past as Jess was. Claire Douglas understands how women react to difficulties within relationships, the workplace and more importantly the friendships that they have at different stages of their lives. The storyline has a socially realistic crime at its heart and it is handled with a sensitive depth of perception.

Claire Douglas remains one of my “must read” authors and I highly recommend Then She Vanishes!

Meet the author…

Claire Douglas has worked as a journalist for fifteen years writing features for women’s magazines and national newspapers, but she’s dreamed of being a novelist since the age of seven. She finally got her wish after winning the Marie Claire Debut Novel Award, with her first novel, The Sisters, which was followed by Local Girl Missing, Last Seen Alive and Do Not Disturb, all Sunday Times bestsellers. She lives in Bath with her husband and two children.