Title: The Girls Who Disappeared
Author: Claire Douglas
Publisher: Penguin
Synopsis:
Three missing girls. A twenty year mystery. A woman who may be able to crack this cold case.
In a rural Wilshire town lies The Devil’s Corridor. A road which has witnessed eerie happenings from unexplained deaths to the sounds of a child crying at night.But nothing more puzzling than the Olivia Rutherford case. Four girls drove home but after their car crashed only Olivia was found.
Twenty years later, journalist Jenna Halliday is covering the case. But the locals aren’t happy with this stranger’s arrival. Least of all Olivia.
Jenna soon starts receiving threatening notes and it is clear someone wants her out of this town before she suffers a dark fate…
My review:
The Girls Who Disappeared is a dark, twisty tale that I enjoyed particularly for the first 3/4 of the book, but I think it tailed off a little towards the end. I also think I have very high standards for Claire Douglas as I’ve loved so many of her novels, so although this certainly wasn’t my favourite book by her, it’s still well worth a read!
The story follows Olivia, the driver of a car with her friends in the back, many years ago, which crashed. When she is rescued from the car, her friends have somehow all gone missing. This mystery has followed Olivia and the rest of the town ever since. What on earth happened to them?
Fast forward to the present day, and journalist Jenna is visiting the town to make a podcast about the mystery. She’s met with resistance by many but manages to dig further into what happened. More and more secrets start to unravel.
I enjoyed the various time frames in this novel – we see the lead up to the accident many years ago as well as the present day timeline with Jenna investigating, and also an array of chapters told from the perspective of some teenagers visiting Thailand which adds some extra mystery – just who are these characters?
As is always the case with books by Claire Douglas, there’s a good sense of atmosphere throughout the book. Even the place where the characters are based feels like it has a life of its own – I felt like I could imagine the kind of town it might be, and its dark streets.
Although the pace feels a bit slower at times, there are still plenty of twists in the story and a good dose of mystery which meant I raced though this book very quickly. Many of the characters aren’t the most likeable, but that didn’t bother me and I found myself warming to Jenna more as the novel went on. I found the last quarter or so started to lose my interest a bit but the ending was satisfying and, although The Girls Who Disappeared didn’t blow me away, I still really enjoyed reading it.
My rating: 3/5
Many thanks to the publisher, Penguin, for providing a copy of this book on which I chose to write an honest review.