The Vanishing Triangle is a triangulation of sites in Ireland where eight women have been abducted and never seen alive again. Claire McGowan is a well known fiction writer and grew up in Ireland herself. She tells the stories of multiple women who went missing and the little to no reaction their kidnapping causes afterwards. Cleary the society at large is an issues.

I would have liked more works and references cited in this book. As a someone who has only visited Ireland, it's a bit hard to follow at times but I can see real similarities between the situations depicted in the book and issues in the US. The four decades of changes in society alone make this book worth reading - a powerful and damning look at Irish society.
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An interesting look at the disappearance of women in Ireland. Good if you like real life crime and want to find out more about things that happened in Ireland. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of the book in return for my honest feedback.

This is not an easy book to read. However, it is informative. If I were reading this book about America, I would probably not have been surprised. One tends to think of Ireland as calm and serene, except for some exceptions, of course. One does not realize that serial murderers live there also. Why not? I have no idea other than they are not made public as much as in our country...this author has done extensive research...at times, it was difficult to read the details and keep track of the dates...that being said, this is a can't put down book...is it a warning to young women everywhere? Perhaps...One does not know how much warning to give...when to let go...and the author pointed out good questions...why not women walking alone? This book was sent to me by Netgalley for review electronically...I look forward to more from this author.

I enjoyed her previous novel What You Did!
But the Vanishing Triangle by Claire McGowan was just as amazing.
Such a well written novel and not at all what I was expecting!
Great characters that were fully developed.
The writing is simply brilliant and hooked me immediately.
It was very suspenseful. I could not put this book down. It sent me on a rollercoaster of twists and turns until I got to the very end.

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Amazon Publishing UK & Little A,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!
I will post my review to my platforms, blog, B&N and Waterstone closer to pub date.

I received an arc of this book in exchange for a review.

I'm a fan of this authors books and this one was different from the rest. Well, it was different from most. It was really all about their take on these women that went missing in Ireland. They go through what it was like then. How it felt safer than it really was even with the soldiers hiding in the hedges they had to be afraid would shoot them as they walked from school. It went through the accounts of what they knew of different women and as with all true crime you don't always get a nice and tidy answer to what happened.

I'd say this book so different than what you'd typically see so it's not for everyone but was definitely interesting.

Loved Claire McGowan’s The Push, so really pleased to have been offered this arc, thank you.

The insights to the thoughts and views of the author of the organisations and authorities within the island of Ireland at the time of the setting are dark and deeply disturbing, and it must have taken great courage to make such a stand. These institutions are huge, particularly the Catholic Church, and although we are all aware of the faults and misdemeanours within such organisations, it takes a brave soul to face them down. In these more enlightened times, perhaps women will be treated as fairly and as humanly as men by the powers that be.

This book is an account of murders and missing women in Ireland, both sides of the border, from 1993 to 1998. Due to the lack of evidence, incompetence and poor interest, the majority of these crimes have never been solved. The fact that these crimes received so little attention could be because of several issues, including that they happened to women who must have asked for it, or there were more serious problems to worry about.

The Ireland of the author’s childhood is a contradiction, on one side there is the beautifully idyllic countryside, with youngsters allowed to roam. Then there is the worry of “The Troubles”, another side to the coin, blighting all lives.

The author grew up in the eighties/nineties, and says that even with stricter parents, she was still allowed to wander, and it was common for lifts to be offered and taken, often from strangers, in the rural areas where public transport was a wish more often than an event.

Although this book centres on ‘The Vanishing Triangle”, through her research McGowan as discovered many more vanishings, from as early as 1972. All, or any of these events could be linked in with the Triangle, or maybe it is pure coincidence. It’s never been fully considered that these crimes could be linked, remember this was a time before DNA came to the fore, plus the police either side of the border did not communicate very much. What McGowan has done has brought the events together, explaining the possibility of connections and similarities. Was there one perpetrator, or many at work at this time? Or even murderers working in partnership? Of course it’s highly probable that there was more than one killer, as some of the victims must have known their attacker/abducter.

This book is mind blowing in its construction and totally absorbing, I was left wondering “What next? Why didn’t the authorities see the connections?” Although it is an Ireland of two halves, it is still a very small country, easily navigated and travelled, so it could be one or two people. Perhaps we shall never know.

So many women, in the main forgotten and ignored, whose lives were taken from them and no justice served.

As written this was a country with a “culture of silence” that prevailed throughout Ireland in these times, and “a land ruled by corruption, cruelty and deep hypocrisy”.

If there could be one improvement in this book, it would have been a timeline graph to help keep the crimes in order. There were so many names it was difficult to keep them in some kind of order. Nevertheless, this did not spoil a well written, thought provoking book. Enjoyable is not the right expression for something so awful, perhaps appreciative is more apt.

Thank you NetGalley.

This is my 4th book by this author so I was excited to see she had come out with a new book in May 2022. Based in Ireland about 8 women in the 90's who went missing and then found murdered. This book is different than other book she has written. We learn about all these missing women and their details involving their cases. A lot went unsolved all those years ago. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release in exchange for my honest review.

This was a hard book to read, both about the violence/fear that women have to deal with and how inadequate the justice system is in dealing with it/protecting men, short sentences, being released to re-offend.. There was a lot to read and some of it was repetitive. It was interesting to learn more about Ireland and the culture there. A small country that was considered both safe and dangerous, where it often was dark in the mid afternoon. Women being blamed for what men did to them. This is about five unsolved cases of women who were still missing in the mid to late 90's and it's connection to both earlier cases and to more current ones

The Vanishing Triangle is a true crime novel, based on several woman who have gone missing in Ireland. While I normally really enjoy Claire McGowan's books, this did not scratch that true crime itch for me
I felt that there was more focus on Claire's own town and history than on the women that had gone missing, and Claire tried too hard to tie the Troubles into this

This was such an interesting book that completely kept my attention. It is very well written and well researched. That being said, the subject matter is hard and sad and depressing.
Thank you to net galley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is an interesting, heartbreaking crime novel. It's just a bit difficult to follow, as I'm not familiar with Ireland, so I found myself googling quite a bit, so if you aren't from Ireland, you may find yourself doing that as well. The stories of these women are well-researched, and I appreciate the time that went into this. I think true-crime readers are going to really enjoy this one!

I don't usually read any type of true crime but having grown up in the same area as the author, albeit a few years earlier, the subject matter was of great interest to me. In the 90s I was in my twenties, working in Belfast and travelling over the border for nights out. I was always aware of the chance of getting caught up in a bomb, you couldn't grow up in Northern Ireland during the troubles and not know the risks. But I didn't realise that my nights out in Dundalk could have left me vulnerable to a more insidious threat. I had heard talk of bodies being found in the Wicklow hills but it was almost an urban legend. I had certainly never heard a news report confirming this. It was only about 5 years ago on a break in Dublin that I caught a documentary on RTE, the national Irish TV channel, about the fact that so many women had gone missing in the same area during the 90s. I was horrified that this had not been reported at home which was only a couple of hours drive up the road. In fact, until I read this book, I had never heard of it again.
I think Claire did a wonderful job with this book. As a novelist she knows how to capture the reader's attention from page 1 so she was able to tell this story without it feeling dry and boring. I loved the way she pointed out clumps of what could be coincidence or may be something far more sinister. My only criticism, and it's more of a suggestion, would be that some kind of map or timeline would make it easier to follow the individual cases, especially if a reader doesn't know the area. This book has really got me thinking about just how small Ireland is yet the media acts as if the North and the South are oceans apart. These terrible events could have just as easily taken place on either side of the border. Hopefully one day these womens' disappearances will be solved but sadly in many cases it is already to late for their families.

I love Claire McGowan as a crime writer-her books have always felt well researched and authentic so I was curious about this as it’s something of a departure for her. Although saying that, it’s incredibly obvious that this book means more to her in someways than her fictional work-it positively radiates with her personal penchant for the truth about the real life crimes contained within its pages. The author knows that there are other books out there about the horrific murders and disappearances that took place very near to where she was born and raised and she decides to concentrate on the social and emotional fallout from that period in time that now feels completely at odds with our current social media driven society. A lot of information is given very quickly and the only thing I would say is that it would have been useful to have had some sort of timeline/graphic to refer to where all of the women were grouped together in one place. This would have made it easier for me to process each case as often the narrative came back to victims several times. Saying that, I did love the way everything was finely chopped down and then reconstructed in different ways to look at coincidences and similarities until all the pieces were there but with too many missing to complete the puzzle, this was never going to be a “grand reveal” true crime expose and I’m glad of that.
Fascinating, deeply disturbing and thought provoking-highly recommended.

In the 1990s a number of women vanished in Ireland. They were all from the same general area which became known as the vanishing triangle. The author carefully investigated each of these disappearances, the people who were looked upon as suspects and the faults of the Police. It is well reported but my problem was all the speculation regarding what may or may not have happened to these women (some just girls). Many of her conclusions make sense but have no proof of any kind showing why and how these conclusions were reached. Her suggestions for improvements were spot on. Many of these women remain missing today. Their families deserve better. Thanks to Net Galley and Little A for an ARC for an honest review.

I have read all of Claire McGowan's books and this one is a different style of writing. Its a documentary rather than fiction. Nevertheless I enjoyed it and found it informative and interesting.

This is a book of true crime. While difficult to read because of the subject material, I think the author does a great job of making people aware of the large number of missing women in Ireland. I had no idea this was so prevalent there. This information will sure stay with me.

In the past I've enjoyed Claire McGowans fictional novels. This true crime book is centred around missing and murdered women within a specific area in Ireland. On one hand its full of information but on the other it is also full of what ifs and who-done-its. I felt it was overly long and extremely repetitive.
Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an arc of this book.

Claire McGowan is becoming a recognized name in the thriller world.  I really liked her novel The Push, but this attempt at true crime falls a little flat.  Think too much Ann Rule plus "ripped from the headlines" with more than a dash of memoir.  Plus at times it reads a little like a senior thesis.  The author admits that she is stepping out of her comfort zone, but perhaps she should have just fictionalized what she knows of the story instead.

I don’t really have strong opinions on this book, it was just ok. Whilst learning about the disappearances mentioned was interesting, the book was very repetitive and I wouldn’t really call it a true crime book.

I really enjoyed this book, I’m from the same area as the author and a lot of the places, her memories, and what she talks about are very familiar to me. I loved all this authors books and I can’t wait on the next one.

Many thanks to netgalley and Claire McGowan fir the advanced copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

My thanks to Net Galley and Amazon UK Publishing for the chance to review this book about a group of women missing in a triangulated area in Ireland.

Author very well researched the information in this book and clearly told all of the women's stories along with historical content of Ireland at the time. My only issue was the author put a lot of her on perceptions and speculation as to what happened to these women. Tough content but good read .

After reading and loving The Push I was intrigued to be invited to read and review Claire’s new book, especially as it was nonfiction.
The Vanishing Triangle is the game given to an area in Ireland, similarly shaped to a triangle that hides the truth about a number of women who have vanished without a trace within its boundaries. Claire has thoroughly researched a number of these cases, and discovered even more that she was unfamiliar with, to discover that many are still unsolved, undiscovered and unknown even to locals living close by. Claire grew up in Ireland and admits that some of the cases were given such little publicity that even she, as a girl/young woman living locally, had no idea of the existence and subsequent disappearance of a number of these females.
I found the stories of these women compelling, especially when combined with the storytelling behind their last movements and sightings which are told poignantly in the book. As a woman and a mother, quite a few hit home and along with the statistics of violence against women and recent news stories, made me wonder why more isn’t being done to protect half of the population from the other half.
A very thought provoking and objective read. Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review.

A different type of bok from Ms McGowan as in it is fact based.
The book presents a tale of failings in society and police procedurial work during the later part of the 20th century in both sides of the Irish border that allowed numerous women to be abducted, raped and murdered.
This is by no means a graphic book and the gory details are kept to a minimum.
It does however set the reader thinking as to how there could have been such a high level of incompetence and with the links between the cases having bene identified, how many innocent lifes might have been saved.

This tackles issues in Ireland that I have been unaware of until now. Everyone knows about ‘The Troubles’ and the violent deaths, but this issue of the many missing, presumed dead women and girls is largely unknown. Even the author, who hails from near this ‘triangle’ hadn’t heard of many of these cases. I was shocked also to read the dates when abortion and homosexuality became legal, far later than would be assumed. The church, the police and the generally male centric society have not merely glossed over the problem, but in many ways have blamed and shamed the victims. A lesson for us all here.

This was a difficult book to read because so many of the rapes and deaths have gone unresolved. It is an important book to shed light on the culture, circumstance, and biases that created the environment for these women to just vanish without a trace. Recommended reading

Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon publishing for an advanced reader copy.

I was definitely engaged in this investigation and inquiry in this true crime book by Claire McGowan. I love her books and knew she would present the facts and speculations in an interesting way. My first thoughts are how compelling and disturbing that these people are missing in Ireland and no clues can be found. I know there are some reviews that are negative towards this author, but it is more an awareness for people like me that had no idea this had happened.

I shuddered over the lack of analysis of 8 young women vanishing without a trace during this time period between 1993-1998. They could not connect these atrocious crimes to a serial killer. This was before DNA could be used as an extraction of evidence, even though there were similarities and differences as well as influences during this time period that hindered or played a huge role. Sad to say that the prejudice against women was mind-blowing with victim shaming and secrecy beyond my imagination.

The research into that time period was astounding and forthcoming that I was unaware of leaving me impressed with her studies not to mention she was a child at this time sheltered or unaware of the fear released in their area. The children were more worried and scared of the "troubles" The Northern Ireland conflict in 1968-1998 between the Protestant loyalist who wanted the province to remain part of the United Kingdom, and the Roman Catholic republicans wanted Northern Ireland to become part of the republic of Ireland. I'm not even going to attempt to understand all of their history, but I felt she did a good job at explaining it. In this movement, there was social upheaval, political unrest against homosexuals, contraception, abortion, divorce and the Catholic Church sex scandals. Less emphasis was placed on the missing people and more on the intrusions and bombings.

Claire analysed the similarities and differences between the crimes and counteracted the social changes with the influence of religion and politics. Clever speculations that left some readers upset, I thought was brilliant. I'm glad she brought this to my attention and even though it was compelling as well as disturbing it had me going down a rabbit hole. The only disappointment is I will probably never travel to this beautiful country.

Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Publishing for this title in exchange for my honest review.

The Vanishing Triangle by Claire McGowan is an informative true crime narrative of years of unsolved murders, kidnappings, and disappearances. Through much research many of the crimes are revealed while others remain. The crime history is challenging to pursue.

I like the author and was interested to read this book. I thought she painted a vivid picture of the time, life in Ireland and the difficulties women faced. The crimes were particularly bleak and sad, in their nature of ‘forgotten-ness’. For a true crime read, I felt there was something missing- a lack of structure and an emotional connection through the storytelling. It was interesting but I wasn’t completely gripped.

An interesting and thought-provoking book, which makes me realise (again) that the "good old days" were usually anything but. I know very little about Ireland (north and south) so it was fascinating to see how these crimes were often facilitated by the situation at the time. Hopefully things are very different now.

My thanks to Claire and Netgalley for allowing me to read the Vanishing Triangle prior to the publication date.

The title refers to an area in Ireland where 8 women went missing over a number of years. Some would never be heard of again, others would be found murdered.

Interviews of potential witnesses resulted in a deafening silence as they took the decision to emulate the 3 wise monkeys, See no evil, Hear no evil and Speak no evil.
Looking at the bigger picture, it is possible that the witnesses refused to speak because of the hatred for the RUC, but it could equally be because they feared for their own safety were they to be seen talking to the RUC. After all, this is a country which had a government but the paramilitary organisations often had more influence.

This is only a tiny part of the story. Claire touches on the numerous aspects of Irish society which influence women’s lives.

This was a time before integrated technology and social media allowed for information to be shared quickly. (It was only in the early 1990s that the Griew report resulted in a major overhaul of IT provision within the RUC which would support communications between the divisions.)

It is an interesting book but in my opinion, it does not provide a truly balanced view of the complex situation within the country.

It would also have been helpful to have a chart/map of the dates , locations and outcomes of the incidents for the readers who are not familiar with the country.

It's devastating that a story like this has to be told. In 1990s Ireland, women were disappearing at an alarming rate while residents weren't even aware it was happening. The title comes from a specific area where most of the disappearances occurred; that fact alone should have thrown up some red flags. The author grew up here and was close to the age of several of the woman that vanished so she has a first-hand account of society at that time. The news was dominated by the political turmoil and these disappearances weren't even on the radar. Sadly, that may well have been the case even if the Troubles weren't occurring, such was the attitude towards women in general.

Police often dismissed the concerns of relatives, believing the women to have left on their own accord, or if they suffered from any mental health issues, they must have taken their own lives. But as the author points out, they certainly didn't bury themselves, so their bodies would have been found, eventually. That's the obvious and disturbing fact - the bodies have never been found, even decades later. Clearly, these women met a terrible fate and the perpetrators were never brought to justice.

There was also the tendency for the officials to blame the victims, condemning them for how they dressed, how they acted, for traveling alone and accepting rides from strangers. How dare these women go about their daily lives when danger lurks behind every corner! How dare they be sexual beings who don't look forward to a life of pregnancies and obedience to their (often abusive) husbands. It sounds facetious, but this was the norm, this is how young women were raised. The truly disturbing aspect is that it's barely any better now, decades later.

It's also upsetting that in some cases there was a clear suspect but due to technicalities they were never charged, were charged decades after the crime, or only served a fraction of their sentence. That can be almost as hard as not knowing, when the families of these victims come across these suspects going about their daily lives, due to the small size of the towns they live in. Having to cross paths with someone they can almost guarantee hurt their loved ones is a terrible burden to bear. I'm surprised no one inflicted their own justice upon these men. Sure, that would be lowering themselves to the standards of criminals, but in a society where victims like these women were ignored and forgotten, would it even matter?

Claire McGowan’s crime fiction is always enjoyable but, as she says in this detailed exploration of real missing women, fiction always allows the reader a satisfying or at least a logical conclusion. In ‘The Vanishing Triangle’ this is not the case.
McGowan grew up in rural Northern Ireland during the 90s when many of the women she has researched disappeared. A few bodies have been found but, for the most part, the whereabouts of these women remains a mystery. For a long time, nobody much seemed to care. Few disappearances were even newsworthy at the time. Why?
In this exposition of bungled investigations, engrained prejudice, sectarian violence and the pronouncements of a corrupt, judgemental Church, McGowan looks unflinchingly at her homeland and presents the reader with some hard truths. However, whilst many readers may find themselves shocked at her reminders of Ireland’s draconian laws on abortion, divorce and homosexuality, at the centre of this book is a truth to which, sadly, we can all relate: society assumes that women must be entirely responsible for their own safety, that if they are assaulted it is somehow their fault.
Whilst the charm of the Irish charm and their beautiful countryside is what most of us imagine now that the Troubles are receding into the past, McGowan shows us that beneath these clichés is commonly accepted domestic violence, prurient judgements and isolated communities in which it appears to be easy to capture and kill. This is not an easy read and nor should it be.
My thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK, Little A for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

Not my typical read. I really snatched up this book because I liked the authors previous book. I don't know if it's because I don't like "true crime" stories but I found this book to not be what I expected. While I am saddened by the accounts that happened, in 2022, none of this surprises me, not even knowing it happened in the 90's, Evil has always been there, I know this.

Eeeeeesh this was a big nope for me. I’m a fan of the fictional work. This? Not a good road to go down. I was intrigued with finding out about these women and her true crime outlook and then I quickly realized this was a book about jumping to conclusions and like watching some sort of jumbled warped biased unsolved mysteries show. Then add the writing - it was like I was reading case files myself. On repeat.

Unfortunately this wasn’t for me.

Thank you to Amazon Publishing and netgalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

The author relates what happened in Ireland, specifically in Dublin in the 1990s. I like that she relates her life during that time. The book centers in an area, a triangle in Dublin where several women had dissappeared and almost nothing had been found about. The text narrate the rol of different institutions in Ireland and how they reacted to those facts.

True crime podcasts and youtube videos are some of my favorite to listen and watch to pass the time.

I remember reading this authors previous work and really enjoying it. Seeing that she was moving into non-fiction and true crime I was really interested to read this one.

Where this missed for me was the way it was written. I would have liked to know more about these cases but they way it was written it didn't really help. It was very name, case, cause of death, and then repeat with no real conversation between that. I appreciated the bits of Irelands history and the background of the time period when these murders occured. This one might have been better as a podcast versus a book.

Thanks to Amazon Publishing for sending this my way for my honest review.

This book was a real eye opener! Thanks to Claire for having the confidence and knowledge to research this subject! It amazed me how little was done in the search for these ladies ( but life in the 90s in a quiet place) it seemed the norm, as in so many other parts of the country/ world.. I found the book enjoyable and thought provoking.

Claire McGowan is known for her crime fiction, but "The Vanishing Triangle" is a work of nonfiction that amply demonstrates how different fiction is from real life when it comes to solving crimes. As Ms. McGowan notes several times in the book, if she was writing a novel that involved the crimes detailed in the book, the scrappy detective would pursue all possible leads and overcome all odds to find the killer, who despite thinking he was really clever, would make mistakes or be undone by his own hubris. However, fiction is not real life, and solving the mystery of the disappearances and murders of some of the young women discussed in The Vanishing Triangle has proven elusive. The author focuses on a series of disappearances of young women in an area around Dublin, Ireland between 1993 and 1998, but she expands the story to discuss earlier and later disappearances and murders in that area and elsewhere in Ireland and Northern Ireland. In some cases, the missing woman's body was found and the killer caught and convicted (although the prison sentence was often not long). In other cases, the murderer is known or likely known but the necessary evidence to prove guilt is lacking, including sometimes the body of the missing woman. The author discusses the various factors that contributed to these cases not being solved, or taking so long to solve, including a culture of silence and shame, and how mistakes, failed connections, incompetence, or even corruption allowed murderers to remain free for many years, increasing their victim count. It is an interesting, and at times disturbing, book.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

This is not fiction this is a true crime story. In Ireland between 1993 and 1998 eight woman disappeared suddenly just snatched off the streets ,some were found murdered but some were never found causing such distress to their Families .This book tries to investigate and it seems that there were many more woman who suffered the same fate but the Police never seemed to be able to convict anyone so most of the cases remain unsolved .Very sad that this can happen but I think I would have preferred to have read a fictionalised version with a proper ending .Thank you NetGalley for my ARC

McGowan has written a fascinating examination of the murders of multiple women in Ireland in the 1990s. They were more than women who lived on the margins but their disappearances and deaths didn't receive the attention that the murder of other women did. This looks not only at the investigation process but also societal perceptions. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Hopefully this will find an audience beyond the true crime genre.

I really enjoy the previous work of Claire McGowan, so I was thrilled for the opportunity to read and review "The Vanishing Triangle." While this is a departure from her works of fiction, I love true crime, so I happily dove in. There are definitely some interesting highlights in the book - I truly appreciated getting a better understanding of life in Ireland in the 1990s. It was such a tumultuous time in the country's history, and reading a first-person account of life there was fascinating.
The women who went missing in the "Vanishing Triangle" and beyond during this time absolutely deserve a look at their disappearances, their lives, and the system failures that kept them from justice. This was obviously a project McGowan felt passionately about, and it shows.
I did think that this book could have used more in-depth research, and better organization. There was a good amount of jumping around that would be easily solved with a different structure.
Regardless, as someone who knew nothing about these cases, I was fascinated and engaged by McGowan's input.

This is an important piece of research into the unsolved murders of young women in Ireland. It begs questions about why the police did not pursue some of them more actively. It is more a historical record than a story likely to capture readers’ attention. At times it can be upsetting.

A mixture of young and older women go missing in 90s Ireland the author tells about the investigation and hunt for these women.The news is dominated by The Troubles so non -political and sexual violence is very easy to ignore.The author tell a story of buttoned lips and silence and inadequate policing.
A different book by the author well written and heartfelt at times difficult to read my only moan would be it was maybe a tad to long and parts were repeated.
Thanks to Netgalley and Amazon Publishing for the ARC

Ireland in the 1990s seemed a safe place for women. With the news dominated by the Troubles, it was easy to ignore non-political murders and sexual violence, to trust that you weren't going to be dragged into the shadows and killed. But beneath the surface, a far clearer reality had taken hold. In this candid investigation into the society and circumstances that allowed eight young women to vanish without trace = no conclusion or conviction, no resolution for their loved ones = best selling crime novelist Claire McGowan delivers a righteous polemic against the culture of secrecy, victim-blaming and shame that left these women's bodies unfound, their fates unknown, their assailants unpunished.

I had no knowledge of these murders until I read this book. There's lots of violence and it tells of the fears the women have while facing the justice system. There's a lot of repetition which could be irritating. It's more about the authors thoughts and opinions rather than true facts. The terrorism of the Troubles in Ireland would have hindered the investigations. Parts of this book were really interesting, but there were other parts that were irrelevant.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #AmazonPublishingUK and the author #ClaireMcGowan for my ARC of #TheVanishingTriangle in exchange for an honest review.

Crime writer Claire McGowan has grown up in a small town in Northern Ireland which she always perceived as a safe place despite the Troubles. Of course, the news daily reported about bombings and people killed but what she hadn’t been aware of was the incredibly high number of girls and women who were abducted or simply vanished in both Northern and the Republic of Ireland. Some of the cases happened close to where she lived, happened to girls her age who roamed the same places when she did but she has never even heard of it. Only rarely was a suspect arrested and even more seldom convicted for rape or murder. How could the country have such a high number of women murdered and except for their families nobody seems to care?

I have enjoyed Claire McGowan’s crime novels for some years now, not only because the plots are suspenseful and complex, but also because she manages to capture the atmosphere of a place, to create a special mood that can only exist there. With her deep understanding for the people and the places they live and which shape their thinking and acting, I was curious to read her true crime investigation of femicides.

What her enquiry uncovers is not the Ireland that has attracted tourists and business for decades. It is a country that was shaped by the Catholic church and whose legislation was far behind other European countries in terms of women’s rights. With the Troubles, it was often safer not to have seen anything and, first and foremost, not to say anything, thus atrocious crimes could happen in broad daylight in front of everybody’s eyes. The deeper she digs the more cases she finds and can link to a small area, the so called “Vanishing Triangle”, where an astonishing number of woman have disappeared and whose cases remain unsolved.

McGowan tells the women’s stories, lists the evidence and also provides reasons why their bodies are still missing or why prime suspects still walk free. All this grants a look in the country’s state in the 1980s and 1990s – a lot has changed since, but still society and police often fail female victims today.

A read which is as interesting as it is disturbing. I really enjoy listening to true crime podcasts thus the topic attracted me immediately. What I really appreciated was that Claire McGowan did not take a neutral position towards her account but you can sense her anger and the incredulity with which she looks at her findings and which makes you wonder why not more people shout out because of this.

The Vanishing Triangle by Claire McGowan

I normally love reading Claire McGowan books but I must admit that I have only read her fiction novels. But The Vanishing Triangle is not my cup of tea.

The Vanishing Triangle is a none fiction book about the murders and disappearances of girls in Ireland in the 1990s and how it was kept very hush hush with the police not seeming to care very much.

I would like to thank Net Galley and Amazon Publishing UK for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

From bestselling suspense author Claire McGowan comes a nonfiction book about missing women in 1990s Ireland. Multiple women, mostly young, went missing in an area that came to be known as “The Vanishing Triangle.” Most of their disappearances are still unsolved today. Despite growing up in the same area, Ms. McGowan didn’t learn how widespread these crimes were until many years later.

The disturbing subject matter makes this a hard book to read, but the author does a compelling job of introducing us to the missing women and making convincing cases that their disappearances were the result of foul play. What is particularly well done is the author’s social commentary on violence toward women and the skillful way she puts the crimes into political and social context – inadequate police response, attitudes toward women, victim-blaming, and the wide-reaching effects of religion. Although a bit repetitive and at times confusing to a non-Irish reader, this book is a fascinating and well-researched look at these women’s cases, and it is clear how deeply they affected Ms. McGowan.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for providing me an advance copy of this book.

Review of Advance reader’s Copy/Uncorrected Proof eBook

In 2018, as a young woman got off a bus in Carlow, someone snatched her, stuffed her into a car, and drove away. Eighteen years later, a similar attack occurred, but a witness with a mobile phone called the police, and the attacker was located. A bloodstained note revealed the location of the victim; however, the twenty-four-year-old woman was dead . . . raped, and strangled . . . she’d died within forty-five minutes of her abduction.

Sadly, these events weren’t unusual in Dublin, Ireland where between 1993 and 1998 eight women disappeared in an area some eighty miles surrounding Dublin . . . the “vanishing triangle” referred to in the title of this true crime publication.

Was a serial killer at work in Ireland in the 1990s? Why, when so many women vanished, were the Gardia unable to solve any of the cases, unable to locate the missing women, even years after they’d vanished?

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The author, who grew up in Northern Island, reveals how several women vanished, but no one in authority seemed to care. Cases went unsolved, often for years, until the discovery of a body. But, for many of the families, there are no answers, no bodies to bury, no person to hold accountable.

There are no answers for the families of the missing, but the author provides the socio-political context for those years, a time of social upheaval, a time when women had no access to contraceptives, when abortion was illegal, and when, according to the author, “homophobia and intolerance remained rife.”

The stories of so many women missing, with little or no effort to find them, make this a difficult book to read. It is dark and disturbing, especially when the reader realizes that, at its heart, the culture, the society, and the politics of the time are a large part of the problem. Blaming women for what happened to them is nothing less than an insidious excuse for a failure of due diligence, a failure to conduct proper investigations for the missing women. Justice for the missing, and for their families, requires a significant change in the manner of investigation.

The stories of these women are compelling; the book, thought-provoking. There is much here for readers to consider, much that will remain with them long after turning the final page.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this eBook from Amazon Publishing UK, Little A and NetGalley
#TheVanishingTriangle #NetGalley

This was a fascinating read. I had never heard of these cases and I thoroughly enjoyed learning about them, though the information is quite shocking! If you are a fan of true crime, this is for you. I can definitely picture this as a series on Netflix, and I hope the extra attention brings closure for these families!

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, Amazon Publishing UK and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

An interesting story about the disappearance of women in Ireland. It’s a different read emotionally, but well worth it.