Good summer read for fans of Claire Douglas. Set in dual timelines rhat eventually come together to solve a mystery of missing girls. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

A very riveting read. A lot going on, a lot of twists and turns, I really enjoyed it.
My only very small negative was that it seemed a bit drawn out..
Overall a great read with a well explained ending.
Thank you Netgalley for sending this copy!

What a gripping thriller this is. I found it hard to concentrate to begin with, as there are dual timelines and lots of characters. But once I'd gotten really into the story I couldnt put it down. Very dark, very emotive and very readable. Thank you to NetGalley for a review copy of the book.

A cracking thriller with lots of twists and turns. Lots of characters to remember the names of which was tricky but it’s worth sticking with. Highly recommended!

This was a gripping thriller. I liked the formatting of the short chapters. Plus the switching of timelines shown in italics. I kept reading because I needed to know how it ended.

Firstly a big thank you to the publishers for my copy to review on netgalley. Im.a huge fan of Claire books so was excited to read.

This was a great atmospheric read that I raced through.

Unpredictable and thought provoking as it deals with the aftermath of a accident.

Twists and turns a plenty as delve deeper to discover the truth of that night.

Who can be trusted? Is all as it seems In this close community.

Claires writing has you hooked straight from the start and has all the ingredients for a intriguing psychological thriller.

Published 15th September

The leading lady in this dual time and dual narration thriller killer is called Olivia Rutherford. She lives with her single parent mother Ana and as she grows up she works in the family business, a riding stable and livery yard in a small town called Stafferbury, near Devizes in Wiltshire. She has never met her biological father and her mother is not keen on talking about her Dad.
Olivia has a group of friends that also live in the village. They are all at the same school and their parents know each other well. One night Olivia and her three best friends go out on the town to a pub and disco. Her friends are high on the excitement of freedom and are out to enjoy themselves. On the way home they drive through mystical woods on a road called the Devil’s Corridor. It is known to be spooky, eerie and maybe even paranormal. Strange things happen here and also the cries of a baby have been reported. That night it is raining hard and Olivia skids when a man crosses the road. Her car rolls over and they are knocked unconscious. When she wakes there is nobody else with her. Her leg is trapped and she is in agony. So begin her operations and recovery, and also the investigation of where her friends have gone.
Twenty years later a cold case specialist, a police sergeant called Dale, is hoping to solve the mystery of the missing girls. Coincidentally, journalist Jenna Halliday from Manchester has been asked to make her first podcast about the missing girls. She is hunkered down in a Stafferbury forest lodge. She wants to interview everybody who knows anything about that fateful night. She is unpopular; the community don’t like to talk about that night, especially Wesley, Olivia’s long-time boyfriend, who looks after Olivia and loves her. Jenna receives threatening notes and dead creatures put on her doorstop. She is also attacked.
I enjoyed reading this gripping psychological thriller. It is dark, eerie and creepy with the mildest hint of paranormal events. The storytelling is lively and the storyboard w full of action and wonder. The characterisation is really diverse and interesting. My favourite character is Jenna. She was brave, forthright and very talented. I was not surprised that she and Olivia got on so well, they had many similarities and Olivia learned to trust Jenna. I really disliked Wesley. He was needy, slippery and sneaky. He was jealous, possessive and controlling. I secretly called him Wesley the weasel and his actions made me suspicious and on alert. Even Olivia felt uneasy, especially when he asked her to move in with him.
Another aspect of this story that I really liked was the themes chosen to be worked through the story: survivor guilt, deeply buried secrets, abuse and greed. I was puzzled by the thread that was set in Thailand, where eight friends were invited on a luxury holiday hosted by a charismatic stranger in his expensive and beautiful mansion house. This thread was interspersed between chapters of the main thread, but with such very different content. It made sense when the threads merged together and became a vital clue to what happened to the three missing friends The pace of the novel was sometimes uneven, but the finale made up for that. It was dynamic, totally unexpected and had a wonderful gut wrenching twist that made my spine tingle. I love endings like this, thought provoking and intriguing.
I received a complimentary copy of this novel from publisher Penguin, through my membership of NetGalley. Thank you for my copy sent in return for an honest and unbiased review. This novel is a good read and will keep you turning the pages, wondering what will happen next, excited and soon to reach an irresistible conclusion to mull over. It’s a very well deserved 4.5* review from me.

I really enjoyed this one! It had so much going on from the very beginning. There were lots of little things that all linked to make one big explosive thing! I enjoyed the dual timeline in the telling of what happened in the past and how that linked, and I honestly just couldn’t put the book down!

This was a book that gradually built tension so that it took me by surprise and left me unsettled and reading long into the night. The way that past timelines and the present interweaved and the sense that the truth was just beyond your fingertips kept you fully engaged and doubting everything and everyone.
You won't always like or trust the characters but that is almost what makes it so good. There is a sense of mystery and of threat and the isolated settings add to the mood
There are questions to be asked, connections to be made and secrets to be unveiled - what else can you ask for in an edge of your seat thriller.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I really enjoy this authors books and this did not disappoint, this was a fast paced page turner with a great storyline and characters.

Very thrilling book about Olivia who has a car accident with her three friends when she comes round she finds that her friends are not with her they have disappeared. The story is creepy and dark the characters are fantastic and I loved it very sad when it ended I would definitely recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

Another excellent book from Claire. Set in the West Country, it is suitably creepy with local legends, standing stones and holiday cabins set in a looming forest. Twenty years ago, four girls returned late from a night out and had a crash. When the accident was discovered the driver was trapped and injured, but alive, but the other girls were gone - never to be seen again. Jenna, a journalist arrives in the area to produce a podcast on the twentieth anniversary, in the hope that she can find something new. The locals are cagey and hostile even after all these years and unwilling to engage. It becomes more absorbing as the story develops. I’m not sure it’s Claire’s bes but I certainly enjoyed it. Good characters and atmosphere with an unexpected twist.

Thanks to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

What a beautiful slow burning book. Please don't think slow burning is a criticism, for me it's an asset, slowly building and building up to a dramatic conclusion.
Centered around a journalist investigating a cold case for a podcast, it doesn't seem like there's too much 'current' drama, only discovering horrors of the past. Slowly but surely, strange things and small details don't quite add up and a complete tidal wave of drama hits you, all the way to the very end.

Gradually all the details and connections throughout the story shake loose and make for an incredible end to a curious mystery.

A cold case exploration as a journalist tries to discover what happened several years earlier when 3 girls vanished after an accident. The story progresses on the journey to a rather disappointing end. The results of the quest are less than dramatic and the final tie up feels predictable to me.
I am sorry to say that I was disengaged with this book and felt it lacked structure. So apart from the ‘percentage read’ available on the kindle it was not clear if I was in the middle of the book or reaching the end.

Chilling Suspense…
A twenty year old case sparks intense feeling in this atmospheric, chilling suspense with a solid mystery at its heart. A tragic car accident leaves one survivor and three missing never to be seen again. Journalist Jenna Halliday is determined to get to the bottom of a mystery that has lain stagnant for twenty years. The problem is that no one will talk. What secrets are being kept in the tight knit community? With multiple threads, a deftly crafted cast of characters and an intriguing and immersive plotline this is a gripping read from the first to last page.

It was the creepy storyline that drew me to this book: we have urban myths, missing girls, a plethora of suspicious characters and the setting itself is seriously eerie - I absolutely loved it!

What appear to be random chapters set in Thailand did throw me a little at first, as I struggled to see how they fit into the tale, however, when we get the link (which I didn’t guess) all becomes clear.

The book has some intriguing twists and well-developed characters, it is well written with an excellent plot - worthy of all 5 stars.

This was an excellent read. I could not put it down. A good ending which tied everything together and wasn't predictable. I need to read more by this author.

10/10 for this one! It has a great plot and great characters. Lots of mystery and twists I loved every page. Really was a fantastic read

I recently had the chance to read The Girls Who Disappeared thanks to @netgalley and I have now added Claire Douglas to my ever growing list of authors to auto-buy!

The setting for this story is deliciously creepy; the secluded woods at the end of The Devil’s Corridor…it gave the tale a wonderfully chilling atmosphere that complemented the mystery of the missing girls.

No spoilers here, I’ll just say this kept me guessing with its twists and turns, flashbacks to a past that I couldn’t for the life of me see the link to and surprise relationships. For the first time in a looooong time I felt the need to close my curtains when I was reading this at night….I LOVED that.

So, if you want a moody thriller that will keep you on your toes and make you feel a little on edge when you’re reading alone in the dark…this is the book for you 😳

⭐️4.5/5⭐️

Jenna is making a podcast about an unsolved case. A group of girls driving home from a night out and a mysterious accident. Four girls in the car - but when emergency services arrive, only Olivia is left. What happened to the others? Did they run away? Why did they leave Olivia? Or has something more mysterious happened in these haunted woods.

Jenna spends her time working through the towns people - the parents of the missing girls and Olivia herself, who she is sure knows more than she lets on. Then there’s Jay who owns the holiday cottage and handsome Dale, police sergeant also researching the case.

Interspersed throughout the story are snippets of a holiday from many years earlier. But who are the characters and what significance do they have?

I did find the flashbacks a little confusing but it does all come together in the end - perhaps the answer to the girls’ disappearance feels a bit far fetched, but it is explained in the end.