Vanish by Shelley Burr is book three in the Lane Holland series. And once again I have found myself dropping everything to read it.

Lane is still in jail but he is almost up for a parole hearing when he has a great idea. He wants to go to Kaparthy farm for some learning experience to be a farmer. But this is all just a cover story. He is still helping with an unsolved case of Matilda Carver. Two decades ago she went missing and the last place she was seen was Kaparthy farm. Lane has found out that some more people have vanished from the farm. This mystery is one Lane would love to solve. He gets some help with a surprise visitor - Mina. Is this a cult or just a commune?

I flew through the chapters of this one and finished it in a few days. I loved coming back to older characters I've been accustomed too with the series. I also enjoyed the new characters and trying to work out who we can trust. This book ticked all the boxes with the great setting, twists and turns and short chapters (always a winner for me).

Thank you Hachette Australia and Netgalley for sending me a gifted copy of the book for my honest book review.

This book has a great premise and I like Lane Holland as a character so I was keen to read it, but this fell a little flat for me.

As we know from the end of Ripper, Lane is still in jail but is being recruited by the warden to see if Lane can find out anything about his daughter Matilda's disappearance.

This allows Lane to participate in a prisoner training programme at a farm near the NSW/Victorian border that he thinks Matilda stayed at.

This is where this story drifted for me. There was so much happenstance and coincidence that after a while it didn't surprise me anymore. The supporting characters were weak and didn't even seem to know they were being interrogated by Lane.

There was certainly a building sense of menace and unease when Lane could not figure out what was happening and who might be behind the disappearances.

The conclusion was okay but there were still a few questions unanswered.

i enjoyed the book it was fast to read and i enjoyed the book
would have liked more depth in the story
like the characters

Rating: 4.5 stars
Out: 30 April 2025

Stop what you’re doing ✋ and add this to your TBR immediately! 👆

I’m now a fully confirmed, card-carrying Shelley Burr fan — Wake, Ripper, and now Vanish have cemented her as a master of the Australian crime thriller. While each book can be read as a standalone, reading them as a series reveals a compelling thread of consequences, regrets, and choices made in the shadows.

Vanish is twisty, tense, and totally addictive — brimming with flawed anti-heroes, a reunion of sorts, and a haunting cold case that kept me guessing right up to the final page.

Lane Holland’s career as a private investigator ended the day he went to prison. With his parole hearing approaching, one unsolved case continues to haunt him: the disappearance of Matilda Carver two decades ago.

Never one to play by the rules, Lane follows a lead to a remote farm community run by the enigmatic Samuel Karpathy — a place that promises new beginnings for people with nowhere else to go. But those who arrive… often vanish without a trace.

A commune? A cult? Or something even darker?

Inspired by a real-life criminal case, Vanish is another nail-biting triumph from Shelley Burr — smart, suspenseful, and impossible to put down. The atmosphere is unsettling in all the right ways, and the layered storytelling just gets better with each instalment. I absolutely loved it.

Big thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Australia for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hatchette AUS/NZ for the ARC.

I have followed PI Lane Holland from book 1 and Shelley Burr has cemented her place as one of my favourite Crime Authors (and an auto buy) by book 3. This did not disappoint and I was eating out of Lane Hollands cuffed hands and lapping up his convictions about the Karpathy farm of lost souls. The fact that I myself am very interested in permaculture, sustainable farming and organic practices just meant I was tickled pink by this book.
This book had me as paranoid as Lane. I couldn't trust a single character. It was unpredictable and I never foresaw or predicted the brilliant ending.
It was wonderful to see Mina (book 1) again, making meaning out of her own tragedy. I hope there is more Lane Holland in our futures because I still haven't had enough of his story and I think there is definitely potential for more. A crime book written from the perspective of a now ex PI investigator felon is just so refreshing. The morals in this book are not black and white.

Bonus points for excellent pacing and short chapters. The only reason I haven't given 5 stars is that the first third of the book was rehashing a lot of what happened in books 1 and 2 and didn't see Lane moving anywhere. I think it's definitely a better reading experience if you had read the first 2. And lastly, I hope the ending suggests a not so lonely future for Lane but it is ambiguous and I may need to seek out Shelley Burr myself to find out exactly what it meant!

Mind blowing twists and turns and a book that you will not stop reading until you have finished it. It’s such a great crime thriller! Shelley Burr has gotten me wanting to read all her books! I legit finished it within 2 days!

Private investigator is in jail for a crime he might not have committed but he has been given an opportunity to absolve himself by solving another disappearance of the Jail Heads daughter, who disappeared almost 20 years ago! While he cannot get involved as a PI due to obvious reasons, he gets himself sent to a farm as a “learning experience” and starts discovering some bitter truths about the place. It’s could be a cult or a crime front or just a plain old farm giving people hope. But one things clear, people disappear from this place…how will he solve it without disappearing himself?

Thank you NetGalley and Hachette Australia for providing me an ARC of this super amazing thriller. Absolutely loved it and will recommend!

Vanish is the third book in Shelley Burr’s series, and I absolutely loved it. While I found the second book a bit confusing with its many characters, this one was completely engrossing. The storyline was compelling, and I never felt lost—just fully immersed from start to finish. I tore through it in no time!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.