Review of The Vanishing Hour

I went into this expecting a domestic thriller, but that was not what I got! Check out my review of The Vanishing Hour, which actually reminded me of this recent thriller and which actually belongs on this chilling list. Here’s my review of The Vanishing Hour!

The Vanishing Hour by Seraphina Nova Glass

To be published on May 30, 2023 by Graydon House

Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review.

Plot Summary of The Vanishing Hour

Grace Holloway keeps to herself. Since narrowly escaping death, she’s thrown herself into the small inn she runs in Rock Harbor, Maine. It’s quiet, quaint and, in the off-season, completely isolated—the perfect place for Grace to keep her own secrets.

But Grace isn’t the only one with something to hide, and Rock Harbor isn’t just a sleepy vacation town. Someone is taking young women—girls who look an awful lot like Grace did when she was taken years ago.

When a surge of disappearances brings the investigation to her door, Grace finds herself unwillingly at the center of it all and doing everything she can to keep her distance. Because Grace knows something that could change everything. When the truth comes to light, getting justice for the vanished might be more than Grace can handle.

What Else Has Seraphina Nova Glass Written?

Her first book was Another Stone to Carry (2014). She moved more into domestic thrillers after that, with Someone’s Listening (2020) and Such a Good Wife (2021). Her 2022 book, On a Quiet Street, was Edgar nominated and on my list of Neighborhood Thrillers.

Review of The Vanishing Hour

I’ve read On a Quiet Street, and I enjoyed it. But I picked up The Vanishing Hour thinking that it would be a similar book, a story about husbands and wives keeping secrets from each other.

Though The Vanishing Hour was a much darker and grittier book than I expected, I thought it was excellent.

It reminded me of two recent books I really enjoyed: A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham, which is an atmospheric thriller about a woman who has to come to terms with her past and Long Bright River by Liz Moore, about a police officer who is trying to find her drug-addicted sister in their Philadelphia neighborhood.

While On A Quiet Street was set in the exclusive West Coast enclave of Brighton Hills, The Vanishing Hour takes place in a small Massachusetts town called Rock Harbor, a place that was charming before the town fell down on its luck and many of its residents drifted into substance abuse and into illegal ways to pay for their habits.

There were a few similarities between The Vanishing Hour and On a Quiet Street, and the main one (to me) was the narrative style. The Vanishing Hour has three narrators: a reclusive female innkeeper, a frantic mother searching for her daughter, and a worried son looking for his father.

As you might expect, the paths of these three cross and their stories intertwine. I had some suspicions about what was happening, but there were enough twists and turns to keep me guessing.

Yes, The Vanishing Hour was a pretty bleak story at times, but there is resolution and justice in the end. If you liked Long Bright River or if you enjoyed Mare of Easttown on HBO, you should definitely try it!