Dorie - Cats&Books :) 's Reviews > The Night She Disappeared

***HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY***


This is a slow burn of a mystery that left me wanting more. Ms. Jewell’s writing is always good, the story flows well from dual timelines. The premise of the story was a good one. The idea of a mother and her boyfriend who disappear, leaving behind her baby in the care of her mother, never to return from a night out. I didn’t find it riveting as others have, I did turn the pages because I wanted to “get to the good stuff”, I was waiting for something amazing to happen. There are lots of red herrings which led me to figure out the big reveal. There was, however, another twist that I didn’t see coming.

One POV’s is from 2017, the night that Tallulah, a 19 y/o college student disappears. Lula as she is called by friends, loves her son whom she had at 17 with her boyfriend Zach. She has been settling into her new life with her mom, Kim, who cares for her baby while she attends college 3 days a week. Her life is good with the exception of Zach who now wants to make them a family. Lula isn’t so sure this is what she wants.

Lula has just become friends with Scarlett, a wealthy young woman at her school who seems to radiate a certain amount of power over those who she befriends. She now has her sights set on Lula. There are so many feelings that are let loose inside of Lula, she never thought she was anything special but Scarlett makes her feel as though she is.

On the night in question Lula and Zach have a date night, out to the pub and then a pool party, never to be seen again. Her mother Kim has done all she can to find her.

The other POV is 2019, told by Sophie. Sophie and her boyfriend have just settled into a cottage on the property of an exclusive boarding school. He is to be the head-teacher and they have both moved from London and are exploring their new surroundings. Sophie is an author, she writes cozy mysteries. One morning, she discovers a sign that points to the ground and states “DIG HERE”, when she does she discovers what turns out to be a missing piece of the puzzle of what happened to the two teenagers two years previously. Her experience at writing mysteries makes Sophie throw herself into discovering what happened to them.

My biggest problem is that I was expecting more from this author. The 3 previous novels that I’ve read were solid 4* but this one just felt repetitious and drawn out. I truly got excited at 70% into the book, that’s a long time to wait. My favorite character was Kim, who was the one that I was able to connect to and who was the most fully described. The others were mainly known just from what happened that night two years before.

I would still consider this a good mystery, especially if you don’t mind a slower paced novel.

I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss.