Another corker from Lisa Jewell folks 🎉

The Night She Disappeared was a slow burn, nail biting thriller which kept me on my toes until the end.

I’m a big Lisa Jewell fan so I had high expectations and it didn’t disappoint.
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Midsummer 2017: teenage mum Tallulah heads out on a date, leaving her baby son at home with her mother, Kim. At 11 p.m. she sends her mum a text message. At 4.30 a.m. Kim awakens to discover that Tallulah has not come home. Friends tell her that Tallulah was last seen heading to a pool party at a house in the woods nearby called Dark Place. Tallulah never returns.
2018: walking in the woods behind the boarding school where her boyfriend has just started as a head teacher, Sophie, a cosy crime writer, sees a sign nailed to a fence. A sign that says: DIG HERE . . .
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Okay, for a start, a house called Dark Place doesn’t sound great does it?!!😂 This really got my heart racing and I was fully hooked after the first chapter. It’s so compelling and tense 😬 I got to about halfway and had so many questions. I don’t want to say too much about the plot for spoilers but what I loved was….👇

~ a proper page turner.
~ some characters who you will HATE! Brilliant 😅
~ the dual timeline worked really well at developing the story. So 2017 at the time Tallulah disappears and events leading up to it. And then 2018 when Sophie moves to the area and the case is reopened.
~ the setting was atmospheric and chilling. Again, who wants to go to a house called Dark Place which has a dark history and is surrounded by woods?! Come on!!! 😆 I do like secret tunnels and pool parties though 😜
~ all is not what it seems with the characters.
~ a few red herrings/twists which kept me guessing which I think it’s key with thrillers.
~ the ending was a surprise 😉

Once again, another cracking psychological crime thriller from Lisa Jewell. Highly recommend the book and the audiobook. 🤩

Thanks to Netgalley for my approval of this arc. This was my first Lisa Jewell novel, but will definitely not be my last.

A gripping read with a great story line - written very well, grabbing your attention from the start and holding ir well. It made me want to pick it up any spare moment I had.

The ending was very neatly tied up when I wanted it a bit unravelled. But a book I would highly recommend 👌

It is books like this that really make you appreciate the pleasure a well written book can bring.
I had settled for some ok books and then started reading this and what a difference! This book grabs the reader's interest and does not let go until the final page. Alternating time lines between now and then keep the story flowing and building as the background to the fateful night is gradually revealed.
Such a cleverly written book, the characters were well developed and relatable, the storyline keeps the reader fully engaged but still puzzling over what had happened and the pace of the book was perfect making it so difficult to put the book down. Thankfully all questions are answered by the end.
This is a book that the cliches were written for but they are valid, Enjoy it - I did.

Is Lisa Jewell a master of the slow burn? I think so. This is hands down one of the best thrillers I've read in a while thanks to the eerie mystery, the slow burn reveals and the rich character description. Incredibly suspenseful, The Night She Disappeared is great from start to finish.

A new Lisa Jewell thriller goes straight to the top of my reading lists as soon as they are published. She is the queen of carefully plotted dual narratives that hook you in from the first page to the last.

And this is no exception.

Tallulah and her boyfriend have disappeared. They were supposed to be going out for dinner and believed Zach was going to propose. After joining some friends for a pool party they did not return. Some people believe the pressure of being teenage parents has got too much and they have runaway together. Tallulah’s mum does not believe her daughter would ever have left her baby son and is determined not to give up.

The narrative is split between Kim in the present, Tallulah in the past and crime writer Sophie who discovers a sign that sparks her interest and leads her to start her own investigation.

The three voices are clear and distinct and although the past is not too distant there is never any confusion which is one of the things I always love about Jewell’s books.

The writer vividly creates the voice of Tallulah moving from teen to adult. Coping with her studies and friendships while parenting has forced responsibility onto her shoulders. Straddling college life and parenthood is not easy especially with a boyfriend who is increasingly demanding. Tallulah has lost sight of who she is but is keeping her true feelings to herself which adds to the poignancy of her disappearance.

My favourite character was Sophie. Having left London to move in with her older boyfriend as he takes the running of the elite boarding school, she is also lost. Writer’s block has hit and the reality of position means she is often alone. Her writer’s instinct compells her to investigate Tallulah’s disappearance with some shocking results.

This book is faiy long but well paced. The build up is slow as you get to know the characters but it builds to a thrilling climax. There are lots of twists and so.e characters you can never quite trust.

I was hooked from beginning to end.

Thank you Netgalley for my gifted digital copy. The Night She Disappeared is out now.

** spoiler alert ** In 2017, 19 year old Tallulah and her boyfriend go to the local pub for a meal and end up going back to rich girl, Scarlett's mansion for a pool party. Neither Tallulah nor her boyfriend are seen again. People wonder did they elope? But Kim, Tallulah's mother insists they wouldn't have left their baby boy Noah and suspects foul play.

Told in 3 timelines - the lead up to the disappearance from Tallulah's POV, the immediate aftermath of the disappearance told from Kim's POV, and current time, told from cozy mystery writer, Sophie's POV.

This is a suspenseful read with lots of rabbit holes for you to go down, and keep you guessing. There is good character development with a few unlikeable characters. However, I found it long and dragged out at times, and I seriously struggled with two things. The fact that a new to the area cozy mystery writer could unravel a real life mystery and solve lots of clues better than the police, and also there was the ending. The boat. Without giving too much away, I just couldn't get to grips with the ending being in any way believable. A 3.5/5 read for me.

Tallulah, a teenage mother, goes out on a date with her boyfriend, leaving their baby with her mother, Kim.
The morning comes, and when the teenagers are not back, Kim starts to worry. Soon, she has no choice but to alert the police about their disappearance.

I'm a fan of Lisa Jewel, so I pounced on the chance to read the ARC of her upcoming novel.
I hadn't read the blurb, so I went into it blindly. At first, I thought the story seemed like one that had been written about many times, so I got a bit disheartened. But soon enough, I got sucked in, in this imperceptible way that makes you madly turn the pages until suddenly you realise that you're almost finished reading. The story turned out to be gripping, full of twists and turns, and it kept me in suspense.
So, in conclusion, yet again Lisa Jewel doesn't disappoint.

YESSS!!! I absolutely love books like this that give little hints and not-so-subtle but small reveals throughout the book! I kept thinking to myself “curiouser and curiouser” as I read and I loved every delicious second! There was intrigue right up until the very last page and I am here for it! I loved reading how the characters connected and who was who and the little reveals bits at a time! Lisa Jewell proves once again why she is such a successful author! I don’t want to give away any details so I’m trying to be vague! I just want you to read this book!!!

This wicked psychological thriller from one of my favourite authors, Lisa Jewell, is a cold case.

It is 2017 and one summers night, a nineteen-year-old and her boyfriend, Tallulah and Zach, disappear. They were last seen going into the woods and had been at a party of a new college friend. Moving on to 2019 and Sophie Beck, a writer, is taking a stroll in the "Dark Woods". Sophie is new to the area and has just moved into a cottage near the boarding school where her boyfriend. Shaun Gray is the headteacher. On her walk, Sophie spies a note that says "Dig Here".

The story is told in several different timelines and from several perspectives which worked very well for me. The narrative flows seamlessly between the time periods and all the while the tension is on the upwards ratchet. Lisa Jewell's plotting is superb as I fully expected it to be and in The Night She Disappeared, there is a plentiful supply of substories to prevent things from becoming stale. The author is an expert at encouraging the reader to get to know the characters to become fully invested in the outcome and here, I certainly was! A brilliant, suspenseful, atmospheric tale that I'm sure will be well received by many.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Random House/ Century via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book, i love her books and this is no exception, i never guessed the crime or the outcome, loved it. I only wished i had follow up months later on the daughter, but excellently written as ever!!

When reading thrillers, it's only natural to keep trying to guess what happens and how the book might end but this book had only left crumbs, so by the time I was 80% in, I still had absolutely no clue where the story was going. No theories, no substantial guesses, just a jumble of clues in my head and a thirst to know everything.

I loved the way the book interwove between the current and the past events and how this pieced everything together.

I found the characters very intriguing and felt that they all had something to hide.

I love it when a book is that good, you don't want to do anything else except read!!! Lisa Jewel has excelled herself with this book and I can't wait until her next one.

Lisa did *not* disappoint with this one! This was hands down 5 stars which had me hooked until the very end! It wasn't an easy read as two of the characters experience abuse or sexual assault which is uncomfortable and hard to read.

The story is set in 2017 and 2019 and you get the story from Tallulah's perspective as well as her mum's. I. Really don't want to give too much away but I assure you it's a must read! I really didn't expect the ending which was so believable because some people are crazy enough.

Wow, this is one of the best books I have read in a while. I was gripped from the beginning and just had to binge read it as I enjoyed it so much. The characters all played crucial parts and I related to all of them. A truly great book

The Night She Disappeared - Lisa Jewell

Such a gripping read, so hard to put down. which is just what I love in a great suspense book! I liked how the plot is split between time periods and the characterisation of characters is just brilliant, I could really picture them and imagine them throughout. I don't think Lisa Jewell can really do any wrong....bring on her next book!

Thanks so much Netgalley and Random House UK for my chance to read this ARC

Another great read from Lisa Jewel just couldn`t put it down.
Set over multiple timelines, I usually hate it when the story is over different timelines but this is so well written that the story just flows easily you don`t get confused,

Tallulah is a young 19 yr old mum who goes out on a date night with the baby's father Zach leaving her mother Kim to babysit.
Kim panics when they don`t return and she is determined to find out what happened to them even when the case goes cold.
Some great twists, loved Kim and her mother Kim. A great story well worth reading

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC

I absolutely loved this book. Lisa Jewell is a brilliant author and this is her best yet, I think. Beautifully written, with a great set of central characters and a totally authentic location. The novel is also a chilling portrayal of what it's like to be stuck in an abusive relationship. A brilliant read - highly recommended.

Tallulah Murray is 19 years old, living with her mum Kim, studying Social Care at college, in a relationship with Zach Allister and devoted mum to 11 month old Noah, so when she goes out on a date, leaving him with her mum and doesn't return, Kim knows that something is very wrong, she reports it to the police, knowing that the last place Tallulah was seen heading to was a party at Dark Place, the house in the woods, owned by the Jacques family. Fast forward one year and Sophie and Shaun have just moved from London into the area, Shaun is the new head teacher at the boarding school, Sophie soon becomes embroiled in the intrigue behind the missing teenagers when she goes for a walk and at the end of the garden sees a note attached to a tree saying ' DIG HERE', as a writer of detective novels, she knows she can't ignore it.

This latest novel by Lisa Jewell is told across three timelines, bouncing back and forth between 2016 and 2018, gradually revealing the events that led up to and after that night. I liked most of the characters, but especially Tallulah who absolutely doted on Noah, which made me even more desperate for a happy ending. It's an exciting plot with short chapters, writing that flows seamlessly and intriguing twists, which kept me hooked and only real life stopped me from reading this quicker. I've loved all the books I've read so far by Jewell and this was no exception.

I'd like to thank Random House UK Cornerstone and Netgalley for the approval, I will post my review on Amazon and Goodreads.

I have read all this author’s books and this one did not disappoint. Highly recommended.

Many thanks to netgalley and Lisa Jewell for the advanced copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

It’s when mystery writer Sophie watches barmaid Kim ‘restocking the shelves with Fevertree tonic waters’ that I realise why Lisa Jewell’s move from modern romance to thriller writing has been so wildly successful. The Night She Disappeared explores coercion and obsession, neither of them light topics, but it’s so amazingly relatable. Strong characters and a blistering plot deliver for readers - but Night has so much more.
So many of Jewell’s novels feature young adults, often as active but fairly powerless protagonists. I guess that most of Jewell’s readers have been young adults, and can relate both to the strong emotions but also the rhythms, rituals and rites of passage that make it into these pages. Multi-generational points of view - often but not always within families, functional or otherwise - mean that Jewell can explore her themes at various different levels and also to contrast them. So Sophie is having a big romantic adventure and getting no work done. Tallulah is experiencing two contrasting romances while bringing up a toddler and studying to be a social worker. Now, it’s quite possible that the reader has experienced no toxic relationships, nor brought up a toddler, nor studied to be a social worker. So Jewell uses other ways to make we the reader feel part of this world. She name-drops brands like Fevertree or trends such as travel Insta that we’ll know from our own lives, she talks about cosmetic brands’ promises with a knowing wink. And, gloriously, she allows one of the characters to provide a much-needed rollicking to a particularly appalling counterpart. It’s sweary and sarcastic and righteous and just. We readers live for these moments, and Lisa Jewell knows how to deliver them.
Sounds like a warm world, doesn’t it? With the Little Hither Green Detective Agency (full disclosure: I used to live in Hither Green and it was a sleepy backwater of a suburb) and a school that isn’t really a boarding school but almost could be and a gothic mansion with an architectural feature that totally lives in cosy crime, we could be forgiven for expecting whimsy and delight. But instead we get psychological control, physical control and a pack of lies told left, right and centre. No one is telling the truth either to themselves or to others. Tallulah kids herself she can extricate herself from jealous, suspicious Zach. Zach listens to his mother’s vicious and vindictive gossip, builds a wall around himself and tells himself that he will similarly build a wall around his girlfriend and son, whether they like it or not. ‘I’m not particularly interested in what you want or don’t want,’ he tells Tallulah, charmingly. Scarlett knows that the facade she presents to the world is as fake as her hair colour; it isn’t clear to anyone including herself what is behind that facade, or whether she’s in control of it. Even with the lightness provided by Jewell’s style, this world is bleak indeed.
In the end, it comes down to this: what happens if you push someone just a bit too far. And that, too, is something to which we can all relate.
In order to write this book, Lisa Jewell had to mix up her usual practices. She ended up renting a writing space as her usual spots (her kitchen table or a coffee shop) were occupied by her family or just unavailable due to lockdown. I wonder whether this had an effect, conscious or unconscious. Then She Was Gone and The Family Upstairs were particularly unremitting in their tales of psychological and physical abuse. The Night She Disappeared contains shocking, dark and permanently-lasting twists, including in its epilogue but perhaps because they are sustained over a shorter period of time they feel less relentlessly violent. As such it’s a good entry point into the Lisa Jewell experience. An ideal summer pick.

Thanks to Random House Cornerstone, Lisa Jewell & NetGalley for the advance review copy of The Night She Disappeared.

I have read a number of Lisa Jewell's books before and always enjoyed them. so I was really looking forward to what her latest release had in store. It didn't disappoint and I read this from cover to cover in less than 24 hours.

19 year old young Mum Tallulah is living with her Mum and on/off boyfriend Zach who left when she was pregnant, only to return and attempt to make a go of their relationship. One night the young couple head out for the evening leaving their baby son with Tallulah's mother Kim. After visiting their local pub for a meal, they head back to The Dark Place -the huge remote home of rich pupil Scarlett for a pool party with friends - they never return.

The book is told through three different perspectives and timescales which at first can be a little confusing, but once established, these switch fairly seamlessly as we learn more about the characters, their history and the events leading up to and after the disappearance.

When novelist Sophie moves with her husband headteacher to the local school, she takes a walk through the woods and discovers evidence which reopens the case of missing persons Tallulah and Zak, 12 months after their disappearance.

Some of the elements are a little far fetched at times and I did manage to work out some of the twists in advance, but that said, it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book at all. It's a slow burn, character built thriller which is all about relationships, control and secrets and the tension builds really well throughout.