REVIEW:

Are you a ballerina? Well you better be, because Lisa Jewell’s latest will keep you on your toes.

Is it 2017? Or 2019? Are we following Sophie’s perspective, or Scarlett’s? Or Kim’s or Tallulah’s or Zach’s? Hop, hop, hop. Is this 2021’s The Night She Disappeared, or 2017’s Then She Was Gone? Or maybe 2020’s The Invisible Girl? Ack!

Honestly, Lisa Jewell has lost so many girls in her thrillers it’s a miracle she still can find any to write about. In this case, teen mum Tallulah has gone missing along with her baby daddy in 2017. Flash forward to 2019 when her own mum, Kim, aligns with a cozy mystery writer to try to solve the seemingly unsolvable case.

As with every novel by this author, I got completely sucked into the mystery and finished it within 24 hours. I also know I won’t be able to distinguish this one from her others by next week, but that’s okay! Sometimes a reliable page-turner suits me just fine, even if toe shoes are required to keep the time and perspective jumps straight.

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

2017: 19 year old Tallulah is going out on a date, leaving her baby with her mother, Kim.

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.

2019: 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' . . .

A cold case, an abandoned mansion, family trauma and dark secrets lie at the heart of Lisa Jewell's remarkable new novel.