Wow I really loved and enjoyed listening to this audiobook! It was gripping from the start and kept me on the edge of my seat!

Jenna is a podcaster for the BBC. Olivia is the only survivor of a strange accident on The Devil’s Corridor. As the 20th anniversary of the disappearances of Olivia’s three friends, Jenna sets out to solve this cold case, despite Olivia’s constant refusal to talk to the media.
Told in dual timelines, this slow burn of a mystery peels back layers of small town secrets that put Jenna in great danger the more she digs into the past. There are plenty of twists and many of the clues are red herrings, both typical in a Claire Douglas thriller.

The premise of this book reminded me of "All Good People Here" by Ashley Flowers, but it quickly took a different turn. I only guessed a small part of the ending, so it was nice to be surprised and proven wrong.

True crime podcaster Jenna arrives in the small village of Wilshire to investigate a 20 year old cold case of 3 girls who went missing after a car accident. Olivia, the only survivor of the accident, was also the only one left in the car when the police found her. Jenna is determined to find out what happened that night, even if it means endangering her own life.

This thriller was very well-written and lacked the choppy writing that I've started to loathe in other new releases. The POV transitions between Olivia and Jenna were smooth, but there were a couple of random flashback chapters which made no sense at first. About halfway through the book things start to, but initially I had no idea what was going on. The ending was nicely wrapped up and didn't leave any lingering questions.

Well-plotted, Twisty, and Intriguing, Claire Douglas is one of my bolo authors now.

A massive thank you to the author's publicist and the publishing company for an advanced copy of this. It made my week!

I really enjoyed the narration and production of The Girls Who Disappeared by Claire Douglas, Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey) and Clare Corbett both gave strong voice acting and style to this domestic thriller. I enjoyed this story that blended the struggles of a reporter developing a true crime podcast with the past and present day story of 3 missing girls and the one who survived.

The plot though was only ok for me, a solid but standard domestic thriller that relied a bit too much, for me, on the tropes of unreliability, podcast format, and secrets with misdirection. I found it hard to engage with the characters' stories, which often happens for me when there are multiple characters narrating different chapters. The mystery is well executed, a bit too slow burn for me though, and the end does bring together the pieces of the puzzle.

This is a good read for fans of this author and readers who enjoy domestic thrillers (BA Paris, Mary Kubica, Lisa Jewell).

3/5

Thank you Harper Audio for the Advanced Listening copy!

Twenty years ago four young girls were in a car crash, yet only one, Olivia, was found at the scene. Journalist Jenna Halliday arrives on the scene, eager to investigate and dive into the world of true crime podcasting. It's clear from the start that Jenna isn't welcome in the town, by Olivia, her boyfriend Wesley, or the person sending her mysterious and menacing notes. After a quick friendship forms with an officer on the case, Jenna finds herself deeply immersed in Olivia's mystery, in ways she could never have predicted.

This one just didn't do it for me. From the start, something kept me from connecting with the characters in a meaningful way. Even now, about a week after finishing, I can't really remember a ton of details about them or the book itself. I was intrigued and curious the entire time, which is what kept me listening. Most of the story felt very creative and unique, but the ending felt rushed and largely unrelated to the rest of the book. Overall, this one was a disappointment, as I had high hopes. Still worth a read/listen if you're intrigued by the plot.

While this book started as a very slow burn for me, it picked up about 60% in.. and then bam!!! Shock and twists and turns and the ending I never saw coming! I have many library patrons who would enjoy this, and I will definitely be recommending it. As well as making sure our library has it once it’s released.

Talk to me about the invention of the sewing needle in a British accent, and I'm going to pretend to be interested.

Thank you Netgalley and Harper Audio for the ARC of this book by Claire Douglas.

I ❤️ a good mystery, and this one started out strong!

In 1998, Olivia and her three friends get into a car accident, but when Olivia wakes up, the other girls have disappeared. Fast forward 20 years when Jenna, a journalist, returns to the town of Wilshire, where the accident happened, to try and solve the mystery of the missing girls for her upcoming podcast.

Add in ANOTHER timeline, a plethora of characters, and a copious amount of red herrings, and this book just fizzled out for me in the end. It had potential, but the ultimate storyline just didn't quite get there for me.

I listened to the audio version of this book, and really enjoyed it along with the narrator. This was my first Claire Douglas book and there were so many twists and turns. It started out like two different stories but as the story goes on, we see the two stories are interlinked.
Overall this was a good read with short chapters which made you read 'just one more chapter' each time.
I will definitely read more from this author.

This book was great! So many twists and turns that it made my head spin, but I loved it.

I'm normally pretty good at figuring out where a book is heading in it's plot - but with this one, I had no clue. The ways that it was all revealed and weaved together at the end was really good.

One of the best twisty mystery thrillers I have read (listened to) in a long time. I'd definitely recommend this book.

2.5 stars. This book had an intriguing storyline at the beginning and set up a good mystery, but I eventually lost interest further into the story. I still wanted to know what happened and the outcome, so it kept me reading, but I also feel like this is one of those forgettable books.

Solid 4 stars from me! This was a clever well paced thriller. There were clues strategically placed throughout the story so that you’d start catching on to things but then get hit with a twist you didn’t see coming. Some of the characters were downright unlikable but I think that made for a better story. The ending wasn’t my favorite but props to Miss Douglas for it being a different ending then I expected.

The Girls Who Disappeared
by Claire Douglas
Pub Date: January 10, 2023
Harper Audio
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.
I love a good thriller/mystery, and suspense. crime book
I was so glad to get the audio version as well.

This was a quick read that kept me listening long into the night in order to figure out what happened to those girls!! The story was told from multiple perspectives, past and present, and was done really well. The narrator did a great job delivering this solid mystery.
5 stars
I will be recommending this!

An accident leaves a young girl alone, in a wrecked automobile on a deserted road. Her three passengers in the car are missing. Olivia was the driver that fateful night when she drove her best friends home after a fun night of partying. Her friends have never been found. After 20 years Olivia finds herself living in the same town among the whispers and accusations that surround her every day. Jenna Halliday is a journalist that is revisiting the event for a podcast. She wants to interview anyone that remembers anything from that night, including the elusive Olivia. Jenna finds herself ruffling feathers and receives threats in all forms in an attempt to scare her off. Her determination leads her to uncover secrets that no one wants revealed. They will stop at nothing to make sure that the secrets stay buried.

This was a quick read that kept me listening long into night in order to figure out what happened to those girls!! The story was told from multiple perspectives, past and present and was done really well. The narrator did a great job delivering this solid mystery.

4 ⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced audio copy in exchange for an honest review.
#NetGalley #ClaireDouglas #TheGirlsWhoDisappeared

I was happy to get the audiobook in addition to the digital ARC of this newest title from Claire Douglas! I think of her books as one of my favorite guilty pleasures; they are easy to read, moody, twisty novels that I tend to fly through. The narrator didn't detract from the story in any way.

I liked this one a lot! I have had other books by this author on Mount TBR for many years and I will be making a point of reading her backlist next year!

I requested this one for the narrators and the description and I was not disappointed I liked how all the threads came together in the end and it wasn’t at all what I expected it to be! I don’t want to give anything away but you should put this on your TBR!

Narrated by Joanne Froggatt & Clare Corbett I love both of these narrators and they were the main reason I requested this book and they did a great job at giving all the emotions. I love their accents and both truly brought their character to life.

I highly recommend this one!

4 stars

I received this book from the publisher Harper Audio and NetGalley for a fair and honest review.

Similar vibes of a dark academia without the typical college setting, quite refreshing! Good scares and an excellent who's who that had me guessing (incorrectly) all the way through!

Olivia and her 3 close girlfriends are in a catastrophic car accident. When Olivia awakens from blacking out, her 3 friends have disappeared and so the story begins. The plot is intriguing and keeps you guessing. However, the ending seemed a bit contrived which detracted from the overall impact of the story. What's especially unsettling about the plot is the idea that one's life can change from one moment to the next.
The narrators did a superb job? I especially enjoyed the implementation of 2 narrators speaking, which added to the overall intrigue of the book. A good thriller-

This twisty one with great narration is told in mainly 2018 with parts told in 1980. It’s about 4 girls who wreck on an infamous stretch of road called the Devil’s Corridor in 1998. Three girls vanish never to be seen again with one girl, Olivia, the soul survivor with no memory of what happened to her friends.

Twenty years later, Jenna Halliday, comes to town to make a podcast about the missing girls and hopefully talk to Olivia who has rarely talked about that night.

But there is more to this town and this story than Jenna ever realized.

This was a binge listen for me that kept me guessing until the resolution.

Thanks to HarperAudio for the copy of this book.

I love thrillers with dual narrators, and enjoyed the back and forth between Olivia, who was in a car accident in 1998 where the rest of the passengers mysteriously disappeared, and Jenna, a reporter with a podcast who is trying to figure out what happened 20 years later. There is a plethora of shady characters, lots of information thrown in for twists and potential red herrings, and an eerie setting. This book had really great potential, but in the end, I thougth there were too many attempts to create red herrings and twists, and way too many characters with similar names. I did really enjoy the narration and think audio is the way to go for this one!

This story had a lot of potential, but in the end, I did not love it as much as Douglas’s previous books.

What I enjoyed
-The atmospheric setting and spooky vibes
-The three parallel stories that merged together
-Jenna, the BBC podcaster, was a great main character
-The audiobook was great, and I loved the narrators!

What didn’t work
-The ending fell flat and was anticlimactic
-There were a ton of side characters with similiar names, which made it hard to distinguish between them
-There were some loose ends I wanted answers to (e.g Jenna’s family)