This review won’t be one of my long ones, because I simply can’t find many positive things to say about Claire Douglas’ latest (which is an unusual and highly disappointing thing in and of itself), and I can’t refuse to be one of those reviewers who writes a review that’s comprised of nothing but negative remarks.

I am usually a fan of Claire Douglas. I may not think she’s the best writer in her genre, but I don’t pass up any of her releases either. I love the focus on females in her books, as the victims, heroes, and villains. She writes striking scenes, memorable characters, and some sinister plots. In “The Girls Who Disappeared”, the female focus was there, but I was, to put it rather bluntly, very bored.

The beginning of the book, like all Claire Douglas books, is set up to sink its hook right into your brain to drag you into the book. You find yourself needing to know what happened. It’s almost like a compulsion, because the set-up is so enticing. In the case of this book, I wasn’t hooked. It didn’t seem like anything new. It felt a bit like a 90’s horror film. It had that distinct feeling of having been done before. The podcast thing has been done innumerable times in the genre in the past three years, and I’m tired of it… especially when it doesn’t feel like the writer has done their homework on how a podcast meant to be aired on the BBC would be researched, recorded, written, produced, and how all the legal minutiae would be handled along the way. I found myself having to suspend far too much of my disbelief.

Mostly, though? I was simply tired of it. It wasn’t anything new, it wasn’t fun, and it bored me.

NetGalley and Harper Perennial Paperbacks provided me with access to this title. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. Thank you. As per my personal policy this review will not appear on social media or any bookseller website due to the 3 star or lower rating.

File Under: Psychological Thriller/Crime Thriller/Murder Thriller/Suspense Thriller

I enjoyed this story about a writer conducting her first podcast on the 20th anniversary of a cold case involving a car crash and the disappearance of three of the four girls in the car.

Told through two different timelines, there is a parallel story about friends who travel to Thailand and some dicey things that happen there. The descriptions of the woods surrounding the Devil's Corridor and the rental cabins will sufficiently put you in the mood for reading about some of the spooky things that happen to Jenna, the journalist who is there to find the truth behind the "girls who disappeared".

There were some liberties the author took to trick us, and I found it a little too convenient that Jenna has better luck at getting answers than the police, but any writer who can use the word "myriad" correctly in a sentence is A+ in my book!

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for an advance reader's copy.

You know nothing good can happen on a road named Devil’s Corridor. And twenty years ago, four girls went driving and only one came home.
Jenna is a journalist who wants to be a podcaster, and this mystery is just the thing to jumpstart her career. But why is the town so unwelcoming to Jenna? Why wouldn’t they want the mystery solved? And who is hiding what?

So this started off strong and then I got a bit bored but, overall it was a strong thriller for me. I loved The Couple at Number 9 so I think I was just comparing the two books too much for my own happiness.

It had some great character development and fun twists but, it dragged a bit too long.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishing group for a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A twenty-year mystery. A woman on the verge of discovering the truth…

If you love a good cold-case mystery with a lot of suspense and some pretty unpredictable twists (and who doesn’t) The Girls Who Disappeared might be just what you’re looking for!

For me, Claire Douglas @clairedouglasauthor always delivers a totally addictive read. I will say that I was perplexed about how the two plot lines were going to merge, but, when it happened, all the pieces fell into place, and I wondered how I haven’t seen it all along.

Wow! This book was amazing!! I loved the mystery, suspense, and characters. The dual timeline felt a little strange at first because I could not see how they would come together, but then they did and it all made sense. I really enjoyed how I loved these characters, Olivia, Jenna, and Dale, but at the same time, Jenna was warned not to trust anyone in this small town. I did not know who to trust in the story which kept me turning page after page. This was a fast-paced read I would definitely recommend!

A bit of a slow burn in the first half, but started picking up and got more interesting. I enjoyed the twists at the end. This is my second book by this author and I plan on picking up her future work.

In 1998 Olivia Rutherford is driving herself and her three friends home after a night out. It is late and the weather is bad as she approaches what is known to locals as Devil’s Corridor. Olivia thinks she sees a man in the road and swerves to avoid him, crashing the car. When Olivia regains consciousness, her friends are no longer in the car with her. Where are the other three girls? Was there really a man in the middle of the road? Did Olivia somehow have something to do with her friends disappearing?

Twenty years later, Jenna, a podcaster travels to the area to investigate all the questions that were never answered. Will she find the answers before the twentieth anniversary? As Jenna gets closer to the truth, more mysterious things keep happening.

The story is told in a dual timeline. The chapters alternate between Olivia, Jenna, and a group traveling in Thailand. For most of the book, Claire Douglas leaves the reader wondering how these people in Thailand have anything to do with the disappearance of the three girls. However, eventually, the mystery is revealed. I enjoyed the mystery and twists Douglas provides as well as the supernatural aspects included in the story. However, the ending was a bit of a letdown for me. Overall, I enjoyed the book and give it 3.5/5 stars. I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys thrillers with supernatural undertones.

I’d give this book 10 stars!! Claire Douglas is a fantastic suspense/ mystery writer and this book will keep the reader quickly turning pages until the very end. What a tangled web this book was - I loved it!, thanks for the advanced copy.

Thank you NetGalley & Harper Perennial and Paperbacks!

Unfortunately, this one took a little too long to hook me. The first half was really slow and somewhat difficult to follow. It wasn't until the last half that I got hooked, however by then I was just kind of ready to move on.

I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either.

The Girls Who Disappeared
Author: Claire Douglas
Genre: Thriller
Rating: 4⭐️
Pub Date: January 2023

Synopsis: Jenna is a writer working on a podcast series for the BBC when she is assigned to an unsolved mystery from 20 years before: 4 girls, 1 car crash, 1 girl recovered, 3 girls missing. Jenna heads to the town where it happened, hoping to interview the locals and families who were affected. Jenna ends up uncovering a lot more than what has been previously told.

What I Thought: I really enjoyed this one! It was face paced and kept me guessing until the very end. It’s one of those books that has an off the wall story including that makes sense towards the end. I really like that it was told from the perspective of Jenna and Olivia, the girl who was driving her friends that night.

Read if:
* You like a classic whodunit
* You like twists that come at the right moment
* You need a new thriller to add to your never ending TBR

Thank you NetGalley, the author, and publisher for this eARC!

The Girls Who Disappeared is new from author Claire Douglas.
Journalist Jenna Halliday wants to make her mark as a podcast host. She's found a cold case that she thinks will be perfect - the twentieth anniversary of the disappearance of three young woman. Four went out on the town and only one - Olivia - came home. Not a sign of the other three. Were they abducted? By something otherworldly? By someone? Could they still be alive? The small village that was home to the girls is not overly welcoming to Jenna. But she is determined to find the answer....but at what cost?

I liked the premise - having so many options for what might have happened keeps the reader guessing.

Jenna was an interesting lead - braver than I think I would have been in some situations. She's quite pushy at times. Douglas worked as a journalist herself and I think that the book and character benefit from that inside knowledge.

There's a dual narrative with the other voice being Olivia's. She has secrets and memories that she has kept quiet about, for all of those twenty years. Seeing the same supporting characters through different eyes and experiences again gives the reader more information than Jenna has.

There's an italicized group of short chapters that focuses on a number of unknown people. What is their story and connection to the book? And last, but not least - there's also a fairly large group of supporting/suspect players, each with a role to play. I did find some of these players a bit caricaturized.

The plotting of The Girls Who Disappeared is quite busy and does ask the reader to suspend disbelief at a number of junctures, including the police investigation and Jenna's involvement in it. But on the flip side, that brings our protagonist closer to the whodunit. Just go with it. The final whodunit wasn't who or what I had thought it was going to be. Douglas also adds one more twist in the final pages that was also unexpected. Nicely done.

The Girls Who Disappeared is another good read from Douglas.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest thriller by a favorite, Claire Douglas. 4 stars!

Twenty years ago, teenager Olivia was driving her three friends home after a night out when suddenly there was a man in the road. She swerved, lost control, and crashed. When she woke up, she was pinned in the car and her three friends were gone. On the anniversary, Jenna is working on a podcast about the girls' disappearance and leaves her small boy at home with her estranged husband to spend 5 days doing interviews. But has she put herself in danger?

This was a creepy, atmospheric thriller with strange happenings in the woods and on a road known as The Devil's Corridor. The story is told from the POV of both Olivia and Jenna, with alternating chapters of a past timeline. I was intrigued with this story and there are plenty of questionable characters. The ending was a bit over the top for me but still another good read from this author.

This book had me hooked from the first page! It was fast paced and jam packed with twists and turns. The drama was endless, but in the best way: family drama, friend drama, relationship drama.

I’m a huge fan of detective/police stories, so I was super excited to find out the journalist works closely with the lead detective to solve a 20-year-old cold case, all while making a podcast about it.

In this small little town, everyone was suspicious and I couldn’t tell who to trust. Everyone seems to suspect that it was something paranormal, but what secrets of their own are they hiding? What do they know that they aren’t saying out loud?

I definitely recommend picking up this book (out now!) and I’ll 100% be adding more books by Claire Douglass to my tbr!

Would you stay in a cabin in the woods all by yourself?

𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
- 𝚕𝚘𝚝𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚠𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜
- 𝚖𝚞𝚕𝚝𝚒𝚙𝚕𝚎 𝚙𝚘𝚟
- 𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚙𝚢 𝚌𝚊𝚋𝚒𝚗 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚘𝚍𝚜 𝚟𝚒𝚋𝚎
- 𝚄𝙺 𝚜𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐
- 𝚏𝚊𝚖𝚒𝚕𝚢/𝚏𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚍 𝚍𝚛𝚊𝚖𝚊

Twenty years ago, four girls are driving home along 'The Devil's Corridor' after a night of clubbing when Olivia Rutherforrd, the driver, sees someone in the road. In her effort to avoid hitting them, the car crashes and Olivia awakens some time later, her leg trapped and her friends gone. They never turn up. At the 20th anniversary, Jenna Halliday, a BBC reporter, arrives to interview people in town about the case as she prepares a podcast. As Jenna pursues her own investigation for the podcast, she receives threatening notes that make it clear someone there has something to hide about what happened all those years ago despite hints of the paranormal and stories that The Devil's Corridor is haunted. There was a side plot that eventually made sense but along the way seemed like a distraction from the main story. The characters were well developed, flawed and not always sympathetic but in a way that made them seem more real. Overall: an interesting premise and a plot that held my attention and threw a curve ball or two.

The writing really snags your interest and the plot holds it. I was really invested in the plot and finding out what exactly was happening in this weird town. While reading I found one of the most appealing things to me is the representation of someone recovering from an injury. It was really refreshing to see how the author seemed to just get it when talking about Olivia's recovery. it was authentic (and I can say that from personal experience). But it wasn't just the physical recovery I thought was represented well, but the mental--the feeling of having to rely on someone else when you'd rather do it yourself then realizing at some point that maybe you can do more yourself.

Jenna was a fresh take on the journalist chasing a story, instead of being all about the story she really showed her human side. She seemed more concerned with how people were feeling and on actually helping, instead of only the story.

However, though the plot was interesting it wound up being a very convuluted thread that ultimately ended in a simple and underwhelming plot. It was an enjoyable read, but I felt that the ending was unsatisfying.

A digital ARC of this book was provided to me by NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Minotaur Books. The opinions are my own and freely given.

This takes place over a 5-day period, when Jenna comes to the small town to investigate the disappearance for a new podcast, on the 20th anniversary of 3 girls' disappearances. She is met with hostility from the parents of the girls and overall, the people of the town. She meets Dale, who has been assigned to investigate the cold case and he and Jenna work together trading information. This book is alternating POV between Jenna and Olivia, the survivor of the car crash in which the girls vanished.

There is a whole section of this book that I really found myself bored reading. There are 9 "new" different characters that are in Thailand. There is no date when the events transpired, but I suspected it is before the 20-year-old accident. Of course, this part of the story does feed into the investigation, but I had a hard time even liking any of those characters. In present day, I liked all the characters but Wesley, Olivia's longtime boyfriend. I had a hard time figuring out who too trust.

The epilogue wrapped up everything up beautifully and I didn't have to wonder about any piece of the book. I would recommend reading this book, for the mystery of what happened that night with the girls.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books and Claire Douglas.

I really enjoyed this book! This is my first Claire Douglas book, and I am definitely going to be reading more by her after this one. This book follows two women who are the main characters of this story: Olivia- who was a part of an accident 20 years ago that left three of her friends seemingly disappeared into thin air, and Jenna- a podcaster who has come to the town to do some digging into this case in the present day. The book goes back and forth between the women's POVs, and they really had me cheering for both of them throughout the story. How do three people just disappear without a trace?! Everyone is a suspect in this town, which keeps you guessing the whole time. There is also another story intertwined into this, which seems so random at first, but the way it all comes together at the end was brilliant. This was a solid 4 star read for me! Thank you so much to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for the ARC of this book! Out everywhere today 1/10/2023.

A compelling mystery with likable characters that manages to weave a strong mystery and a surprising ending. The eeriness of the cabin that Jenna stays in and the danger of the forest contrasts with the cheery holiday-time feel of the small resort town for a very strong sense of place. Four young women were in a car accident driving home from a night out one evening and when the driver awakens she finds her leg crushed and no one in the car with her. 20 years later still no one knows what happens, but journalist Jenna Halliday is determined to find out. Give this book a shot if you like shades of gray and if you know that cheery small towns can hide the darkest deeds of all.

I greatly enjoyed the slow build up of Olivia and Jenna's stories. There were so many twists and turns within discovering the truth of Olivia's accident. I always love a good book that is told from multiple POV, I feel that it brings more to the story to be able to understand from different character's perspectives.