nightshedisappeared

My Rating ~ Five Stars

RELEASE DATE: 7 September 2021

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Penguin Books Australia

Blurb

2017: 19 year old Tallulah is going out on a date, leaving her baby with her mother, Kim.

Kim watches her daughter leave and, as late evening turns into night, which turns into early morning, she waits for her return. And waits.

The next morning, Kim phones Tallulah’s friends who tell her that Tallulah was last seen heading to a party at a house in the nearby woods called Dark Place.

She never returns.

2019: Sophie is walking in the woods near the boarding school where her boyfriend has just started work as a head-teacher when she sees a note fixed to a tree.

‘DIG HERE’ . . .

A cold case, an abandoned mansion, family trauma and dark secrets lie at the heart of Lisa Jewell’s remarkable new novel.

Review

Thank you so much to Penguin Books Australia for providing me with a copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review!

Kim didn’t want another child, but she’s found herself a young grandmother, when her 19 year old daughter had a baby. Tallulah and her boyfriend are living with her when one night, they go out on a date and never return. Kim knows there’s no way her daughter would abandon her baby, like some people believe. She knows something has happened to here and she’s determined to find out what it is.

One year later, crime novelist Sophie and her boyfriend move into a house near where Tallulah went missing. When she finds a note attached to their garden gate that says ‘dig here’, she finds herself embroiled in the missing persons case.

The Night She Disappeared is told in alternating time lines – leading up to the night the young couple went missing and the present day. I was absolutely enthralled by this book from the very beginning. With characters that are often unlikeable and find themselves in situations that spiral out of control, I found it hard to know who to trust and who to sympathise with. Kim was living every mother’s nightmare and it was so frustrating that she couldn’t get answers from anyone.

There were so many twists and turns, I never knew what was coming next and couldn’t wait for it to all flow together at the end. And what an ending! This was only my second Lisa Jewell book and it’s convinced me I need to pick up more of them ASAP!