Heather and Jess were more like sisters when they became the best of friends both feeling like outsiders formed a pretty watertight friendship and Jess likened the fact that Heathers mum Margot and sister Flora treat her more like family than her own mum did. That was until the very core of their friendship is destroyed when in the summer of 1994, Heathers sister Flora vanishes…

Fast forward twenty-five years and as if lightning strikes twice, their sleepy seaside town is rocked again when tragedy hits and Heather tries to take her own life after taking the lives of two other people in cold blood – a loving, doting mother. The community are shell socked and can’t make sense of it.

Jess, now a reporter is sent back to her hometown to report on the case. What if she could solve both mysteries…?

Or could she delve into the dark, dangerous side of her hometown revealing secrets and lies that are better left buried…?

Claire Douglas has done it again! Fast becoming one of my favourite authors in this genre, has written another brilliantly executed story creating scenes in my mind like a showreel. This was an enthralling read, that kept me glued to the edge of my seat. With twists and turns as the story unravels and authentic, relatable characters that allowed the plot to flow – Ms Douglas makes it look effortless! Just when I thought I had it all figured out something else would be revealed…Absolute brilliance!

I would highly recommend!

Thank you to Penguin UK and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.
I'm not sure why, but I found this story difficult to gel with in the beginning,
It was almost half way through before I truly found this book interesting and exciting, but from therein, the story was gripping and twisty.
There were several associated characters linked in with the main story, which opened up the field to who the possible perpetrator was. This kept me wondering and guessing what part they may have played in events.
Having read what I thought was the end, there was a final twist, which I loved as I didn't see that coming!

I received this book from Netgalley in return for a fair and honest review.

I love Claire Douglas's books as you know that you are in for a really gripping read and there will be a twist.

And Then She Vanishes was just this.

Jess works for a local newspaper and she arrives at work one day to find out Heather her best friend from school is in hospital with a shotgun wound and under suspicion of shooting a Mother and Son in a incident at their home.

Jess is asked by her boss to investigate the story and find out what happened. This means returning to a life that she had left behind many years before

I really liked Jess and she has some issues which were caused by her relationship with her own Mother.

When she was a teen she became part of Heather's family and became close to Margot, Heather and Flora's mother.

One summer Flora disappeared and Jess and Heather drifted apart.

Jess realises how much she missed the close relationship with Margot and they become a support for each other. Jess begins to feel like she is being followed and watched and she has to confess to a secret that she has been keeping from her past.

A great read as always it was a fast paced and I wanted to keep on reading to find out what had happened to Heather and Flora.

The characters were well written and all of them have secrets which adds to the suspense and the climax of the story.

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.

HOLY MACARONI!! Claire Douglas has done it again. What an exciting, captivating and inventive novel.

I’m a huge Claire Douglas fan but this review is in no way biased as I read it as a free ARC on my kindle and I didn’t actually know who the author was until afterwards. I should of been able to tell because no one writes quite like Douglas. Every single one of her novels are just so easy to read and flow so well but are packed full of emotion and excitement. She somehow catches me out every single time with her twists too. When I am usually the queen of deciphering a books ending.

But enough about me and my love for Claire Douglas and more about “Then she vanishes”.

I want to give very little away about this one as I feel strangely protective of it and I want everyone to have the same experience I did going in blind.

This revolves around a missing persons case from many years ago, the sister of the missing person is now being accused of murdering an eldery woman and son in their home, the journalist investigating is the childhood best friend of the accused. Everyone has secrets and everyone knows more than they are letting on from the night poor Flora Powell vanished never to be seen again all those years ago.

I would recommend this book to everyone. If you love drama - buy it. If you love thrillers - buy it. If you love murder mysteries - buy it. It’s so versatile yet feels like it was written just for you.

Thank you Claire, netgalley and the publisher for yet another amazing read!

Excellent read. Hard to put the book down. Right from the start you were sucked in and new this was going to be a good one. The storyline was wicked. Not quite knowing where it was going next. There was lots of twists and turns in the road.

I was sent an advance proof copy of Then She Vanishes by Claire Douglas to read and review by NetGalley.
Though hailed in the blurb as ‘The gripping new psychological thriller that will keep you hooked to the very last page’ I’m afraid I didn’t feel that this novel quite lived up to expectations for me! In fact I was very surprized that this book is the fifth offering from Claire Douglas as it felt to me like a debut novel, or at least a foray into a new genre for the author. While the premise of the story was good, I didn’t really like the way it was set out, as the ‘third person’ chapters didn’t really have the punch that I felt they should have done. There was a fair amount of repetition throughout the book, which I suppose is inevitable when looking at the same scenario from different viewpoints, and I didn’t really feel there was enough tension as a whole. There were chapters that hinted at various revelations that would shock, but when divulged they didn’t really seem to be very shocking at all! I was also confounded by a huge continuity error towards the end of the book (possibly ironed out in the final draft) which I’m convinced the characters in the novel would have easily picked up on!
There was enough in the novel to keep me reading to the end but I do feel that it could have been so much better. I have given it four stars as I think it was worth slightly more than three – but perhaps not quite three and a half for me!

Compulsive reading, this is an addictive suspenseful psychological thriller like no other.

The plot is unpredictable with lots of twists and turns along with solid engaging characters.
There is also a sense of dread as the story deals with the deep and dark corners of the human psych.

I very much enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone!

Thankyou to Netgalley for providing me with a free Kindle copy of this title in return for an honest review.

Jess is a news reporter tasked with the story of a double murder, but things get very close to home when it becomes evident her childhood friend, Heather, could be responsible for the murders.

I didn't think I was going to enjoy this book when I first started it but it just seemed to grab me from the first chapter and I looked forward to reading it. It's full of twists and turns which some may find obvious but it is still a page turner, keeping you guessing throughout

Then She Vanishes opens with an uncharacteristic and shocking act, no clear motive behind it, but as Claire Douglas soon shows us, things are rarely that straightforward, especially when it comes to family.

Claire Douglas shows how this family continues to be affected and their lives shaped by the unsolved disappearance of elder sister Flora some years earlier, together with how it must feel to have someone you love identified as the perpetrator of a crime, being unable to speak to them about it, all while having to deal with the press camped out on your doorstep and needing to go about some semblance of normal life.

What made this story for me was the character of Jess, the disgraced young journalist, who returns to the seaside town that was once her childhood home, in search of a good story before the competition finds it. Now thrown back into the orbit of people she once idolised, at a vulnerable time for them, it’s fascinating to watch her attempt to rekindle the relationship and observe her own personal dilemma play out: Will she choose career over what was once a surrogate family to her?

I loved how much more involved this book became, the further I read into it. Then She Disappears reminded me how relationships and family are complicated and nuanced creatures, how vulnerable human beings are and how devious we can be. Tragically, it also shows how oblivious we can be to the people and things happening all around us and why we often miss the obvious.

Then She Disappears is the shocking and absorbing story of a family once again finding themselves in crisis, and the many papered-over cracks and layers that lie behind that. Claire Douglas tells their story with sensitivity and I couldn’t help but be affected by it. It also serves as a useful reminder that things are seldom as obvious or as simple as the headlines suggest. Loved this and can recommend it.

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?

I found this really well written, with interesting characters and plenty of interesting back stories behind them, which turns out to be even more relevant the further in you get.

Thoroughly enjoyable story, with great characters and lots of twists and turns to keep you focused. Excellent!!

'Then She Vanishes' is author Claire Douglas' fifth novel yet it feels as fresh as a debut.It has a killer hook in the mysterious disappearance of Flora Powell, a family racked by tragedy which looks set to continue as Flora's younger sister,Heather,inexplicably kills 2 strangers before turning the gun on herself.

Notoriously wary around guns and a quiet ,shy girl, Heather, Flora and their mother Margot have lived quietly at Tilbury Manor ,owning the local caravan park and having the kind of life that local girl Jess has always envied. 20 years after Flora's disappearance drove a immovable wedge in  the teenage girls' friendship, Jess is back, both as friend and a reporter on the local Herald,trying to work out if this crime has it's basis in  the past.

Jess' role as a reporter gives her a professional distance to the deaths of Clive and Deirdre Wilson , and allows her to investigate at the same time as hoping to redeem her journalistic integrity. As the story develops, her and her partner,Rory's move to Bristol isn't as clear cut as it seems as she has been unceremoniously sacked from her London job. Her boss in Bristol is determined to use her connection to the family of Flora Powell to get the inside scoop but maybe Jess will get more than her byline on a front page story;redemption and closure are also in sight.

But someone is making it clear that they want her to keep her nose out of the story, Rory is putting pressure on her to make decisions she doesn't feel ready to and the mystery which has been weighing on her for nearly 20 years could be close to being solved...but as long as Heather remains in  a coma her motives and guilt are at best guessed at.

How far will Jess go to reclaim her past in order to open up a brand new future?

The Powell family were her as good as her own, Jess' parents being sungularly uninvolved in raising their child so in the course of writing this story, Jess has the chance to reclaim her childhood, right wrongs and move forward.

With so much at stake, Jess has everything she holds dear on the line but shocks are in store that no one in their wildest imaginings could conceive.

As the saying goes, 'the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing'. And here it shows just how easy it is for individuals to fall through cracks and places in the world when people stop looking for them.

A thrilling, plot driven novel of psychological suspense, this is the kind of story which keeps you up all night after promising yourself 'Just one more chapter...'

There is also a tantalising sneak peek at Claire's next novel, out in 2020, 'Just Like The Other Girls'!!

Then She Vanishes is a compelling tale of loss, childhood friendship and unexplained murder. The author cleverly weaves two stories over two timelines and an intriguing twist at the end makes the novel a satisfying read.

Excellent book, I loved the way the plot unfolded. I was hooked from the first page. Highly recommended

Many thanks to Netgalley and Claire Douglas for the advanced copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

Jess is an investigative reporter, exactly the kind of reporter that you don't want hanging around the family home when one of your children is suspected of a heinous crime, and even you as their Mother are not sure if they are innocent.

But Jess is an old family friend, and believes that Heather isn't capable of murder. So Heather's Mother agrees to let her in, and tell the story from their side. Jess is sympathetic to the family's plight, as she has known them for so long, and is unable to tell the story as her ruthless boss would like her too.

She knows of course that the family has secrets. Which family doesn't?

But she is determined to stick to the known facts.

Jess however, cannot keep the past from her boss, and soon he is asking her to answer questions that she is unable to. Heather's sister, Flora went missing when they were teenagers and hasn't been seen since. It was presumed that her boyfriend had something to do with at the time, but now questions are being asked, that no one wants to answer.

Is Heather really as innocent as she seems?

Could she have had something to do with her sister's disappearance?

Or is the truth much more complicated than that?

Then She Vanishes is a twisty roller coaster of a novel that will have you second guessing every characters movement.

A clever thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
I was gripped with this book from the very beginning.
It has lots of twists and turns and I really did want to know what would happen next.
A great read

This was an absolutely gripping and suspenseful read. Just as I thought the story was going one way I was proved wrong. Claire Douglas is an outstanding writer and I am looking forward to going back and reading her previous books.
Full review will follow as part of blog tour.

Claire Douglas never disappoints. The plot kept me guessing right until the end and I warmed to the main characters. A disappearance, murders - this has it all.

Claire Douglas does it again! I have recently discovered her as an author, and what a difference she has made to my reading. She stuns me every single time with books that I just cant stop reading once I pick them up. She always has a way of making me feel like I am in the story, and that the characters are some long lost friends that I have been searching for. And this new novel is no different. Jess and Heather, remind you of that friendship you had when you were children, when life was so simple. Until a terrible tragedy hits and it rocks their friendship. Following the path of Jess to find out the truth is fascinating. Claire hasn't left any unanswered questions which is always a huge hit for me. Will continue to read her books for as long as she is writing and releasing new ones!

Then She Vanishes by Claire Douglas is essential reading and one of the best psychological thrillers I've read this year. Extremely well plotted with believable characters, it tugs at the heartstrings and pulls you in.

Schoolgirls Heather Powell and Jessica Fox are best friends until tragedy strikes in the summer of 1994. Flora, Heather's 16-year-old elder sister, disappears from Tilby in Somerset and is never seen again. It destroys the girls' friendship and they drift apart.

Fast forward to March 2012 and two bodies are discovered in a house in Tilby, apparently shot dead by 32-year-old Heather Powell. Jessica, working as a journalist at the Bristol and Somerset Herald, is shocked to learn her old friend stands accused of murder.

Taking advantage of her past association with the Powells, Jessica re-enters their lives only to become conflicted when her loyalty to the family who once welcomed her into their home clashes with her job to get an exclusive interview for the newspaper. Was Heather really capable of murder? The evidence appears to confirm her guilt. Jessica is determined to discover exactly what happened.

The story is cleverly told through two timelines - the events leading up to Flora's disappearance in 1994 and Heather being accused of a double murder in 2012. I thought it was a gripping, multi-layered thriller. It wasn't particularly fast-paced but it didn't matter - the characters needed to be fully developed and Claire Douglas certainly did them justice. A fantastic read and one I highly recommend.