Twisted. Dark. Suspenseful (oh, so suspenseful). Lisa Jewell’s books are always edge-of-your-seat, and The Night She Disappeared is a tremendous psychological thriller. From the very first page, you’re enveloped in a sense of doom ... you just know there’s going to be no happy-ever-after ending. There’s a young couple who disappear after a night partying at a massive country estate, leaving a much adored baby behind with his gran, a group of not-terribly-desirable youngsters who are meant to be their friends but are not terribly concerned or helpful, and two awful mothers who leave a lot to be desired. There are drugs and love, secrets and lies, cryptic clues and many, many twists and turns. Honestly, don’t start it at bedtime ... you will not be able to put it down.

Tallulah and Zach are young parents living with Mum Kim. Until one night they go missing. Full of control, tension and intrigue. A real page turner. Liked reading about Tallulah being a young mum navigating her way through life. Well drawn characters. Enjoyed. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me review this book.

When Tallulah and her boyfriend Zach go out for a date, her mum Kim is happy to babysit little Noah while they have an evening off and enjoy themselves at the pub. Tallulah messages her mum around 11pm to say they are going to a friend's house, but when Kim wakes up at 4:30am she discovers that the couple aren't home yet. Friends tell her that the pair were last seen going to a party at a house in the woods called Dark Place, but the family living there claim to know nothing about the disappearance. Kim tries to speak to everyone who knew Tallulah to find out what happened to her daughter and her boyfriend. The following year, a lady called Sophie, who has just moved to the boarding school with her head-teacher husband, is walking in the woods when she sees a sign that says "Dig Here". What follows will bring the disappearance case back into investigation... Will Kim find out what happened to Tallulah and Zach?

This book was brilliant, with a great plot, a variety of interesting characters, and twists and turns that continue to shock and surprise you. I loved how the book went from past to present and how everything came together at the end. Very much recommended!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of the book in return for my honest feedback.

Sophie a novelist has just moved into the headmasters house in a boarding school with her partner who has just started working there.
Out on a walk to explore the local area she finds a cardboard message nailed to a fence. The message reads ‘Dig here’ and an arrow pointing downwards.
This message turns out to be a clue to a missing persons case. A teenage couple disappeared a year before in that area and have never been found.
Another great novel by Lisa Jewell with memorable characters and a story that griped me from the first page.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Dual timelines, several points of view. Not my favourite elements; but this is Lisa Jewell and it is used to great effect. It is a slow burn but absolutely compelling and the narrative and description pull you along to the end. Creepy woods, strange messages and characters you come to care about, what more can you ask! I loved it and it should bring Lisa lots of new fans. Recommended to all thriller readers.
Thanks to Cornerstone and NetGalley for the ARC and the opportunity to read such a good book.

I am absolutely here for anything written by Lisa Jewell. The way she builds suspense and unease in a thriller is unmatched. This might be my favourite of hers yet.

19 year old Tallulah has a son with her childhood sweetheart, but he’s controlling and smothering and it seems that she’s trapped in this relationship. They both live with Tallulah’s mum Kim who is supportive and loving. But her life is turned upset down when she meets wild child Scarlett, who has her questioning everything she thought she knew about the path her life should take.

In the present, Tallulah and her boyfriend Zach have gone missing, leaving Kim with their young son. The case has gone cold. But then a sign appears mysteriously saying “Dig here”. We see Kim trying to figure out just what happened on the night she disappeared, with the help from the local head teachers girlfriend, Sophie who also happens to be a detective novelist!

Each character was so well created and I loved the quirkiness of Sophie matched with the severity of the situation.

I thought this was another brilliant thriller by Lisa Jewell. I absolutely devoured it because I just had to know what happened! It wasn’t as dark as her usual work but it was definitely packed with twists that had you questioning everything.

Well that was a roller coaster. I found all the dodging backwards and forwards in time a bit hard to get into at first, but it was worth persevering. an excellent story with marvellous detail and characters. Highly recommended.

Lisa Jewell’s books have always been a treat for me, and this one was truly the icing on the cake! The strange disappearance of a teenage mom is merely the opening shot of this excellent tale.

This book is amazing and might even be my favourite Lisa Jewell book yet (and that’s saying something!)
I was super excited to be able to read an advance copy and loved every word.
It’s the perfect psychological thriller and once I started it, I couldn’t put it down. Unlike lots of books of this genre, I didn’t guess the ending and was hooked until the last page.
Its definitely worth a big fat 5 stars and I’m a little gutted that it’s finished.

For me, this book had a very promising start. Kim’s daughter and her boyfriend went missing two years’ ago. You get her perspective, the daughter’s (which slowly reveals what happened) and the present day perspective of Sophie who is new to the town. I was pretty gripped until the very end which didn’t ring true for me. Thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

In 2017, Tallulah Murray was taken out for a date night by childhood sweetheart Zach, leaving their one-year-old son at home with Tallulah’s mum Kim. The next day, Tallulah and Zach still haven’t come home and after reaching out to the people they went to a party with and being met with indifference, Kim is forced to accept something bad has happened and reports them both missing. In 2019, mystery novelist Sophie ups sticks with her boyfriend, from London to a cottage within the grounds of a boarding school, where he will be the head teacher. While exploring her new surroundings one day, Sophie spots something odd stuck in the ground at the end of her garden - a note saying ‘DIG HERE’ with an arrow pointing downwards...

Hats off to Lisa Jewell for yet another riveting read, I’m fairly confident she can do no wrong!

The Night She Disappeared is written across dual timelines and from multiple POVs - mainly Tallulah, her mum Kim and mystery author Sophie. I had certain expectations of this book and how I thought it was going to pan out but I was completely (and pleasantly) surprised by the direction the story went in. Rather than being a high-stakes and horrifically dark tale, it’s more of a slow burner mystery which I found enjoyable to try and work out.

There are some truly brilliant characters in this book who were written in a way that kept me guessing what their true intentions were and the two alternating timelines worked really well to create a mounting level of tension and suspense, concluded with a sinister ending. I’m a big fan of Lisa’s style of writing, she’s an author that has the knack of being able to keep you hooked with a carefully crafted and intricate story and doesn’t need to drop twist after twist to keep you engaged.

While not my absolute favourite book of Lisa’s (mainly because nothing will ever top The House We Grew Up In), it definitely showcases her extraordinary talent as per usual and was a solid read that I started and finished within two days.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It's a testament to Lisa Jewell's writing that I didn't get to bed till almost 2am this morning. I could not put this book down.

The novel switches between past and present, and also between narrators, so the story is revealed gradually, with twists along the way and shifting perspectives. The basic premise is that nineteen year old Tallulah has disappeared along with her boyfriend Zach after a rare night out. Tallulah's mum Kim is insistent: the couple wouldn't have left willingly: they dote on their infant son, Noah, and would never leave him behind. The other main protagonist is Sophie, who has just moved to the rural boarding school after her partner has taken the job of headteacher. When Sophie finds a note by the woods behind her new house telling her to "Dig here", she can't resist. And what she finds set in motion a whole chain of events and reveals...

The characters are brilliantly written, and I really loved Tallulah in particular. I also really enjoyed the style and pace of the novel, with the author deftly manipulating the truth so that nothing turns out to be as it first appeared. Master of the twist, and an exceptional writer - I'm already looking forward to Lisa Jewell's next book.

Thank you to NetGalley, and to the publisher, who provided me with a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am so grateful for this book! After reading 7 books in a row that were either not to my taste or just ok, I was beginning to lose my love of reading, but then came this fantastic book by one of my favourite authors.

I always feel relatively confident going into a Lisa Jewell book that it's going to be good. She has a fantastic knack for character development, as shown in this book. All of the characters including side characters were well fleshed out and realistic.

I was immediately drawn into the plot as there were a lot of strands to it, and I really couldn't guess how it would all tie together. I loved how the various relationships in the story were portrayed.

I enjoyed the ending. I would love to know what happened to all the main characters after the events of the book but I suppose I will just have to use my imagination.

Thank you Lisa Jewell for restoring my love of reading and for writing another cracking novel.

A new Lisa Jewell is always a delight! This one was totally gripping and absorbing and I loved the way it slipped in time and jumped to the present again so you were completely right in the centre of the action. Compulsive reading all the way through.

The opening was great, enough detail to pull you in and wonder where the teenagers disappeared to.

After a few chapters I realised there were three timelines all in consecutive years from 2016-2018. That’s great but this did confuse me a bit. If you decide to read this book you may want to add in your phone notes a brief description to save you recalling previous chapters like I did. It took me a few chapters to remember the timeline, but then my memory is bad.

Each new chapter brought intrigue, there’s normally one timeline in books like this that you don’t necessarily care about. This book didn’t have that. I wanted to keep reading to find out more for each of them.

The characters were well described and I had a clear image of them in my mind. Each with their own traits. There were a few I didn’t care about but they were ones with smaller parts within the book so the author did a great job of pulling your interest to the right ones.

The plot was wonderful! I kept thinking about the story as I put it down to eat, all I could think about was the great foreshadowing that emerged as the book progressed.

I wasn’t overly shocked at the ending. It wasn’t quite what I expected but it was all pulled together nicely and answers given.

It had elements of mystery, it was creepy and parts were just spine-chilling. This mixed with the twists throughout made it a fantastic thriller.

Also, I read the acknowledgments which were wonderful! I loved to read about Lisa Jewell’s lockdown book and how it came about.

Another gripping page turner from Lisa Jewell. She really does write superb psychological thrillers. The plot unfolds steadily and intriguingly, giving you clues but keeping you guessing. You are willing good to prevail over evil, but never quite sure if it will. All of the characters are interesting, with their own personal dramas playing out alongside the main plot. A thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying read. It was particularly interesting to read how she worked on this novel during lockdown. I can imagine how difficult it must have been, but she certainly succeeded. Totally recommended.

What a twisty plot of a book! Full of mystery and intrigue with rounded and believable characters..... what did really happen on that June night when Zach and Tallulah seemingly disappeared into thin air after leaving a friend’s pool party? Why does everyone who was there, at the pool party that night appear to be hiding something? These are the questions that Sophie, a published mystery author asks herself, when she moves into her new home in the grounds of a posh with her headteacher boyfriend, and stumbles across a cardboard sign pinned to her gate with the words ‘Dig Here’ written in marker pen and discovers the year old mystery.
Fabulous and kept me guessing right to the end.

Lisa Jewell did it again! The Night she Disappeared gripped me from the outset. I just loved Kim and her honest struggle with her grandson. Her conflict about finally having a life and having to give it up yet loving little Noah so deeply. The other characters came to life quickly and with substance, helped greatly by the use of the split storyline. There are strong female leads throughout and Lisa covers so many facets of life, ranging from coercive control to sexuality, peer pressure, and loyalty. Sophie was very authentic with her honest reflections about her relationship and relocation. I loved how she immediately got sucked into the mystery of Tallulah and Zach’s disappearance which was totally in keeping with her career as a writer of detective novels. There are just enough red herrings (aka people) in the storyline to keep you guessing. Lisa manages to convey Scarlet’s brokenness as tragic yet also as manipulative. Both are done really well by Lisa. I really found myself sucked into the narrative and kept reading long after I should have been making dinner, sleeping, watching a tv programme-but then again that really is what I look for in the best kind of book! That and leaving you wanting more and missing the characters. I’d love to know how Noah gets on and whether Kim & Dom spend more time together. Will Sophie stay with Shaun? What will Liam do next?
I’ve no hesitation in giving this mystery five solid stars. Loved it

Rating: 3.4/5

With "The Night She Disappeared" Lisa Jewell has produced another captivating novel that is sure to appeal to many people. For the most part I really enjoyed the experience of reading this, but I couldn't help feeling that the overall impact was let down by elements that just seemed too unlikely to really ring true, even after making allowance for dramatic licence.

Young mum, Tallulah, goes for a night out with her boyfriend, Zach. They leave their baby child, Noah, with Tallulah's mother, Kim. The young parents have Kim's blessing to make a night of it and not to worry about rushing home early. But when the morning comes and the pair have still not returned, it becomes clear that all is not well.

The story takes place across a variety of points in time between 2016 and 2018. The time frame does jump around quite a bit, but the particular point when the events are taking place is always clearly signposted. It just means that you do need to pay proper attention and make a mental note as you are reading particular sections.

Lisa Jewell certainly knows how to craft a page turner of a novel that makes you want to keep reading just one more chapter, so that you can find out what happens next. That said, there were a number of elements that, for me, didn't quite bear scrutiny and felt a little slapdash, which is not becoming of Lisa Jewell, who is a better writer than that. I won't mention everything, nor will I go into great detail, because I am always conscious of spoilers, but here is a quick example: Sophie, the new head teacher's girlfriend, is a published author of cosy crime novels ... but she couldn't recall, without prompting, that a significant event in this mystery was borrowed directly from her own debut novel. Really?

Nonetheless, this was still an engaging and captivating read that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend. I just felt that it could have been even better, if a few aspects of the plotting and characterisation had been a little tighter.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review.

spine tingling suspense! a brilliant offering from Lisa Jewell to keep you on the edge of your seat. The story is told across 3 different periods of time. The Past, the incident and the current unfolding of events. its one of those books were the chapter ends and you are dying to know what happens next... but you have to go to the other period of time first.

its a breeze to read, purely on adrenaline to get to the gritty details and this book is gritty... wow. a work of suspense action yet again by Jewell. She is formidable in her writing style, with ideas you cannot guess, keeping you hooked.

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