Poppy Gee (Bay of Fires) has created a brooding literary thriller in Vanishing Falls. The town of Vanishing Falls, Tasmania, is in the middle of the winter rainy season, which lasts until spring begins in October. Once a prosperous village of apple farmers, the town now has significant unemployment, and meth addiction is a rapidly growing problem. Jack and Celia Lily, wealthy heirs to the Calendar House, built by some of the earliest colonists, live much better than most people in Vanishing Falls.
But one night, Jack comes home to discover his four daughters asleep, the front door of the Calendar House ajar and his wife missing. Jack, a defense lawyer, knows he's likely to be the first suspect, and starts hunting desperately for Celia.
Meanwhile, Joelle Smithton, the butcher's wife, knows a secret about Jack. Many people in Vanishing Falls think that Joelle is simple-minded, but her brain just works a little differently than most people's, as a result of an awful childhood trauma. Joelle becomes increasingly anxious that if she reveals what she knows, her own secrets will be uncovered.
Tense and atmospheric, the heavy rain that permeates the story is an apt metaphor for the dark secrets that many of the residents of Vanishing Falls are hiding. As Gee delicately unveils the truths in the Lily and Smithton marriages, readers are taken along on a journey of discovery. Fans of Jane Harper and Camilla Läckberg are sure to enjoy this familial thriller. --Jessica Howard, bookseller at Bookmans, Tucson, Ariz.