The Night She Disappeared (audiobook) – Lisa Jewell
2017: 19 year old Tallulah is going out on a date, leaving her baby with her mother, Kim.
Kim watches her daughter leave and, as late evening turns into night, which turns into early morning, she waits for her return. And waits.
The next morning, Kim phones Tallulah’s friends who tell her that Tallulah was last seen heading to a party at a house in the nearby woods called Dark Place.
She never returns.
2019: Sophie is walking in the woods near the boarding school where her boyfriend has just started work as a head-teacher when she sees a note fixed to a tree.
‘DIG HERE’ . . .
A cold case, an abandoned mansion, family trauma and dark secrets lie at the heart of Lisa Jewell’s remarkable new novel.
I recieved a review copy of The Night She Disappeared from Penguin Random House. I’d like to thank Georgie Fenn for the opportunity to listen to this brilliant new audiobook.
Regular visitors will know I love getting lost in a new audiobook. Sometimes however, the day job can get a bit chaotic and I need to give full focus to that and an audiobook takes longer than expected to complete.
Not being able to listen to The Night She Disappeared as frequently as I wanted has been extremely frustrating. I was delighted this week’s holiday gave me the chance to finally spend some quality time with this cracking audiobook production.
In 2017 Kim’s daughter Tallulah left her infant son with Kim in order to go out for an evening with her boyfriend and her college friends. The pair did not return home that evening and in the morning Kim is becoming increasingly worried.
A jump ahead to 2019 sees crime writer Sophie moving to the same village as Kim and Tallulah lived. She realises that she recognises Kim and recalls the story of her missing daughter, there are still appeals for help in finding Tallulah. Her curiosity is raised and even more so while exploring the area she finds an abandoned house and a sign suggesting someone should “Dig Here”.
That drew me in. Dual timeline stories are a bit of a favourite of mine at the moment. In the right hands an author can tease out reveals, drop red herring and keep vital information back from the reader (listener in my case). This means my perception of different characters will swing wildly from supportive to distrusting and will almost certainly ensure I have no clue where the journey will take us. Lisa Jewell is clearly an author that revels in this position of power – she had me second guessing everything!
Getting to know Tallulah in when she was the focus of the narrative POV was a bittersweet experience as we know she disappeared after a night out. Is she AWOL? Dead? Hiding from her mother and son?
Her relationship with her boyfriend (who is also father to her son) is “complicated” and he is also missing. Is he a victim too or does the fact he has a bit of a temper mean we need to treat him with suspicion? What about Scarlet? She is at Tallulah’s college and the pair have little in common yet seem to be bonding – at Scarlet’s decision.
So many questions. And through Sophie in 2019 we feel we may be seeing some of our questions answered. Or not. More secrets and mystery will follow here and Lisa Jewell is toying with us as readers.
It’s a story which does give a satisfying resolution. Having being wrong with many of my predicted outcomes I felt I was given a fair reward for the investment in the story.
All audiobook reviews need to include reference to the narrator too. A good book is too frequently let down by a listeners niggle with the voice they choose to listen to for over ten hours.
The good news here is that Joanne Froggatt delivers The Night She Disappeared brilliantly. I knew she had nailed it when early in proceedings Kim visits some of Scarlet’s friends and Joanne Froggatt nailed their disinterested vague attitudes. Oh I was raging at them!
My first time listening (or reading) Lisa Jewell. The Night She Disappeared ensures I will be back for more.
The Night She Disappeared is available in Hardback, Digital and Audiobook format.