Kept me guessing all throughout! And boy was I wrong, which I love. The characters are interesting, the mysteries full of twists. I loved Nicole and felt like I was right beside her. There were a few things that bothered me about the ending but overall it's a great read!

Nicole and Lori were best friends in high school. They double dated with their boyfriends. Nicola was with Lucas and Lori was with Kurt. Then, at age 15, Lori went missing. It is assumed she is dead as a patch of ground with her blood was found, but her body was not. Nicole was devastated and left her home town of Henderson where her father still is the sheriff and her mother is a nurse-midwife.

Today, Nicole and Lucas are married and wishing to start a family of their own. When she gets a call from her mother whom she has not seen since she left town, she is surprised to learn that her younger sister, Aimee, now 18, has vanished. The girl is pregnant and due to deliver soon. Her mother asks that she come home. Reluctantly, she goes by herself as Lucas has a conference to attend.

Relations are still strained between Nicole and her parents but she sees her old friend, Kurt, Lori’s boyfriend at the time of her disappearance and he is now a cop. Not long after she arrives, bones are found in an old, deserted silo and they are identified as belonging to Lori.

There are so good characters created in this book and the tenseness keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. So many secrets and accusations. While I thought I had the perpetrator figured out, I was so wrong! This a great mystery/thriller and I know readers will enjoy it.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Gripping from the very first page, The Night She Vanished had me wondering along with Nicole, what happened to her best friend, Lori. Nicole's questions swirl around the book as she believes she knows what happened to her friend, but does she? I was fully invested in learning the truth and Dranfield kept me on my toes, turning the pages, wanting to learn the truth.


Nicole left town shortly after her best friend went missing. Her relationship with her parents had gone downhill and she wanted out. But when they called to inform her that her younger sister had gone missing, Nicole returns home. She isn't greeted by open arms, but she is welcomed by swirling secrets, past pain, old memories, and fear for her sister.

When you go looking for the truth, will you like what you find?

This book kept me on my toes as it had quite a few twists and reveals along the way. From the shocking beginning to the last page, this one kept my attention and had me turning the pages. I enjoyed the mystery in this book and the family drama where no one communicates, and everyone jumps to conclusions.

Gripping, tense, hard to put down and kept me on my toes!


#TheNightSheVanished #NetGalley #bookouture #WendyDranfield

A digital copy of this book was provided to me by NetGalley and Bookouture. The opinions are my own and freely given.

Nicole's best friend disappeared one night, without a trace. She always suspected her father of being responsible for her disappearance and her mother for covering for him. Now, years later, her teenage sister has disappeared, and she fears history is repeating itself. Nicole has not returned to her small midwestern town since she left when she was 17 years old with her then high school sweetheart, who has become her husband. Now Nicole has returned to help search for her sister. She hasn't seen her mother-in-law, her parents, her best friend's boyfriend in years, but the suspicion of her father, the sheriff is still there. Her parents aren't telling her the whole truth about something, and she is determined to figure out what they are hiding.

This book was a very fast paced read, kept me trying to guess who was involved in both disappearances and why. I didn't really guess who it was until about a paragraph before it was revealed. This is my first book by this author and will not be my last. Thank you NetGalley, Bookouture and Wendy Dranfield.

When they were fifteen, Nicole Rivers' best friend, Lori, disappeared
Then it was her own parents that Nicole feared.
She chose to leave and get away,
Never planning to return any day.

However, a call to say her young sister is missing now
Has Nicole returning to face the present and pass somehow.
She's determined to find her sister before it is too late
It seems returning home once more is her fate.

With memories and people from her past
As she seeks her sister can things be resolved at last?
There are surprise revelations and news, too,
As Nicole searches for any clue.

What a page-turner read this proved to be,
With family drama, murder and mystery.
One I didn't want to put down till I reached the end,
And highly recommend that reading it you also time spend.

For my complementary copy, I say thank you,
As I share with you this, my honest review.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ One of the best mysteries I've read this year! Can you trust everyone? Better yet, can you trust anyone? Every character has a deep, dark secret which will twist you around and back-and-fourth. I thought I had it figured out at least a dozen times. Not even close. If you are a Freida McFadden, Harlan Coben or Lisa Jewell fan, you will love The Night She Vanished. Can't wait to read all things Wendy Dranfield after this wild ride.
Goodreads description is as follows:
"Everyone in the small Midwestern town of Henderson looks up to my perfect parents. With dependable jobs as a midwife and the town sheriff, they help this close-knit community feel safe. But the locals didn’t grow up in my parents’ house. They don’t know what I know. And they wouldn’t believe me if I told them…
After my best friend vanished when we were just fifteen, I left town and never looked back. I couldn’t prove it, but I think my parents killed her.
Now, years later, my little sister has vanished. I have no choice but to go home and play happy families again. Because I have to find out what my parents have done to her. I have to try to save her.

But when bones are discovered on a local farm, and all the evidence leads back to our front door, I realize I was wrong about absolutely everything. And that coming back was the deadliest thing I could do…"
Thank you NetGalley, Wendy Dranfield and Bookouture for this ARC.

First off: Wow! I did not see THAT coming at me!

The Night She Vanished is an intense Mystery/Thriller, the kind that I read in one complete sitting. And because there is a mystery involved, you won’t be finding spoilers in this review, only my reactions to this story.

The basics are that one night in 2008, Nicole’s best friend disappeared. Because of evidence left at the last place she was known to be, it is assumed that she was murdered. From that night onward, Nicole is convinced that her parents had something to do with what happened to her best friend, Lori… but she cannot prove it. She left home as soon as she was old enough, married her high school sweetheart and never looked back, never returned home, and has a very estranged relationship with her parents which unfortunately carried over to the relationship with her younger sister, Aimee. Now, in the present day, Aimee has gone missing, and Nicole is terrified that history is repeating itself as she returns home to search for her sister.

The Night She Vanished gives us a slightly dual time period, with the occasional chapters from 2008 showing us history vs. what is happening in the current time. What follows is an intense search for information, clues being discovered, and the knowledge that not everything Nicole is learning can be trusted to be the absolute truth, for there are lies, explanations not given, and things that simply do not add up. The tension continues to ratchet up throughout this story until it explodes in the final chapters.

I had plenty of suspects, some I dismissed then took another look at later on when more information was given. I did not see the actual villain in all of this at all. When I do a re-read in a few months, I’ll probably see clues that I missed, but for right now… I would never have expected those revolutions or who the killer turned out to be.

If you love an intense Mystery or Thriller that will have you baffled one moment and certain you know whodunit the next… only to discover how totally wrong you were, then The Night She Vanished is a book you need to grab right now. I enjoyed every moment of reading this one, and frankly, would never want to be on the bad side of the author, for she has a deviously wicked imagination! Go check it out for yourself; you will not be disappointed.

*I received an e-ARC of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley. That does not change what I think of this story. It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this book.*

I would like to thank Netgalley and Bookouture for an advance copy of The Night She Disappeared, a stand-alone thriller set in the fictional midwestern town of Henderson.

Nicole Rivers returns to Henderson, the town she left twelve years ago when she was eighteen, when she learns that her sister has disappeared. She suspects that her parents killed her friend, Lori, all those years ago and now she’s worried they have done something to Aimee. She’s hardly back when bones are found at a local farm and that changes everything.

I thought from the blurb that this novel would be an exciting, thrilling read, but instead it is another psychological thriller with an unreliable narrator that revolves around a dysfunctional family. This type of novel doesn’t appeal to me as I cannot connect with the characters and their poor decision making feels manufactured rather than genuine to me. Nicole is a case in point where she thinks, with absolutely no evidence, that her parents killed Lori and, as is the current vogue, tries to get the little she knows to fit her narrative. All that’s missing is her tinfoil hat.

This is a novel of two halves. The first half is extremely slow and not particularly engaging. I struggled to get through it. The second half heats up a bit with all sorts of secrets and lies coming out. It is more engaging with twists and big reveals, some more guessable than others, although Nicole’s decision making is still questionable and it gives the novel a slightly forced feeling. It is mostly told from Nicole’s point of view with flashbacks to her and Lori in 2008 and excerpts from Aimee’s diary.

The Night She Vanished is a solid read that will appeal to many readers.

Unputdownable, Gripping psychological thriller. This book will keep has kept me until 2 a.m. I read it in one setting. Shocking plots full of twists. Superbly engaging. Nicole's courage and strength to find her sister and her friend's killer is commendable..

One thing I will say about this book is that I thought I had everything figured out so early on, I was positive I knew all the answers, and I didn’t know a damn thing 😂
Something about the way the story was presented didn’t feel as sophisticated to me as other books but I can’t put my finger on why. It was definitely a page turner and it had twists for days so while it maybe wasn’t the best written thriller I’ve ever read, it was still a hell of a ride and I’d recommend it if you just want some good old fashioned crazy murder-y fun.

Wendy Dranfield is a skilled writer who gets me every time. I sat down to read this book, and got up when I had read the last sentence. It is a really good book that hooked me immediately.

In the beginning it felt like a typical 'going back to your old hometown to face your past', which I love, but this one was more than that. It is creepy how badly things can go when everyone is connected, and if someone sees or hears one thing, that might lead to something bad, which again can lead to something worse. No one wants to open up old wounds, expect for a few who never stopped hoping to find out the truth.

It is time to find out the truth. Nicole lost her best friend as a teenager, and she was was never found. Now Nicole's teenage sister is missing, and Nicole fears history is about to repeat itself. She heads back to her hometown to see her parents whom she has not seen since she left town ages ago. Her father is the sheriff in town, and Nicole does not feel he is doing everything he could to find his daughter. What could go wrong...?

I absolutely loved this book, but the final ending did let me down, not a lot, but enough for me to give this book four stars instead of five stars. Don't get me wrong, it came close to five, and if I were you I would read this book!

The Night She Vanished is the first novel that I've read by Wendy Dranfield and to be honest, I initially found it tricky to get into.

I'm glad to say that didn't last long and once I got over my initial hesitance, I devoured this book, almost in one sitting.

The keeping of secrets and the damage that they can do is ultimately the backbone of this story.

A novel that twists and turns, taking the reader in many, many directions before secrets start to become uncovered.
They are slowly unravelled throughout this mystery where many possibilities are put forward before coming to the eventual conclusion.

The suspect and victim lists are long and complex and anyone who solves this must be akin to Poirot with the working of their 'little grey cells'!

A 'must read' for mystery/thriller fans!

3.5 stars rounded up.

Everyone in the small Midwestern town of Henderson looks up to my perfect parents. With dependable jobs as a midwife and the town sheriff, they help make the close-knit community feel safe. But the locals didn't grow up in my parents' house. They don't know what I know. And they wouldn't believe me if I told them. After my best friend vanished when we were just fifteen, I left town and never looked back. I couldn't prove it, but I think my parents killed her.

Nicole is estranged from her family. Her best friend went missing when they were just teenagers. Nicole has not been back to her hometown of Henderson in twelve years. But her little sister is missing, and she's certain her parents have had something to do with it. I never know who was telling the truth or who I could trust. There's lots of twists and the pace was slow to begin with. There were certain parts that didn't feel true. I also felt the middle of the book dragged out a bit. It could also have been doing with an epilogue to give us a little more closure.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #Bookouture and the author #WendyDranfield for my ARC of #TheNikghtSheVanished in exchange for an honest review.

This is a story with twists and turns galore where no one trusts anyone else. I have to admit that I found it a little frustrating that if the main characters had ever talked to each other it would have saved a lot of time and heartbreak. Having said that, there were so many suspects that I had no idea who the killer was and even if there was more than one. The last few chapters had me silently screaming at the characters to be careful .Although I found the ending a little abrupt it didn't take away from a very good read

DNF at 30%

The story was intriguing, I'll google spoiler summaries after publication but I cannot continue to read about the potential that a father impregnated his own daughter. If it was mentioned once, ok. But there are just too many mentions of this thus too many gag moments. I just can't. This story isn't for me.

I also was struggling with the writing generally, it's written in third person but there are some tense issues early on. That said, I would have kept reading if not for the incest theme - I don't know if it's a main theme for balance of book bc I DNF'd.

Expected publication date: 14 March 2023

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I am giving this 5 stars on Netgalley even though I DNF'd because i think it could've been a good book and if it wasn't a theme that I can't deal with, it may have been a five star.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

have to admit psychological thrillers arent my favourite, think its cos they get my blood pressure up and i have to put the book down and this is what happened to me whilst reading this book

so much tension and mystery abound in this book with a best friend missing and now a sister its no wonder i needed breaks away this storyline...and as it heated up there was no escaping the inevitable with red herrings galore and multiple guilty abound when finally all was revealed near the end.... and yes i was surprised at who the perp was

think i will go and read some agatha christie now to calm down....

This story knocked me around. I suspected just about every single character involved for some crime or another.
Hats off to Dranfield for the murky messy twisted plot that kept my nose to the grindstone to figure out who did what to whom.
In the end, I wasn’t able to detect the culprits unit, they were revealed, but the book kept me busy.
The snarls are wonderfully interwoven and readers will be quite surprised at how many threads connect.
I do think the characters need to go on a long vacation 😀

3.5 ⭐️

Nicely paced thriller which takes place in 2008 and 2022 about a woman who’s friend goes missing as a teenager and then her younger sister years later. Would recommend this book to friends!

What a wild ride! I couldn't put this book down! Start to finish it kept me on the edge of my seat. I am floored! Every time I thought I had it figured out I was wrong! The characters in this story are so well written. I had a love-hate relationship with each of them til the end.
Wendy Dranfield is one of my new favorite authors!

Everyone in the small Midwestern town of Henderson looks up to my perfect parents. With dependable jobs as a midwife and the town sheriff, they help this close-knit community feel safe. But the locals didn’t grow up in my parents’ house. They don’t know what I know. And they wouldn’t believe me if I told them…

After my best friend vanished when we were just fifteen, I left town and never looked back. I couldn’t prove it, but I think my parents killed her.

Now, years later, my little sister has vanished. I have no choice but to go home and play happy families again. Because I have to find out what my parents have done to her. I have to try to save her.

But when bones are discovered on a local farm, and all the evidence leads back to our front door, I realize I was wrong about absolutely everything. And that coming back was the deadliest thing I could do…

It will have you guessing 'til the end!

A teenager goes missing presumed dead after blood is found in the park, leading to a chain of events that have a family estranged from each other, suspicions and secrets only building the tension between the family. With another disappearance, the family are brought back together and the web of deceit, coverups and scandals finally come to light.

This book will have you thinking you know where the story is going, who is responsible, but nothing is what you expect.