Wednesday, July 10, 2024

The Disappearing by Lori Roy


 In many ways this is a standard-issue thriller novel: The main character who moved back home not entirely willingly; the creepy stalker-type who works as a groundskeeper; the daughters under threat; the family secrets; the past they don't talk about and barely understand. In other ways, it's not so standard-issue: The groundskeeper/creep is arguably not the biggest threat in the novel, among other things. It's even mostly a well-executed novel: The prose is well-executed and the story moves and grabs even with some weird non-linearity and most of the characters are pretty well-drawn and easily understood and mostly consistent (certainly consistent enough to be people); but the climax feels undercut by the twists going on, and what's going on with the downbeat ending--after the twists--isn't really clear.

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