3.5 stars, rounding up to 4. Solid thriller from Claire Douglas.

What I liked:
--Jenna, the main character. I would read another book featuring her as a journalist investigating a story.
--The setting of Stafferbury in Wiltshire, England, and the story of the stones and the Devil's Corridor.
--The very last twist at the end was a surprise.

What I didn't like:
--Use of a podcast as the reason to investigate a mystery. This is becoming quite the trope in mysteries and thrillers.
--Wesley the boyfriend was awful! How could Olivia not see right through him?

This book had all the makings of what I love; disappearances, dual POV'S, past and present story lines to name a few. However, I never felt fully connected to the characters in this. SPOILER : The revelations fell a little flat for me and found it hard to believe that people who were never violent in any way whatsoever in the past are all of a sudden completely murderous and downright evil. Maybe one person just snaps and yeah it happens but not almost every character in this book. I did enjoy this but wasn't crazy about it. This was just an okay read. Three Stars.

Thank you Netgalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks for this ARC.

A big thanks to NetGalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks for the ARC of this thriller.

This book kept me on the edge of my seat trying to figure out the mystery of the missing girls. The Girls Who Disappeared tells the story of three girls who mysteriously go missing one night while on their way home. To make things even more odd, a fourth girl survives.

Fast forward twenty years, the survivor is approached by a journalist, wanting to make a podcast about the fateful night.

Told from multiple points of view, different points in time, this book will have you trying to piece together the mystery as you read.

Really enjoyed her pervious book The couple at number 9, so I was super recited. to be approved for this new book too! The Girls who Disappears is a deliciously dark, captivating and twisty mystery from Claire Douglas, the Queen of Gripping Page turners. With an eerie setting, a brilliant hook and a cast of suspicious characters, The Girls Who Disappeared will keep you guessing and frantically turning the pages from the gripping opening to the very last page.

Thank you to Harper Perennial and Paperbacks, Harper Paperbacks & NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this digital arc

The Girls Who Disappeared is a gripping, "can't-put-down" thriller that follows Jenna as she travels to a small town to investigate the disappearance of three young women that occurred 20 years prior. As she looks into the mystery, Jenna is determined to interview Olivia, one of the young women's friends who also happened to be with them when they went missing.

This is the second book I've read by Claire Douglas, and it lived up to all my expectations. Claire's writing is absolutely beautiful, and I love how she weaves multiple plots and timelines into a cohesive story of love, friendship, betrayal, and murder. The Girls Who Disappeared is told through two main POVs (Jenna and Olivia), as well as through flashbacks of another character. As with her other book, the characters are all well-developed, and there are plenty of twists throughout. I highly recommend The Girls Who Disappeared to anyone looking for an exciting, page-turning thriller.

A wonderful, twisty story about the journalist Jenna, police officer Dale and a haunted English village! Together Jenna and Dale set out to solve a 20 year old cold case. The story is told by three female protagonists, and Claire Douglas has yet again shown that she is a master story teller.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review this ARC.

This was a pretty great book, overall. It threw a curveball about halfway through, one I did NOT see coming. It made me go back and reread a couple passages, and made certain elements of the book much more understandable and enjoyable. I pretty much devoured this one, and plan to look for future books by Claire Douglas.

Thanks to NetGalley, Harper-Collins Publishers and Claire Douglas for the opportunity to read an advance copy of THE GIRLS WHO DISAPPEARED. This was a very complex novel which spanned a lifetime of intrigue, revenge, suspense, paranoia and physical disabilities. Olivia was trying her best to live as a grown woman following a terrible auto accident 20 years ago in which she was maimed for life. A podcaster decides to revisit the story at it’s 20 year mark because of the strange incident of the missing three girls who were in the auto at the time of the accident but disappeared before Olivia was rescued. There is a potentially paranormal incident, along with a tarot card reader and liars galore. I enjoyed this book and found it to be quite interesting and a departure from the routine storylines of psychological thrillers.

Thanks to Net Galley for the advanced copy. This is my second book my Claire Douglas. After reading the first book, I’ve been a fan and I’ve vowed to read her entire catalog! The Girls Who Disappeared was well done. I couldn’t figure out a part of the story until the show dropped and I was like ohhhhh!! And seemed to put it together, but then when everything was revealed!! Well then! Definitely recommend this one. Enjoy!

[arc review]
Thank you to Harper Perennial for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
The Girls Who Disappeared releases January 10, 2023

2.5 rounded up

“It’s best to trust nobody in this town.”

In November of 1998, a group of 4 girls were in a car, travelling along a road called Devil’s Corridor in the pouring rain. A man in the middle of the road caused them to swerve and crash. The driver, Olivia, blacked out. When she finally came to, all three of her friends that were in the car with her were just gone. Completely disappeared. What happened to them and where did they go? Why did they leave Olivia pinned in the drivers seat?
Fast forward 20 years later, a journalist from Manchester has come to Stafferbury for the anniversary of this cold case to investigate it via a new podcast episode.

Sounds interesting, right?
Well, the prose is told through dual pov with an additional story on the side of another cast of 8 characters who are vacationing in Thailand. Who are they and how are they connected to this small town in the UK?
Here’s the thing. In the end, I did enjoy how the Thailand timeline was connected to everything but, I wish the author chose one stylistic choice to write in to keep it cohesive.
Jenna’s pov was told in first person, Olivia’s pov was told in third person, and the third seemingly random timeline was written entirely in italics.

If you like multigenerational stories with twists and a cast full of characters where you can’t trust anyone, definitely read this.
However, I feel conflicted because it was so slow-paced. The story to me was pretty predictable and I really found it to be repetitive and dragging at times.
In the acknowledgements, the author mentions that she cut nearly 15K words to make this story tighter and more fast-paced, so I don’t even want to know how that first draft was. I think it could have even been condensed further by another 100 pages.

Something was lacking for me overall. I wish there had been more of a thrill and less emphasis on Jenna’s husband and kid.
Also I can’t recall if anything was made of the other girls that “disappeared” from that town in the 1700’s. Seems like a not well thought out red herring/plot hole.
I think I would have enjoyed getting to know the parent’s more than Olivia/Jenna. We never got to get a full sense for who Sally/Tamzin/Katie were either, like in a full scene with interactive dialogue which is odd since the whole premise surrounds them.

CW: chronic pain, survivors guilt, cheating, drug dealing, murder, drugging someone with date rape, gaslighting.

The two alternating POVs we're weird bc one was in first person and the other wasn't. Not sure why the author did it that way. This book also seemed a little all over the place, like it was either rushed or the author forgot what they were writing at times.

🔹 My take: 3.75/5

🔸 Olivia is driving back from pub with her friends Katie, Tamzin and Sally. They meet with a horrible accident while crossing the forest patch and Olivia loses consciousness. When she wakes up, her leg hurts horribly and she gets to know that her 3 friends are nowhere to be found. Twenty years have passed…Olivia is living with the guilt of being behind the wheel that night, the town folks look down at her ever since, she has a life long limp and also there are loads of secrets.
Jenna, a journalist has come to make a podcast on this cold case and wants to share the story of Olivia; who has always avoided interviews over past 20 years but has agreed now…Supernatural elements, lies, deceit, cheating, all come forth when Jenna starts digging into the story and Olivia starts talking.

💖 This is my second book of the author and I love her writing. She has this ability to run multiple parallel stories and then merge it at the end which covers various perspectives and gives answers to all the questions going in your mind. I particularly loved the Thailand story which gave a different flavour to the plot.

💔 I found Olivia’s character a bit irksome. Rather than invoking sympathy, I was frustrated since she ended up playing the victim card all the time. Also, Jenna’s personal story did not evoke any strong emotion from me. Since both the protagonists were not too likeable to me; the rating is a bit botched down.

💫 1 thing you need to know when you pick up a Claire Douglas novel is you have to be patient and read till the end to understand the plot. If you quit in between thinking it’s slow paced or cliched, you will not get the gist and end up disliking it. I believe she has loads of potential to weave intricate stories and write great thrillers… I loved ‘The Couple at no. 9’ by her more than this one though.

Thanks to @harperperennial and @netgalley for sharing eARC in exchange for honest review.

I have always enjoyed her books but this one was a little uneven. I saw in the afterward that she felt like she needed a lot of help with it and I can see it! There was a lot going on but the ending was sort of flat. We didn’t know the mother(s) well enough to be surprised by her 1980 drug smuggling life. It took a long time for things to come together so I was hoping for something a little tighter. It seemed rushed. Normally I feel like her plots can be wacky but she keeps it tighter and making sense.

I absolutely hated this book. One pov was in first person and the other was in third person which made no sense whatsoever and the big climax was very underwhelming. What a waste of time.

I got this book from #NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.This is my first book by this author.The start of this book had me hooked and I could not put it down, a very creepy feel to this story. I couldn't stop reading.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. The main characters, Jenna and Olivia, were very well written without being overly dramatic. It does get slightly confusing keeping up with all of the different characters and weaving together the two separate stories. I really appreciated that all of the storylines wrapped up without wondering where the characters ended up. This was a great book that had quite a surprising twist and held my interest.

Great read! Perfect for those who love reading about small towns and the secrets they hold. I liked the author's description of the setting and her imagery. Especially, how she creates this eerie atmosphere. The only downsides to the book were that I felt the pace of the book was too slow (I love fast-paced novels), the characters were unlikeable, and the ending was underwhelming.

A great followup to Claire Douglas' "The Couple At Number 9." Its been 20 years since Olivia and her three friends had a terrible auto accident on the Devils Corridor near the small UK town they lived in. Olivia woke up to discover her three mates missing and only an old man to help her out of her wrecked vehicle. The girls were never found.
Now, on the 20th anniversary of the mishap, Jenna, a reporter, comes to town to do a podcast for the BBC. What she uncovers is a town full of lies.
"The Girls Who Disappeared" grabbed me with the title. The book's pacing and excellent storytelling kept me hooked.
The secret to the girls' disappearance lies even further back, as Douglas unearths a weird subplot in Thailand, circa 1980. The sins of the elders collides with the past to produce a murderous anniversary awakening.
Told from both Olivia and Jenna's perspective, the novel races to a creepy conclusion you won't see coming.
This is a fast and fun thriller that thoroughly satisfies.

I’ve been very selective with thrillers lately, because there are just too many of them out there for proper quality control, but this one passed muster ¬– either because Douglas’ previous book was decent enough or maybe I was just less selective that day.
Anyway, sure enough, this was perfectly decent too. I’d even say above that. All the classic genre presets from mostly female cast to the alternating storylines and timelines and prerequisite plot twists in this tale of a podcast-maker who comes to small town and over the course of a few days stirred up enough mud about a two-decade old case of (you guessed it) the girls who disappeared that the bodies start turning up.
To no one’s (well, no one who’s ever read a thriller) surprise, someone doesn’t want the truth to be known. Someone has been covering it up all this time and wants it to stay that way.
All around entertaining if not vastly original production, elevated by strong compelling writing and nicely sustained element of suspense with even tinges of supernatural to add some color/darkness to the proceedings.
The book’s on a longer side but reads quickly enough. Thriller fans ought to enjoy it. Tjanks Netgalley.

This started out soooo strong and I couldn’t wait to see how things played out, but… this was not for me. I didn’t enjoy the ending and I felt things were all over the place. Three stars from me- wasn’t my favorite, but still an okay read!