“Olive,” Billie says, her voice lower now, almost chiding. “I miss you. Why aren’t you looking?”

“Looking for what?” She’s hallucinating, isn’t she? She isn’t really talking to her dead mom.

I don’t know about you, but when I read a suspense novel, I still want to care about the characters, not just what moves the plot forward. In Janelle Brown’s new novel, Watch Me Disappear, out July 11, the plot really moves forward as a result of the characters’ personalities. Part ghost story, part suspense novel, it’s the best of both worlds.

Olive Flanagan’s mom, Billie, has been missing, presumed dead, for a year. She never returned from a solo hike in Desolation Wilderness, and no body was found. A single hiking boot and a destroyed cell phone are all that’s left of Billie Flanagan. Until Olive starts to have visions of her mom, and she and her dad, Jonathan, start to wonder what really happened to Billie. As father and daughter go on a mission to track down Billie’s body, dead or alive, they discover more than they ever knew (and maybe more than they wanted to know) about Billie and themselves.

This story felt very much like Where’d You Go, Bernadette, but creepier, and with none of the fun quirkiness that Maria Semple does so well. If you enjoyed that novel and you like suspense, I think you would enjoy this book. It almost feels like a literary novel disguised as a thriller. The plot moves fairly quickly, but not so quickly that you don’t get an insight into what the characters are really like. After the first few chapters, when Jonathan starts to go through Billie’s old things and begins to realize she may not have been who everyone thought she was, I was completely hooked and wanted to find out all about her and exactly what happened.

My one caveat is that I think, personally, I would have enjoyed the novel even more if it had been more about who Billie and her family are. Olive wasn’t explored as much as she could have been, and she’s such an interesting character that I wanted to know her better.

This is such a perfect summer read, for the beach, the pool, or just your couch on a hot day! If you invest the time to read Watch Me Disappear, I guarantee you will not be disappointed with the story. (Or the ending. It was definitely a jaw-dropper for me.)

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Watch Me Disappear: A Novel will be out July 11!

Netgalley provided me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinion are my own!

The Dry

Luke lied. You lied. Be at the funeral.

I love a good suspense novel, and those three sentences are maybe some of the most attention-grabbing I’ve read. Anne Bogel recommended this book on her podcast, and when I read the description, it immediately landed on my library holds list.

 The Dry, Jane Harper’s debut novel, focuses on Federal Agent Aaron Falk and his investigation into the triple murder that left his childhood best friend, Luke Hadler, and his family dead. After receiving a note from Luke’s father, Falk decides to attend the funeral, and that’s when things start getting even more interesting. At first glance, it appears to be a murder/suicide orchestrated by Luke himself, precipitated by the drought affecting the small farming community, including Luke’s farm. As Falk and a local police officer probe further into the situation, they soon discover that the case may not be as straightforward as everyone thought. Falk must find out whether or not Luke really did kill his family, before the small town community decides that he’s done enough investigating.

This is how suspense should be done. I was hooked from the prologue and would have read straight through to the end if my family didn’t need things like food and attention. The characters, especially Aaron Falk, are so well-written, which can be hard to find in suspense novels. I felt like I really knew and trusted Falk, and was absolutely rooting for him to solve the mystery. The setting is, truly, a character in itself. It isn’t just Australia in a drought, it is small-town Australia in a drought. If you have ever lived in a small town, you know that it can be a weird bubble of a place to live. If you haven’t ever lived in a small town, you’ll get a pretty good idea of what it’s like while reading this book. Harper has created a pressure cooker of a community that is struggling to find a way to let off steam.

Adding to the tension is the side story that Harper weaves into the main narrative. Twenty years earlier, Falk was accused of murder, and he and his dad were run out of town. Luke was the only person who knew the truth. The two stories come together as Falk uncovers more mysteries from the past.

This is a brilliant debut novel from Jane Harper. She has a second Aaron Falk novel in the works (Force of Nature, out February 6, 2018), and I can’t wait to get my hands on it!

(If you’re still wondering if you should read The Dry, let me just say that it won an award before it was even published. Not every novelist can make that claim!)

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