The Day She Disappeared
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
From Christobel Kent—whose psychological thrillers have been called “terrifyingly good,” “perfectly paced,” “addictive,” “tense, dense, extremely well-plotted and beautifully written”—a new nerve-racking novel about a disappeared barmaid and the friend who will do anything to find her.
When Beth disappears, everyone says she’s run off with another man. She’s just a fly-by-night party girl who can’t be trusted. But Natalie, her best friend, doesn’t believe it, not at all. She’s sure something more sinister is going on. So sure that proving it just might kill her . . .
Meanwhile, Victor, one of Beth’s and Nat’s favorite bar patrons, has fallen and ended up in the hospital. When he hears that Beth is gone, he doesn’t buy it either. And slowly, a hazy memory comes back to him. Something menacing . . . something important . . . something just out of his grasp . . .
As Nat tries to piece together the events—and people—in Beth’s life, it becomes more difficult to discern who can and can’t be trusted. The little town in the English countryside takes on an ominous air, with a threat behind every corner, outside every window. And someone is always watching . . .
Kent’s most recent novel, The Loving Husband, was an international bestseller, and it is in no way hyperbole to declare The Day She Disappeared her very best. It is as brutally unsettling as The Loving Husband, but even more intricate and surprising; as claustrophobic and atmospheric as The Crooked House, but even more heartbreaking in its truths.
Kent has been compared to such masters as Daphne du Maurier and P. D. James. With The Day She Disappeared, a new crop of writers will be compared to Christobel Kent.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in an unnamed English village, this sluggish psychological thriller from Kent (The Loving Husband) focuses on the disappearance of barmaid Beth Maxwell. Beth supposedly texted her boss to say that she was running away with a man she met up north, but that story doesn't sit right with Beth's best friend and coworker, Natalie Cooper. Texts and calls to Beth go unanswered, and when Nat discovers that Beth's belongings are still in her apartment, she begs the police to investigate. They dismiss her concerns, instead choosing to focus on the murder of a local boy whose corpse was dumped in the weir. Meanwhile, Nat's favorite customer, 92-year-old Victor Powell, knows that he witnessed something that the authorities should know about, but, thanks to his recent stroke, he can't remember what. An early lack of action or tension and a clich d, cartoonish killer allow the central mystery to be upstaged by a subplot involving Victor: the hospitalized nonagenarian's desperate quest to save his daughter and grandson from his abusive son-in-law redeems Kent's otherwise lackluster tale.