Review of The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell

Do you love creepy mysteries with intricate plots and complicated timelines? Love a British setting? Then Lisa Jewell could be the author for you. Check out my Review of The Night She Disappeared!

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The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell

The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell. To be published on September 7, 2021 by Atria Books. Thanks to the publisher for providing me a review copy.

Synopsis: In 2017, nineteen year-old Tallulah is going out on a date, leaving her baby with her mother. Kim watches her daughter leave and, as late evening turns into night, which turns into early morning, she waits for her return. And waits.

The next morning, Kim phones Tallulah’s friends who tell her that Tallulah was last seen heading to a party at a house in the nearby woods called Dark Place. She never returns. Nearly two years later, Sophie is walking in the woods near the boarding school where her boyfriend has just started work as a head-teacher when she sees a note fixed to a tree: ‘DIG HERE.’

Review of The Night She Disappeared

This is my second (or maybe third) Lisa Jewell book, and I’m impressed. She writes intricately plotted mysteries set in the UK, books with well-developed characters and multiple timelines and/or narrators.

The Night She Disappeared was no exception. The book is a missing persons case, but also a story of two women, Tallulah and Sophie, who are struggling to decide whether the relationships they are in are the right ones for them.

Tallulah and Sophie are then connected in the story as Sophie moves to Tallulah’s small town. She’s accompanying her (fairly new) partner, Shaun, who has just landed a new job as a head teacher at the Maypole School. The school is located at the edge of some woods, and the locals warn Sophie not to wander there, as three people in town have mysteriously disappeared.

But Sophie is a mystery writer, and she’s not just going to follow these instructions. Especially when she finds a sign near her cottage that says “Dig Here.”

I had some suspicions around the ending of The Night She Disappeared, and I was right. (I like being right. I also like being surprised. It’s hard to decide which one is best!)

If you like books set in the UK, thrillers with more of a psychological bent, and books with plotting that really keep you on your toes, check out The Night She Disappeared!

And after you do, be sure to check out my Spoiler Discussion of The Night She Disappeared. You can find my The Night She Disappeared SPOILER post here!