Mia Eliot is an English actress who comes to LA for the role of a lifetime. At an audition, she meets another actor Emily, and this one small interaction changes everything.

Suddenly, Emily goes missing, and Mia is wrapped up in a missing persons case she never wanted to be part of.

Then, when “Emily” mysteriously returns, Mia is left with even more questions.

Wrapped up in the world of Hollywood, Mia can’t figure out what’s real and what’s fake.

This book was a slow burn for me. The action didn’t start picking up until towards the end. And the ending of the story fell a little flat to me. If you’re into old Hollywood and the mystery of LA fame, this might be a good read for you!

Honestly, this is going to be one of the harder reviews for me to write. This book started out kind of slow, but it quickly had me hooked. Not too many twists, but just enough and they’ll leave you with your mouth wide open. Personally I could have done without the love interest though. He just seemed kind of blah, and why can’t we have a suspense/thriller with a woman protagonist without a love interest?

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the advanced copy in return for my honest review.

Thank you for the opportunity to review.
I love Catherine Steadman, but this book fell short for me. It was slow and I wanted to shake the main character. I like the idea and the backstory that she builds.

The character development was good, but I feel like the idea was rushed and there were holes that didn’t make this realistic.

The Disappearing Act was a very good book which was very difficult to put down. The author has worked in the movie industry and knew what she was talking about. I enjoyed the mystery in the story as well. Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and Catherine Steadman for the ARC which I am reviewing on my own.

This book is awesome. I really love Catherine Steadman's books. She really had a lovely style of writing. I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys creepy books. It kept me guessing throughout the book. I was able to piece together the ending prior to finishing the book, but I still recommend it.

I enjoyed this book, it was a different mystery than I had read before. The British actress trying to find her place in LA was a fun plot line. I also enjoyed wondering if I should trust each new character introduced. I was hooked from the beginning wondering how it would unfold and enjoyed the way it all worked out. This author has become a go to read for me!

I must confess that this story took me a while to read and as I got closer to the conclusion, I was eager to push through. I have three minds about this book. At first, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read this book. I am not a fan of Hollywood and the corruptness is disgustingly appalling and in the resent years, they been have increasingly known to the public. Not only that, but the politically and socially motivated agenda pushed on the masses and the kind-of movies that are being made out lately…Yeah, I won’t delve further in that topic at present.
While I found the story starting to lag a bit and go on too much about details and my attention waned at times, there are a lot of well-written twisty and tensely moments throughout the story.

The situations Mia found herself in kept getting increasingly stranger and I began to think that everything happening to her was in her head or someone was seriously messing with her. I found it amusing that Mia in this book played the Jane Eyre part like Mia Wasikowska in real life. I did like how she was asking herself what would Jane Eyre do or act upon in dilemmas she found herself in.

I appreciated the author’s portrayal of LA and from what I heard about the area; she is spot on. Though, she was likely being tamed about the telling. Which, I’m happy with because that was partly why I was hesitate to read this book.

I was relieved to find the conclusion satisfying because I had my doubts. As a whole, The Disappearing Act is a clever story with fast-moving tension and sordid truths about the movie industry.

Stephanie Hopkins

A suspense thriller with an entertaining, if rather far-fetched plotline. It’s an enjoyable read, if you can suspend your disbelief for a time. But, hey, stories all make-believe anyway, so that’s okay, right?

Some scenes were overly described, like they were meant for a film instead of a book, which makes sense seeing as how the author is both an actress and a novelist. The reader does get an interesting peek into the world of Hollywood, however, which is fascinating in the way a car crash on the side of the road is fascinating – the realities underlying all the perceived glamour and glitz.

On a related note, while the cover is stunning, I can’t for the life of me figure out what it has to do with the book other than a vague reference to Southern California palm trees.

A great Book Club Kit is available for The Disappearing Act, so it might be a great one for your next book club. It includes a both a letter from and Q&A with the author, discussion questions, a map of sites mentioned in the book, as well as recipes. You can find it at http://www.randomhousebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/STEADMAN_DisappearingAct_HC_BCK-small-1.pdf.

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I love a book that is set in Hollywood and has a mystery. I live in CA so that is so fun. I overall enjoyed this book but also there was something missing. There were times I noticed I was loosing interest. But overall I would recommend to someone looking for a quick entertaining read.

After an awful breakup, actress Mia flees England for the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles. While at an audition, she meets Emily, who disappears suddenly leaving Mia with her keys and a whole lot of unanswered questions. Throughout the book, Mia navigates through Hollywood, trying to figure out what happened. This was an easy read, even though at times I became with the ditzy Mia. There was just enough suspense to keep me going and I was satisfied with the ending. If you're a lover of mystery and Hollywood, I recommend this read.

I dnf'd this one! I couldn't get into it and thought it was a total wash for me. I just didn't like the premise and felt very board reading it. I loved her previous two books so I'm very disappointed I have these feelings for this one. I'm thinking in the future maybe I will try this one again.

The Disappearing Act is a mildly exciting mystery/thriller, set mainly in Hollywood during pilot season. Because I have a close family member who works in television, I was somewhat familiar with this process (although not from the aspect of actors/actresses), so I was quite interested in the premise. An acclaimed British actress, Mia, heads to California to audition for a number of possible roles in upcoming television shows and films, and becomes involved in a mysterious disappearance of a fellow actress. Unfortunately it got rather convoluted and unbelievable, especially as regards some of the actions Mia took - and didn’t take.

While I received the eARC from NetGalley, I wound up listening to the published audiobook by Random House Audio. The narration was done by the author herself and she did an excellent job with the many voices and accents.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Mia has traveled from London to LA to audition for new roles. While at an audition, she meets Emily, another actress. Mia does a simple favor for Emily, but that favor leads to a mysterious case of a missing woman. Mia claims Emily is missing, but no one seems to believe her.

Mia is a young woman on her own in a new country. She is not completely comfortable in LA, but she’s slowly finding her place. She is smart but naive. Her caring nature sometimes put her in sketchy situations. When she meets Emily, she finds a kindred spirit. When she realizes Emily is missing, she is drawn to find her new friend. A wild and twisty mystery follows.

The Disappearing Act is a slow building psychological thriller. Atmospheric and suspenseful.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

An enjoyable slow burn thriller/psychological suspense novel. This book starts with Mia, a British actress right on the cusp of becoming famous, flying to LA to audition for several roles. At an audition, she meets a woman named Emily and ends up running out to feed the meter for Emily so Emily can audition. Afterwards, Mia still has Emily’s wallet and car keys, but Emily is nowhere to be found. A lot more happens after that, including an increasingly suspenseful atmosphere, but I’ll say no more so as not to give any spoilers. A little crazy towards the end but twisty, surprising, and satisfying.

I enjoyed this even more than Steadman’s debut Something in the Water and now I’ll have to go back and read her second book as well.

A fast paced thriller that was a bit too convoluted and farfetched for my taste. It would, however, make a great movie with all of its nonstop action. I'd recommend it to thriller fans but caution them that they won't find characters with much depth here. That said, I did blow straight through this book in 2 days so it was a fun ride.

This was an enjoyable read, but a little more middle-brow than expected -- which isn't a bad thing, just calibrate expectations accordingly.

I flew through The Disappearing Act but it earns a mixed review of both 5 stars and 3 stars and here's why. The book primarily is set in Hollywood so I was expecting a Jackie Collins-esque mover/shaker type setting, but instead parts (like the Hollywood sign) were a little campy, even for my taste. I liked the characters and didn't predict all the twists and turns which makes it unputdownable in my book! A perfect beach or holiday weekend read... or just to escape day to day life. I can't wait for her next release. Thanks so much to #NetGalley for the opportunity to preview #TheDisappearingAct by Catherine Steadman - I adored it!

This was a fun read but not her best work. I enjoyed that the main character was actually NICE, which is unusual for many of the books I read these days - everything now seems to have a bunch of unlikable characters. However, her niceness was not particularly believable given her profession, nor was her total naivete. Also given her situation and everything weird that is happening, she just takes up with some random guy?!

All that aside it was an enjoyable book, and I look forward to her next one.

I'm a big fan of Catherine Steadman. She writes the most insane mysteries and this one was no different. I loved every second of it and couldn't recommend it more!

I really enjoyed this book, it was full of suspense. The main character was likable, Mia is a famous actress trying her hand in Hollywood yet I still found her very relatable. This book kept me guessing until the end, a true mystery.