The Vanishing Place by Zoë Rankin
Publication Date: September 16th 2025 by Berkley
Pages: 384
Source: Publisher
Rating: ★★★½
My
Thoughts:
Effie grew up in the New Zealand bush, off-the-grid with her
family, but left seventeen years ago cutting ties with her family. Now a police
officer in Scotland, her old best friend, Lewis, summons her back when a young girl
who looks like Effie shows up covered in blood. This child is clearly related
in some way to Effie and has witnessed something terrible but won’t speak. Effie
must return and find out what’s become of her family.
Effie had an unusual upbringing living off-grid in the bush.
Her history is doled out slowly with chapters alternating in the present and
back in the past, starting with Effie as a nine-year-old. The chapters were
short and left me eager for more info with each shift. Why was Effie’s family
living in the bush and what happened to make her flee?
I found both the mystery of the past and present captivating
but was a little lost around the 75% mark when several characters were
introduced without context. The story goes off in a different direction at this
point. Effie makes some impulsive choices in the present that I found hard to
believe given that she’s a police officer. Parts dragged on in a bad situation,
and then the last 5% was a rush of action and revelations. I will say I was happy
with how it all worked out by the end.
Even though I had some mixed reactions to this mystery I
thought The Vanishing Place was a promising
debut, and I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up another book by Ms. Rankin in the future.
3.5 Stars
Book Description:
A shocking murder in the New Zealand bush—and the witness who looks all too familiar—draws a woman back to the very place she swore she’d never return to in this breakneck debut thriller.
A child who ran from the forest.
A woman who must return to it
Growing up with her younger siblings in the unforgiving New Zealand bush, Effie believed their parents had cut them off from civilization because they loved Nature. She never suspected that their reasons might be more menacing. After witnessing a terrifying episode of violence, she escaped the wilderness to forge a life for herself halfway across the globe.
Now, when she learns the only witness to a murder is a little girl who looks just like her, Effie is compelled to return to the scene of her troubled childhood, where the secrets of her upbringing and the terrors of her past come rushing back to the surface. In order to find out once and for all what became of her family—and possibly help this mysterious girl who could be her younger self—Effie must face her greatest fears once more.
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