A suspenseful thriller with lots of twist and turns. Told from different characters points of view, you think you know where the story is going, but you don't!

Who is lying? And who is telling the truth?

Thank you Netgalley and Harper Paperbacks for the ARC!

It was decent, but it actually wasn’t much about “the girls who disappeared”. Very intriguing setup, but the payoff was a little bland. It's an entertaining enough thriller, worth a read.

Thank You to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for this free ARC.

I love Claire Douglas and this book did not disappoint. I couldn't put it down. It is suspenseful with its twists and turns. I like that it switches between some of the characters to tell the story and you wonder who is believable and telling the truth. The storyline is interesting and well told and I love the book cover.

Jenna Halliday is a BBC journalist looking to take her career to the next level by starting her own podcast. She thinks she's found the perfect cold case to launch her new brand. Twenty years ago, Olivia Rutherford was driving home from a night out with her three best friends. After seeing a figure in the road, Olivia swerved, rolled her car, and was terribly injured. When she came to, her three friends were missing. She had no idea where they had gone, and they were never seen again.

What evidence there was at the time pointed towards a local drifter, but Olivia has always felt sure that Ralph only happened upon the scene as a good Samaritan. She's never thought too closely about the other things she saw that night, things that would be harder to explain. Now, with Jenna on the scene digging up secrets that Olivia would prefer to leave buried, she'll be forced to confront the events of 20 years ago, whether she wants to or not.

As Jenna delves closer to the truth menacing notes and dead animals begin showing up near her rental cabin. Jenna quickly realizes that Olivia isn't the only resident of sleepy Stafferbury who would prefer that the events of that night remain buried. Jenna joins forces with a local constable to try and find justice for the girls who disappeared, once and for all.

I was thoroughly impressed by Claire Douglas' prowess in "The Girls Who Disappeared." I have read hundreds of thousands of mysteries in my life, and it's not often that an author can really sneak up on me with a plot twist, but I was SHOOK by Douglas' "big reveal." I had already decided where I thought her plotlines would intersect, and I was so wrong and so shocked by the direction that she took instead. Seriously talented writing, tight plotlines, and more than its fair share of suspense. I will be diving into her back catalog while I wait for her next release! Special thanks to NetGalley and to Harper Paperbacks for providing an Advanced Reader's Copy of "The Girls Who Disappeared" in exchange for an unbiased review!

Well that was certainly twisty and turny! This is the first time I’ve read Claire Douglas, despite her being a pretty prolific mystery novelist. I was not disappointed. Told from three points of view and back and forth in time, this is a mystery that I could not solve until the end. Jenna arrives in Stafferbury to put on a podcast about the unsolved disappearance of three teenage girls following a car crash two decades earlier. The sole survivor of the car crash, Olivia, is steeped in guilt and sludging through life. The two women are desperate to know what actually happened all those years ago. But the more questions Jenna asks, the more dangerous small town Stafferbury is for her.

While there were some over the top plot aspects, overall this was excellent and I highly recommend!

I loved the possibility of a haunting! That was super fun! I adore Brit-Lit and this was Brit-Lit at it's finest. I loved the characters, Claire Douglas managed to create characters who were simultaneously strong but vulnerable. I loved trying to figure out how the Thailand story fit into the plot. It was just a fun story to read! This was a very fun book to read. I highly recommend it for anyone who loves a twisty thriller with great characters, and the possibility of a haunting.

This was a great read. So many twists and turns. Just when I thought I had it figured out, something would change. I definitely plan to read more books by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the opportunity to read and review this book.

20 years ago a horrible accident changed the town of Stafferbury forever. In the wake of a car accident, 3 young women go missing inexplicably, plucked from the wreckage never to be seen again. Olivia, the only survivor of the crash, has been plagued by the guilt of the accident for decades. Jessica, a journalist, travels to Stafferbury with the intention of creating a podcast for the 20th anniversary, hoping to spark interest in this cold case. Little does she know that the entire case would unravel while she was there.

The Girls Who Disappeared is a split-perspective mystery, told between Jessica's and Olivia's points of view. I quite enjoyed the back and forth between these characters. It was a really interesting way to reveal more about the past. The book also includes chapters set in the past in Thailand that are connected in some way to our main story. Personally, I think the Thailand plot was the weakest point in this book. The chapters dedicated to this C plot were underwhelming, and felt very disjointed compared to the rest of the storytelling . The reveal of the connection between Thailand and Stafferbury was telegraphed extensively, so the payoff was lackluster.

I will also say I did cringe at the notion of a professional journalist recording interviews on her phone for a podcast. A little more realism in the process would have helped a bit with the immersion.

Overall this was a decent book. The element of podcasting and journalism added a fresh element in the endless sea of detective novels. I also enjoyed the occasional paranormal bend in the form of theories about the girls' disappearance. The twists were pretty easy to guess, but I still enjoyed reading it.

Crossposted to Goodreads at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5356474344

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Perennial Paperbacks for the electronic copy of The Girls Who Disappeared. This mystery has dual perspective of Olivia (whose friends disappeared after a car accident left her severely injured) and Jenna (a podcaster who comes to tell the story of the missing girls 20 years later). The book is clever. I'll give it that but I was hoping the conclusion would go the opposite direction of where it landed. I won't say more without spoiling. The setting is creepy and you definitely do not know who to trust. Who is lying? Who knows the truth about what happened twenty years ago? Will Jenna be the one to find out or will someone stop her?

Read it to find out.

What a hauntingly spooky thriller! I had a hard time putting the book down once I started it! The novel follows Jenna as she investigates the disappearance of Olivia’s friends…20 years later. Claire Douglas takes her readers on a wild ride between the past and the present!

Thanks to Netgalley for the read!

The Girls Who Disappeared has everything I love about thrillers all rolled into one. A missing persons mystery, a true crime podcast, possible supernatural elements, a police investigation and a creepy woods. The mystery of Olivia's three missing friends was complex and multi-layered. At one point something strange jumped out at me as I was reading and then towards the end of the story, that one element became key to a shift in the narrative and where the story was heading. I loved all of the little details like that - everything was important, all of the different strands came full circle and all of the bits of information pieced together before the final conclusion.

I enjoyed this read. It kept me wondering until the end. The twists were very unsuspected. It didn't have me reading until the break of dawn like other of Douglas' books.

I love Claire Douglas and this book was no exception! She always has twisty, binge worthy reads. This is a great quick read and I would recommend it as a thriller beach read.

Wow! What a book! I've read a couple good books so far this year and this one has topped them. Claire Douglas has quite the imagination. I truly did not see the end coming. I love when a book can surprise me. It jumps from present to past weaving a story that will keep you captivated until the very end. I stayed up way too late to finish it. It's a story about the disappearance of 3 girls after they were in a horrific car accident. Jenna, a reporter, comes to do a podcast for the 20th anniversary. Unexplained events start to occur. A man ends up murdered, she's attacked, and strange noises can be heard in the forest. A fantastically interesting story.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Perennial and Paperbacks, and Claire Douglas for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This one sucked me right in, I wanted to know what was going on and who or if anyone knew the truth.

This book has three povs: Jenna who is a journalist, Olivia who was involved in the accident, and Stace back in the 80’s.

One night Olivia and her three friends decide to go to a new club a town over from them. Olivia is the designated driver and on the way home it starts to storm really badly and they see someone in the road and swerve causing the car to flip. When Olivia comes to she is pinned down and can not get out but her three friends are no where to be found.

It’s been 20 years and Jenna who is starting a new podcast goes to Olivia’s town to try and uncover the truth from that night so long ago. She meets many town regulars who all have some suspicions of what may have happened. She soon realizes that everyone is lying to her and who can she possibly trust? What happened on that rainy night and where are Olivia’s friends?

I gave this one 4.5 stars because it was really good and as I mentioned it drew me right in. I loved the secrets and all the twists it had but I just felt it need a little something more.

Thank you to @netgalley and @harpercollins for the arc of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This book publishes January 10th, definitely check it out if you’re into thrillers and mysteries.

At first I thought ai was reading two different stories and could not see a connection. We had Olivia’s car accident with her badly injured and her passengers missing. Then, we had Stacie with friends in Thailand on holiday with boyfriend John-Paul. Jenna is recording a podcast of the missing girls from Olivias incident, now After some twenty years have passed. Jenna’s husband Gabe has left her for some space and she is attempting to be more than just a stay at home mom. Lots of trails of info to follow. After twenty years is there still people lying that know the truth. Or Is the town truly a ritual site for sacrifices.

Thank you to Claire Douglas, Harper Perennial and Paperbacks, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of a digital advanced reviewer copy in exchange for an honest review!

DNF at 39 percent.

Just to preface, I have attempted to read a few books by Claire Douglas and I am not a fan of her writing style. Her style feels very remedial and does not keep me engaged. With that being said, I wanted to give her new novel a chance and assumed my issues with her previous novels were that I couldn't connect with the storyline. After DNF'ing this book, I don't think I will be picking up any more C. Douglas books in the future. I could not connect with any characters and this made them hard to follow because of the constant switching from first person POV to third person POV. That is number one on my pet peeve list.

This book fell a little flat for me, but I still finished it quickly. I found myself wanting it to just be over towards the last half. I'm not sure what the disconnect was because the beginning was great!

An OK read! I found the pace to be inconsistent & as a result it lost my attention often. The dual timeline made absolutely no sense until it did- I actually checked to make sure I was still reading the same book.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my review.

The Girls Who Disappeared was an intriguing premise with a slow-moving plot. The plot twist was mediocre at best, and the relationships between the characters felt shallow and surface-level. Despite these issues, I was still captivated by the mystery of what happened to the girls and would give this book 3 stars. I honestly thought that the resolution was incredibly unlikely, but I was kept interested by the setting of the town and Devil’s Corridor and the mystique around all of the characters