What a thrilling read. From the first to last page the story was gripping. It has been twenty years since Olivia crashed her car leaving her unconscious and her three friends with her in the car disappeared without a trace.. When Jenna Halliday, a journalist arrives to re-investigate and write an article she finds that no-one is willing to open up and talk to her. As she delves deeper she starts to receive threats. The locals are scared and Olivia id made to face her demons of trying to remeber what happened.
This is a brilliantly written work of fiction full of twists and turns.

I feel as a few other reviewers threat the book was quite slow paced. It took a long time to get to the resolution of the mystery of the disappearance of the 3 girls. Other parts were a bit hard to believe. Not my favourite thriller.

3.5⭐️
I was excited to read this as I loved the couple at No 9.
A group of friends were driving home in bad weather after a night out. Olivia was driving, with her were friends Jenna, Hetty and Tamzin. The car crashes when suddenly a stranger appears in the road. When Olivia regained consciousness she is trapped in the car and her friends have disappeared.

20 years later journalist Jenna us covering the case for a podcast. As we are introduced to Jenna and Olivia in 2018, there’s a good creepy vibe emitting from both the woods and the stables.
The current section is narrated by Jenna and Olivia. I was enjoying the part where Jenna is trying to interview people, but then there’s a totally different thread about a bunch of friends in Thailand I didn’t like it, and found it distracting as it appears so disjointed. I know there’s going to be a connection, but i can’t concentrate on those chapters because I can’t see the relevance. When I did see the connection to be honest that whole thread it only needed the final bits.

It’s a slow paced book. There’s repeated reference to Olivia keeping a secret which creates some suspense, which is increased by sone events.
I liked Jenna, but Olivia was difficult to take to.
I’ve read books presented as podcasts before that have worked really well. This isn’t a podcast format just a fact finding mission for one, so that was a disappointment.

In conclusion it’s a book of 2 parts. For the most of it I found it too slow going with a lot of repetition of the few facts that were revealed so that was 3⭐️
The ending had a good complexity 4⭐️ but it was all divulged too late for me to make the whole book engaging. So overall I’ll give it 3.5⭐️
But it could easily have ended up as a dnf.

I loved this book. A clever, gripping, twisty story which kept me glued to the page and definitely kept me guessing and didn’t expect that ending. It’s written in dual narrative, what is happening now and what happened 20 years ago. The storyline is engrossing. It has intriguing characters, a spooky setting and twists and turns throughout to keep you reading. I couldn’t put it down.
A tense, spine chilling mystery. I definitely recommend.
Thanks to #NetGallery #MichealJoseph #PenguinRandomHouse for an arc of #TheGirlsWhoDisappeared in exchange for an honest review.

📚📖 BOOK REVIEW 📖📚

📖 Book - The Girls Who Disappeared.
✍️ Author - Claire Douglas
📕 Publisher - Michael Joseph
🗓 Publication Date - 15th Sept 2022

20 years ago….. Olivia woke up in her car, after a car crash and realised her friends had disappeared from the car!!
As it’s coming up to the 20th Anniversary- Jenna is a journalist and is looking to gain info for new podcast. This book kept me reading and definitely kept me guessing!! Genuinely did not expect that ending. Would recommend this book - give it a go !
#clairesouglas #thegirlsthatdisappeared #netgalley

#bookstagramshaz

Another great work out for the grey matter from this very talented author.
Twenty years ago a car crashed into the woods, it had four teenage girls inside. By the time the driver regained consciousness her three friends are no longer in the car. What happened to them??? Where are they???
Olivia the driver is being interviewed for an up coming podcast to tell in her own words what happened on that fateful night. Why is she so reluctant to talk? Does she know more than what she told the police?? This is very clever story telling which had me gripped and reading late into the night I HAD TO KNOW THE TRUTH!!! This book left me speechless and shocked and for me personally her best book so far. Loved it and highly recommended.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

I recently read The Couple at No. 9 after a friend’s recommendation and enjoyed it, so thought I’d try another by Claire Douglas. The opening of the novel is excellent, Olivia is driving home after a night out with three friends in her car. She wakes up from a car crash alone. Her friends have vanished without trace. Twenty years on and journalist Jenna visits the village to create an anniversary podcast. Only no one wants Jenna digging into the mystery and someone is determined to stop her.

I liked the switches at the beginning as both Olivia’s story and Jenna’s arrival intertwined. The plot was a good one as Jenna slowly uncovers the secrets of The Missing Girls. I found it realistic and enjoyable with just the right level of drama. I liked that there were little false trails, so Jenna didn’t get to see the whole picture too soon, it kept my interest up as a reader. It also worked well that members of the community had been living with the secrets for two decades, it made the threats against Jenna feel more realistic as she threatened to upset the status quo. There were also changes in pace, which gave it a realistic rhythm, although the less exciting parts felt a little drawn out. The setting for the novel is quite creepy sounding and Douglas makes it hugely atmospheric – I could practically feel the mist rising off the pages. It added brilliantly to the creepiness of the plot and some of its shadowy characters.

I recommend this to fans of historical crime thrillers and creepy atmospheric mysteries. My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Michael Joseph for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest reivew.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

We meet Jenna, who is an investigative journalist. She is to make a podcast on 3 girls who went missing 20 years ago after being in a car accident. They disappeared without a trace, leaving one friend behind in the car accident who was trapped. The surviving friend, Olivia, has no idea where her friends disappeared to. The town involved is a small town, where everyone knows everyone, with an air of mystery and the supernatural. Jenna doesn’t believe a word of it and is sure she can get to the bottom of where the girls went.

This was a great story, with the setting ensuring the creepy value. We read from two timelines, what is happening now, and what happened many years ago to start the ball rolling on what has happened, the characters were all okay, I liked Jenna, she was the perfect character. She would do pretty much anything for the truth, but was openly afraid. Another great read from this author!!

A brilliant twisty and complex thriller. Lots of characters both past and present to really keep you engaged. A tragic story and I really felt for Olivia.

After reading The Couple at No9 last year and absolutely loving it, I was looking forward to getting stuck into this one! Unfortunately, for me, this story felt a bit slow paced in comparison.

The story centres around Jenna - a journalist who has been given a podcast to produce around a 20 year mystery of 3 missing young women. In the late 90s whilst coming home from a night out, Olivia Rutherford swerved to avoid hitting a figure in the road on the Devil’s Corridor and crashed her car with her 3 best friends in it. When she awoke, her friends were nowhere to be seen and the mystery of their disappearance has never been solved.

When Jenna arrives in town, everyone seems to be hiding something. And when cold case detective Dale is sent to revisit the case, new developments begin to surface.

Sadly this is where things just kept plodding along - there was a lot of “the trees are so dark and scary” and “was that a shadow?” And “should I trust him/her?” It was only towards the end that suddenly things were slotted together and revealed, and I found myself feeling like I wanted something more!

Saying that, I did enjoy the sub-story with the friends on holiday in Thailand. I was so intrigued and couldn’t wait to find out how this story would be interwoven into the lives of Olivia and Jenna. When this part was revealed I thought that was an excellent bit of storytelling! And I enjoyed the relationship growing between Jenna and Dale.

I just wish the pace had been a bit more lively throughout! The final reveals were quite enjoyable but after such a build up I almost wanted something more “wow!”

Rating: 3.2

This is my second experience of the work of Claire Douglas, having previously read her impressive "The Couple at No.9". Although the storyline here is significantly different, there are a number of stylistic similarities. Like its predecessor this has a slow build-up (far too slow, in my opinion - but more of that later), the characterisation is reassuringly solid and there is a gradual disclosure of pertinent background information that relates to the eventual solving of the mystery.

The narrative is told predominantly from two perspectives. There is Olivia, a woman in her late thirties, who was involved in a car accident some twenty years earlier along with three of her friends. Olivia survived the crash after being rendered unconscious, but her companions had all mysteriously disappeared when she regained consciousness. The second point of view is provided by Jenna, a journalist looking into the case with the intention of making a podcast about it. Intermittently, there is also a third viewpoint, written in italics, though it is not immediately apparent who is providing this account or when the events are taking place. Clearly, this will have relevance to the central mystery (because that is just how these things work), but the connection will not become clear until much later in the piece.

Ultimately, I quite enjoyed "The Girls Who Disappeared". There are one or two aspects that stretch credulity a little, but I can live with that within the parameters of creative dramatic fiction. I was more concerned with the amount of time that the story took to get into its stride. It is only in the final third - and predominantly in the final quarter - that the pace really begins to pick up. It is also a touch worrying that Claire Douglas admits in the "Acknowledgements" that it was only after she had had the notes back from her editor that she "could see more clearly what I needed to do to make the book sharper, pacier and tighter, and I ended up cutting out nearly fifteen thousand words". When I read that, I found myself thinking, "Wow! If this is the souped-up, pacier version, I dread to think how much that previous draft would have dragged!" But hey! That's what editors are for, and even though I think the end product would still have benefitted from an earlier injection of pace, it is still an enjoyable and worthwhile read. Provided that you are prepared to stick with it, of course!

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

Truly a captivating read. Drew me in from the start and I couldn't wait to read more. I really did not guess the end. Fabulous piece of work.

As always, my thanks to Michael Joseph and NetGalley for allowing me to review.

This was a pacy and old fashioned type mystery which kept me guessing until the very end. Olivia and her friends are out for the evening and Olivia is driving them home. The, weather is poor and all of a, sudden, a hooded figure appears on the road in front of them. Swerving to avoid a collision, the car skids and crashes. A short time later Olivia regains consciousness to find herself trapped in the car and a local man attempting to free her. However, what has happened to her friends who were in the car with her? There's no trace of them being there at all.

Roll on 20 years and a journalist visits the, town having heard about spooky goings on and the mysterious appearance of a hooded figure. Waking up old memories and interviewing Olivia results in some unexpected answers with lives in danger.

One rainy night, a teenager crashes her car on a country road. She is found trapped in the car, but her three friends who were passengers have disappeared from the wreckage. Years later, can a journalist help solve the mystery of what happened to the missing teens?

This was a really fascinating crime/thriller with just the right amount of intrigue and character development. The protagonists were engaging, as were the subplots. It wasn’t until two thirds of the way through the book that I could even start guessing how the story would turn out, so I was a captive reader throughout. Would definitely recommend to crime/thriller fans out there.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc ebook.
This book was great, it has intriguing characters, a spooky setting and plenty of twists and turns to keep you on your toes!

This was a really good read, the story was engrossing and I couldn't wait to finish to see how it all played out.

The Girls Who Disappeared, is ,unsurprisingly, about 3 young women who vanish after a night out with their friend Olivia. The car crashes on a deserted road in bad weather. When Olivia, the driver, regains consciousness, her 3 friends have gone, literally without a trace.
20 years later, Jenna, a journalist, arrives in Stafferbury to research a podcast she is planning. Stafferbury is an atmospheric village in Wiltshire. A seemingly mysterious place, with much folklore surrounding the ancient stone circle.

The story runs in a dual timeline, with a separate story telling us of 8 friends having an exotic holiday, courtesy of the generous Derreck.

I enjoyed the Stafferbury story, but the Thailand story didn’t click with me. I felt it was literally 2 separate stories within one book, as opposed to being one cohesive story.
I didn’t dislike the book, but it just felt a little far fetched for me. The plot culmination, and the bringing together of the stories just felt like a stretch too far.
I’m sure plenty of readers will love the book, but it’s just 3⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me I’m afraid.

Oh I really enjoyed this one! Quite a big surprise at one point regarding the side story about the couples on holiday which made a lot of sense once you grasped the timelines. Also a lot of shocks about who the characters really were and what they were getting up to.
I liked Jenna the journalist, she certainly struck lucky in her timing of her new podcast!
Well written and definitely a page turner, I would recommend all this author's books.

I'm always in the market for a twisty crime novel and this one seemed to good to pass up!

The story opens with the past disappearance of three teenage girls. Four of them drove home in one car but - after an accident - only one injured girl remains. Where did they go? Now, twenty years later, Jenna Halliday has come to Stafferbury to make a podcast about the events of that night. She needs the co-operation of Olivia, the survivor, but why won't Olivia speak about her missing friends? Jenna finds herself in danger as she starts to uncover the secrets held by the residents of the small town.

I liked the central premise of this novel - how can three teenage girls simply disappear into thin air? Douglas sustains and reveals the mystery well, with elements of the story told from both Jenna and Olivia's perspectives. There are also intriguing sections about a holiday in Thailand told in flashback which seem a bit random at first - but stick with it!

The main characters are well written, even though Jenna seemed to walk into every dodgy situation that I definitely wouldn't have! Staying in a remote cabin in the woods didn't seem like a great choice from the start...

This is an engaging read with lots of surprises - I can't say that I predicted much of what happened at all. The varied narrators, plus the unexpected events (some of which were a little unbelievable) definitely kept me on my toes while I was reading.

I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys tense thrillers with plenty of twists - you'll race through it, not sure who can be trusted and suspicious of just about everyone!

Thanks to NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

A solid four star read. Great premise. Well written. Good characters. Page turner. Plenty of suspense to keep me guessing Would definitely read her next novel. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review it.