Then She Vanishes is the third book I have read by this author and yet again I really enjoyed it. This book was a fast paced read absolutely packed with interesting, complex characters. If you are a fan of thrillers and love a good story this book will be a good choice for you.

Great mystery with plenty of possibilities and twists and turns to keep you turning the pages. A story based around a journalist with a "Past", involving an old school friend, her family and a seemingly cold blooded shooting/murder of two people. Loved the plot, the characters and felt that they were well portrayed, to the extent that I felt connected to all of them. Very readable.

I’m such a big fan of Claire Douglas’ novels and so was really looking forward to this one – I can honestly say that it’s her best yet! Heather and Jess were best friends as teenagers until the night Heather’s sister Flora disappeared. Now Jess is accused of murder and Heather has come back to find out what has happened. This book has such great and believable characters, plus a plot that has you reading just one more chapter (and then one more and one more) until you turn the final page. It’s such an in-depth book that you want to know more about the characters but the storyline is so twisty that you find you can’t stop reading until you know how it’s all going to turn out. I loved this book and keep finding myself thinking about it and wondering how the characters are now. I definitely recommend this one!

Spannend, voller Verwirrungen und Überraschungen bis hin zum Schluss.
Sehr gut erzählte und entwickelte Geschichte, super Sprachstil.

I just finished this book two hours ago, and I'm struggling to remember the names of the main characters. Oof. Unfortunately, although I think this mystery has some solid points in its favour, it's also bloated in length, repetitive, and predictable. It struggles with its main character - JESS (just remembered), who is a bit of a paper doll. She doesn't really have many thoughts of her own - just seems to absorb whatever is happening to the person nearest to her and allows that to affect her day or her judgment.

The beginning is promising. A woman enters a home in a quiet seaside town and guns down its two residents - a middle-aged man and elderly lady. She then turns the gun on herself, only narrowly avoiding taking her own life.

When Jess - a disgraced journalist living in Bristol - learns of the shooting, she realizes that the alleged killer is her childhood best friend Heather. Jess wants the story, but she's also mindful that she and Heather did not part on the best of terms. Should she travel back to where she grew up, and risk digging up old hurts?

Naturally, she does, approaching Heather's mother Margot - one of the stronger, best developed characters - and finding herself once more embroiled in the lives of other people.

From there, the story meanders. There's so much repetition. In chapter after chapter, Jess heads out with her colleague Jack (who suffers from gay best friend trope), investigates the murders, talks to Margot, walks home alone, is frightened someone is following her, and fights with her partner Rory (who suffers from clueless boyfriend trope). A more careful editing of this novel could have ratcheted up the tension. Instead, it just feels like Jess is going in circles, and not very exciting circles either.

While I didn't mind the denouement, it felt messy and rushed - weirdly so, since the rest of the book is so long. Douglas' writing is strong in parts, but this mystery could have been cut in half, and I would have enjoyed meatier characters, and less tidy explanations for some pretty huge questions.

Claire Douglas negotiates her way through a clever and complicated plot which is tight and maintains interest right to the very end. I find many books within this genre that deliver a cracking story, often fade out with a whimper at the end leaving the reader very dissatisfied; 'Then She Vanishes' by Claire Douglas does not!
The story opens with a bang, quite literally, as two people are shot dead, murdered in their home; it appears to be a cut and dried case with a clear suspect and motive. The events leading up to the murder are explored using flashbacks seen through the eyes of both Flora and Heather, the two sisters around who the main action unfolds, and childhood friend Jess, now a journalist who is investigating the case for a local newspaper. Heather's mother, Margot, fills in gaps here and there to complete the plot.
I didn't engage with the story as fully as I expected to, hence my 3 star rating, but if you're looking for a psychological thriller with a good plot, then this is sure to satisfy!

A well written, well plotted story with likeable characters and a good pace. I enjoyed this book and certainly didn’t see the ending - which is always a bonus.

There isn’t just one mystery at the centre of this slow burning but ultimately highly engaging thriller. The disappearance of Flora - Heather’s sister- 16+ years ago- and now Heather herself in a coma having shot herself but not before she’s shot two neighbours dead. So many questions and the answers do come but frustratingly and delightfully slowly. Jess as the long standing friend is now the journalist investigating. It all wraps up neatly in the end or does it?

Jess and Heather were best friends as young girls. Jess kind of adopted Heathers family as her own mother was often absent. We know that they moved apart over the years but we do not know why. Heathers sister Flora disappeared around that time also. Jess has worked as ajournalist but has suddenly moved back under a cloud. She is sent after a story and hears that a man and his mother have been shot. Another woman is found with gunshot wounds and is the suspect in the nurder/suicide, that woman is Heather. Jess gets close to Heathers mother again and the story unfolds.
I enjoyed the relationships between the women and the way the story unfolds. The story jumps between the present and the past until the secrets are revealed.
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and Claire Douglas for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

This book draws you in from the first chapter when a mother and son are shot dead in their home and the woman who shot them is in hospital after trying to take her own life. We are then introduced to Jess, a reporter. She is asked to go report on the shooting incident which proves quite difficult for her as it took place in her home town and the accused was her childhood friend, Heather. Jess is then forced to face her secrets from the past when Heather’s sister, Flora, went missing. The story then goes back and forth between the summer of 1994 when Flora disappeared and 2012. This book has a complex storyline with plenty of interesting characters, betrayal and guilt and deals with topics of domestic abuse and drugs. There are plenty of surprises and shocks along the way that make this book a highly recommended read.
Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

First of all thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.
This is the first Claire Douglas story I have read, but it certainly won't be the last.
Well written, strong characters, twisty storyline - what's not to like?!
You go on a bit of a rollercoaster journey with the characters as the past and present collide.
I liked that the story was written from different viewpoints rather than follow just one characters prose.
I will definitely be recommending this book.

Jessica Fox is shocked to hear that her old best friend is accused of a double murder after two apparent strangers are shot. Heather is found in a barn after seemingly attempting to shoot herself. Jessica hasn't seen Heather since 1994 when they drifted apart after Heather's sister, Flora disappeared.

Jessica is now a journalist and is given the task of getting the inside story but her old loyalties and affection for the family conflict with trying to satisfy her bosses demands. She desperately wants to believe Heather is innocent and more investigations and research turn up connections, she starts to doubt just how well she knew her friend.

A great story that flips between the present and the past and the events that lead up to that fatal shooting.

A Great read:
Claire Douglas is an accomplished thriller writer and her latest novel, "Then She Vanishes", doesn't disappoint.
The novel has two focal events. One is the current day with a double murder crime and the other 20 years earlier when the sister of the Prime Suspect in the current day's murder disappeared without trace.
Newspaper reporter, Jessica Fox, is tasked with reporting on the double murder. The Prime Suspect, Heather, used to be Jess's best friend. Jess's Editor, Ted, expects Jess to wangle the paper, The Bristol and Somerset Herald, an exclusive. The main character, Jess, has a topically tainted background and is keen to repay the faith shown in her by the Bristol and Somerset Herald's Editor.
But Jess has hardly spoken with Heather, her childhood best friend, for 20 years, ever since Flora disappeared. Jess can't believe that the Heather she once knew could be a cold-bloodied killer and as her investigation progresses, secrets are uncovered which show that the present day murders and the disappearance 20 years earlier of Flora are linked.
An absorbing murder mystery, "Then She Vanishes" makes for a great read: red herrings, twists and turns, an original plot and the characters are believably flawed.
Well worth packing in your suitcase for a holiday read. You won't be disappointed.

Great read. Gripped me from the start. Thank you to both NetGalley and Penguin Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest unbiased review

Claire Douglas just gets better and better. Then She Vanishes is a great book that kept me interested from beginning to end. Loved it.

I was given a copy of Then She Vanishes by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I have read several of Claire Douglas books and this one didn't disappoint. It is about Jess who returns to her home town, she is a journalist and must cover a story about an old friend Heather who has been found with a gunshot and is suspected of shooting 2 people. Heather sister disappeared when she was 16, at that time Heather and Jess' friendship fell apart. This is a classic psychological thriller and another great story by Claire Douglas.

Jess is a journalist. She is struggling, working for a small time newspaper since she had to flee her job in London and move to Bristol with her boyfriend. She gets a big break when a murder is committed by Heather, Jess's once best friend from her teenage years. She has a way in to get the big story she needs, but their friendship didn't end on good terms, and she doesn't believe Heather could have committed the crime of which she's accused. Things were never the same between them after the mysterious disappearance of Heather's sister Flora, who has been missing ever since. Jess starts to worry that she's being followed, and her past is coming back to haunt her in more ways than one...

This is a good, mysterious story. There are flashbacks to when the girls were teenagers and best friends, and this intermingles with the story playing out in the present day. Jess and her photographer Jack go around questioning various people and trying to find out what actually happened on the day of the murders. Jess is also struggling with her relationship with her boyfriend, and things that happened in her past that she isn't so proud of. There are a few twists and turns, and plenty going on to keep the story interesting.

The plot is good and it's a strong storyline all round. I didn't have any issues with that at all. I thought the ending was good and not something I was necessarily expecting. The last 10% of the book was probably the best bit, and I got through the last part of the book quite quickly.

The downside of this book for me is the writing. The characters were quite simple and not much personality came across to me. The dialogue I felt was a bit simplistic, and I was surprised that this wasn't the author's debut novel. It felt to me slightly amateurish, as though the writer was a little inexperienced. However, that's probably being a bit harsh and who am I to criticise anyone's writing anyway! It was a good story, but I didn't really get into reading it and I didn't enjoy reading this book all that much.

Actual rating: 3,5 stars

It has been some time since I finished Then She Vanishes so I will try to keep my review short and point-blank.

First and most important: this thriller was highly entertaining and that is it’s main plus.
It took me five days to finish it but that is because I was very busy in time I was reading it. I imagine if I had more time to read I would probably finish it in two days.

It was so easy to read, and I really wanted to turn those pages faster, even though the reason for that wasn’t that I was dying to know what will happen, but because I was purely enjoying spending my time with this book.

It main disadvantage, if I’m being honest, is it’s predictability.
There are many things that happened in the story and, of course, most of them weren’t as obvious, but the main revelation and the outcome were visible from the very beginning of the book.

The second flaw is that the story is just not rememberable.
As I already stated, it has been some time since I finished this novel and I already have hard time when I try to think about it’s side characters or subplots. Most of it is a blur.

In the end, I think this book would appeal to readers who like to read thriller from time to time, but if you’re an advanced reader of that genre, maybe you’d wish it brought more to the table.

3.5 Stars

The first chapter does lure you in and the last chapter is suitably twisty (though you’re also expecting that to be the case, given the blurb), the characters are well-drawn and the book is set in Bristol and its surrounds, so was an interesting change from the usual London fare. In order to give it the full 5 stars, I would have liked more meat in the middle. You could read the first few chapters and the last few and still make sense of the happenings of the book, once the characters have been established. There could have been a few more twists to keep things pacy in the centre.
Overall, well written and I do like this author’s work - The Sisters was one of my favourites and I would start there if this is the first of the author’s work you’re reading.
Many thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Michael Joseph publishers and the author for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a good psychological thriller with a captivating start and the rest being a slow, burn to the satisfying conclusion.

Written at good pace and switching between two timelines with complex and interesting characters, Then She Vanishes is an enthralling read and whilst it might not have the action or thrills of most books of this genre, it definitely has the tension and build-up to rival any of them.

Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review.