The Night She Disappeared, by Lisa Jewell

The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“The Night She Disappeared” by Lisa Jewell was a truly suspenseful read! Tallulah, 19, mother to baby Noah, and her boyfriend Zach of the same age vanish without a trace. Left behind is Tallulah’s mother Kim who takes care of Noah.

In three narrated time strands we get to better understand what happened in the eponymous night – in one from Tallulah’s point of view, in another from that of her mother Kim who cannot rest until her child is at least found and in the final strand we get to accompany mystery writer Sophie who literally unearths the key to the entire mystery…

A mansion with a secret tunnel, a boarding school for “difficult” pupils, a new head teacher, an illustrious but shady prominent family – what could possibly go wrong in a novel with these ingredients!?

And, in fact, almost nothing does: Every character feels real and convincing – up to and including the dog. The atmosphere shifts between village peace and harmony, the fore-boding and – in the present time – uninhabited mansion as well as Sophie’s curiosity when she digs deeper into the mystery; they all work very well and made this book into one I didn’t want to put down.

There are a few loose ends, though, which I think would have been nice to get closure on – from the burnt odour in Sophie’s cottage which we hear about several times but never get to the bottom of to the unresolved relationships issues between Sophie and Shaun to, last but not least, the strange behaviour of Megs, Zach’s mother.

All in all, a suspenseful mystery. Four out of five stars.


Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam




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