“The Night She Disappeared” by Lisa Jewell

Title: The Night She Disappeared
Author: Lisa Jewell
Publisher: Atria Books
Year: 2021
Genre(s): thriller, mystery
Part of a Series: No

Rating: 

Why I read it: Once Upon a Book Club pick

Summary: One night, young lovers Tallulah and Zach go out for a nice evening away from their young son. But when they fail to come home the next morning, Tallulah’s mother Kim begins to frantically search for the two. She finds out that they spent time with some local teens their age, including the mysterious Scarlett Jacques, whose wealthy family owns the ominous manor house called Dark Place. Scarlett and her friends insist Tallulah and Zach left the night before and don’t know what happened to them. Everyone believes Tallulah and Zach ran away from the pressures of being young parents and would return in good time. Kim believes otherwise but is stuck waiting and hoping she will find her daughter.

The following year, Sophie moves into a local boarding school with her boyfriend, the new headmaster. She ends up drawn to Tallulah and Zach’s disappearance when a mysterious sign appears that says “Dig Here.” What she finds reignites the case and could reveal the truth about Tallulah, Zach, Scarlet and what happened that fateful night.

Review: I feel like a broken record but once again, I feel like this was a story that took too long to get going and really only grabbed me once the action really picked up at the end.

The plot is a good one – it has some interesting twists and turns with intriguing characters, especially Tallulah and Scarlett. But the story is too crowded and too choppy. Jumping between different periods of time is fine and is a creative storytelling device that works well with this story. But there are too many characters who get to serve as narrator and the chapters sometimes are only a few paragraphs long. It was jarring and often took me out of the story as I had to adjust to being in another head.

I think limiting the number of heads the reader were jumping into and not having such short chapters, it would’ve let Jewell’s true strength in her writing shine earlier and stronger – the psychological aspect. This is ultimately a psychological thriller as much as a “what happened” mystery. The reader needs to understand Scarlet and Tallulah in order to figure out as well as understand what happened “the night she disappeared.” I think if we got a little more time with Scarlet especially – and seeing her family – it would really make the ultimate outcome hit more and leave the reader feeling a bit more satisfied.

Sophie probably wasn’t necessary as a main character and probably would’ve done best as a secondary character. I honestly think if she was taken out, the story wouldn’t have lost much. It probably also would’ve given Kim more time to shine as a mother desperate to find her daughter in a world that is happy to assume Tallulah just ran away from her responsibilities. I think Kim could’ve easily done the things that Sophie ultimately did – or at least had Sophie as her sidekick of sorts, letting Sophie open some doors for her but with the focus more on Kim than Sophie.

Jewell also did a good job in letting her setting serve as a character in her story. We feel how small the town is and how everyone ends up connected because of this. How characters may feel trapped or stuck because of how small the town is. And Dark Place also is appropriately ominous and the perfect setting for a mystery like this. The setting was definitely one of the reasons why I kept pushing forward, certain things would get really good as the mystery unfolded.

And I was right.

Bottom line: A good mystery but a bit to choppy in the storytelling.

Sex: Some mentions and details but nothing too graphic.

Moonlight Musing

What would you do if someone you knew went missing?