The Girls Who Disappeared

The Girls Who Disappeared by Claire Douglas is a highly recommended mystery of domestic deceit.

Twenty years ago four young women were traveling along a rural Wilshire highway called the Devil’s Corridor when a car accident occurred. One girl, Olivia, the driver is trapped behind the wheel of the car. The other three disappeared and have never been found or heard from again. Journalist Jenna Halliday has traveled to Wilshire for the twentieth anniversary of the disappearance of the girls. She is going to take a new look at the mystery for a podcast and hopefully interview people who remember the case, including Olivia, and uncover new information.

The premise and opening of this novel is immediately intriguing and I was hooked. The show more narrative is intense and the suspense builds immediately. Clearly someone doesn't want the story of the missing girls looked into and it is made clear that Jenna isn't welcome. However, she persists and the intrigue builds as she slowly uncovers information. There are also plenty of rumors that the Devil's Corridor is haunted and Jenna begins to become a believer. It is especially helpful when she establishes a good working relationship with a detective, Dale, who is interested in reopening the case.

The characters are interesting and varied. Not all of them are likable, they are interesting, but neither really matters in this plot. The narrative alternates between Jenna and Olivia's point-of-view, as well as what seems an incongruous account of an earlier group of friends on a vacation in Thailand.

The story is multi-layered and the suspects keep changing. The pace is a bit uneven, but the mystery of what happened appears to be leading to hidden secrets and lies. It's always enjoyable to read cat and mouse mysteries where you are trying to figure out who is lying and what is actually happening behind the scenes based on scant clues you have to decipher and The Girls Who Disappeared fits that description neatly. An added bonus is the twists at the end.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins via NetGalley.
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How can three young women have disappeared at the same time, from the same car crash on the spooky-sounding Devil's Corridor? The driver, Olivia, survived the accident but her three friends were never heard of again. Now, twenty years on, Jenna is in the small village of Stafferbury to interview people for a podcast about what happened. Was it foul play or some kind of paranormal event on a road that seems to be shrouded in mystery?

I was kept guessing throughout the whole novel and it was only towards the end that it all slotted into place. The story is told from Jenna's and Olivia's points of view, with another strand, which seemed unconnected, also forming part of the overall tale. I thought the plot was all pulled together show more brilliantly by Claire Douglas and in the second half particularly I found myself racing through the pages as the tension rose.

The three disappearing women felt like an inspired storyline to me. One missing woman could be fairly easily explained but three together seemed truly bizarre and had caused much speculation over the years, hence Jenna coming in to record her podcast. I really enjoyed this engaging psychological thriller. I think there would be scope for a follow-up, with Jenna perhaps investigating another cold case for her podcast and I'd also love to see how things might develop for her with one of the other characters. The Girls Who Disappeared really kept me engrossed. show less

Twenty years after a car accident has all but been forgotten, the case is reopened by the police force, and a journalist arrives in town to make a podcast about what happened.

Four friends were heading home from a night of drinking on a rainy night on The Devil's Corridor when a person appeared in the road, and they crashed.

The only one who survived was Olivia. The strange thing, though, is that the other three friends were not in the car, all their belongings were gone, and they have never been heard from for twenty years.

Why is the case being re-opened after all this time?

People don't want the case re-opened nor do they want Jenna, the journalist, to be digging up the past that most likely holds clues.

THE GIRLS WHO DISAPPEARED kept my show more interest and had some interesting characters.

The only puzzling thing was the chapters interspersed with something I wasn't really sure had to do with the murder, but oh you will find out why they are there.

This book will appeal to fans of Ms. Douglas, fans of suspense, and fans of characters with secrets.

Lots of secrets kept and many lies. 4/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review. show less

Well that was certainly twisty and turny! This is the first time I’ve read Claire Douglas, despite her being a pretty prolific mystery novelist. I was not disappointed. Told from three points of view and back and forth in time, this is a mystery that I could not solve until the end. Jenna arrives in Stafferbury to put on a podcast about the unsolved disappearance of three teenage girls following a car crash two decades earlier. The sole survivor of the car crash, Olivia, is steeped in guilt and sludging through life. The two women are desperate to know what actually happened all those years ago. But the more questions Jenna asks, the more dangerous small town Stafferbury is for her.

While there were some over the top plot aspects, show more overall this was excellent and I highly recommend! show less

I enjoyed this twisty mystery from Claire Douglas. I enjoyed the different points of view but I will admit, I was thoroughly confused by the story whenever we were hearing Stace's POV, I couldn't really figure out who these characters were. With that said, I love how Claire tied Stace's POV into the story. I liked the ending and I think this could even be turned into a series with Jenna traveling to new towns to investigate stories for her podcast.

I liked Joanne Froggatt and Clare Corbett's narration of this novel and I will definitely look for books narrated by either or both narrators in the future.

☆☆☆☆
This is only my second book by Claire Douglas but I feel like I’ve been reading her books forever. Her outstanding writing style flows seamlessly and kept me hungry for more.

Two distinct and gripping narratives come together during the ominous tale of “The Girls Who Disappeared”. A jaunt to Thailand with four couples was a mysterious portion that factored in much later in the book, also.

Secrets never stay buried and they become more unmanageable the longer we cover them up. There is always someone prepared to expose them.

Jenna is a podcaster investigating and reporting on an old accident that took place on the Devil’s Corridor. A local road known for chilling and bizarre activity. Twenty years earlier, four girls show more driving home wreck their car, and only one was seen again. Olivia survived but badly injured her leg. The strange atmosphere hints at the possibility that unexplained forces may be at play.

The audiobook has fantastic narration and might be the best option for this book!

Sincere thanks to Harper Audio for providing this gifted ARC through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

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Best for:
People who enjoy mysteries set in one place; people who enjoy the cold case style mystery.

In a nutshell:
Journalist Jenna Halliday is in town investigating the disappearance of three teens from twenty years ago. The surviving teen is now in her late 30s. Will she be willing to talk to Halliday for her podcast?

Worth quoting:
N/A

Why I chose it:
Needed something to read while traveling on the day of the huge Crowdstrike IT outage.

Review:
Olivia Rutherford was 18 when she was in a car accident. When she woke up, the three girlfriends she was with in the car had disappeared. Twenty years later they’ve not been found, but Halliday is putting together her first podcast after 15 years of working as journalist, and she wants answers.

The show more book is told from both Rutherford and Halliday’s perspectives. Halliday is going through her own issues - possibly a divorce, and being away from her son for the first time. Meanwhile Halliday is preparing for the anniversary of the accident, and still living at home with her mother and dating the same guy she was dating at the time of the accident 20 years ago.

The story unfolds over the week that Halliday is in town, with the help of a local detective who is looking into the disappearance again as a cold case. There are some twists, some misdirection, and some surprises along the way. Additionally, there is a seemingly unrelated story being told between chapters that adds to the mystery.

I don’t think I’ve read anything by Douglas before but I’ll pick up another if I come across it.

What’s next for this book:
Donate to a little library nearby. show less