The Vanishing
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4.3 • 30 Ratings
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- $1.99
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
Recently widowed and rendered penniless by her Ponzi-scheming husband, Julia Bishop is eager to start anew. So when a stranger appears on her doorstep with a job offer, she finds herself accepting the mysterious yet unique position: caretaker to his mother, Amaris Sinclair, the famous and rather eccentric horror novelist whom Julia has always admired . . . and who the world believes is dead.
When she arrives at the Sinclairs' enormous estate on Lake Superior, Julia begins to suspect that there may be sinister undercurrents to her "too-good-to-be-true" position. As Julia delves into the reasons of why Amaris chose to abandon her successful writing career and withdraw from the public eye, her search leads to unsettling connections to her own family tree, making her wonder why she really was invited to Havenwood in the first place, and what monstrous secrets are still held prisoner within its walls.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Narrator Sands brings the right tone and pacing to Webb's supernatural thriller set in an old mansion on Lake Superior. Julia Bishop is looking to escape her past. Her husband, the equivalent of the "Midwestern Bernie Madoff," robbed investors of their life savings and committed suicide upon being exposed, leaving Julia to face the very public scorn and hate alone. So when a stranger offers her the chance to take a job at an isolated country estate as the caretaker of his mother, horror writer Amaris Sinclair (aka the "female Edgar Allan Poe") who happens to be Julie's favorite author it seems too good to be true. However, from the day Julie arrives at the estate, she is faced with strange happenings and a feeling that there is something wrong about the house, something off, something evil. Sands's performance fully embraces the rich gothic storytelling of Webb's prose. She excels at projecting Bishop's growing sense of unease and foreboding. The small cast of characters allows her to give each of them their own rich individuality. Most impressive is her take on elderly Amaris Sinclair. Sands gives her a sincere, caring voice, but with an underlying hint of sadness that fits well with the story. The result is not quite a horror story but just spooky enough that listeners may not want to listen with the lights off. A Hyperion paperback.
Customer Reviews
Enjoyed this book so much!
Read 3/4 of the book in one day! Just couldn’t put it down! I enjoyed its twists and turns, its characters, its charm. Looking forward to reading more books written by Wendy this fall!
Full of filler
Normally, I love Webb's books, but this was a total flop. It's a short story, a novella at the most, but it reads like the publisher insisted on a full length novel, so there are just pages and pages of nothing happening or questions that could be answered with a five minute conversation. Skip this and read one of her others instead.