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Then She Vanishes    by Claire Douglas Amazon.com order for
Then She Vanishes
by Claire Douglas
Order:  USA  Can
Harper, 2021 (2021)
Hardcover, CD, e-Book
* *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

Claire Douglas's Then She Vanishes is set in the U.K.. The lead is Bristol and Somerset Herald reporter Jessica Fox. The story opens on the article she's writing about the shooting of a local businessman and his elderly mother in seaside Tilby.

Heather Underwood (a wife and mother) was later found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest, and is believed to be the shooter. She's unconscious in hospital. Jess struggles with the article because she and Heather were inseparable when they were younger.

Twenty-five years before, Heather's sister Flora disappeared and has never been found. The story moves back and forth in time between those past events and Jess's current digging for a story. She interviews the victims' neighbors and makes contact with Heather's mother Margot.

The author also shares the police investigation with readers, including the fact that Heather had accidentally shot and killed her own father as a child. More facts emerge and Jess is threatened, told to 'BACK OFF'. Finally, past and present collide in a shocker of an ending ... with one final twist.

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