The Night She Disappeared
Lisa Jewell, 2021
Contemporary fiction Mystery, thriller & crime
When a teenage couple disappears after a night out, a crime writer new to the village finds a note in her garden that says 'Dig Here'.
Feels like dread and curiosity. About family and society.
A page from the book
How a hand on the neck can stop feeling like love.
Men don’t know, she thinks, they don’t know how having a baby makes you protective of your skin, your body, your space. When you spend all day giving yourself to a baby in every way that it’s possible to give yourself to another human being, the last thing you want at the end of the day is a grown man wanting you to give him things too. Men don’t know how the touch of a hand against the back of your neck can feel like a request, not a gesture of love, how emotional issues become too cumbersome to deal with, how their love for you is too much sometimes, just too much. Kim sometimes thinks that women practise being mothers on men until they become actual mothers, leaving behind a kind of vacancy. Lisa Jewell.Jewell wrote her 1999 debut, Ralph's Party, while working full time in fashion; it began as a bet with a friend and became a bestseller.
Books that feel like this
More by Lisa Jewell
Then She Was Gone
Lisa Jewell, 2017
Ten years after a mother loses her daughter, a girl who looks just like her walks into her life.
None of This Is True
Lisa Jewell, 2023
A true-crime podcaster meets a woman who wants her life recorded, and the interviews start to curdle. A thriller about stories and who gets to tell them.
Don't Let Him In
Lisa Jewell, 2025
A novel about the charm that gets a man let in — and the damage that follows.
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Questions readers ask
- What is The Night She Disappeared like?
- Feels like dread and curiosity. About family and society.
- What should I read after The Night She Disappeared?
- If you liked The Night She Disappeared, try Pretty Girls (Karin Slaughter), Want to Know a Secret? (Freida McFadden) and Home Is Where the Bodies Are (Jeneva Rose).
A taste of the feed
What a woman weighs before she turns a man down.
It’s the truth. I’m sorry to be blunt about it, but girls don’t like guys who are doormats. Especially pretty girls, because there’s no novelty in it. Guys are hitting on them all of the time. They can’t walk down the street or order a coffee or stand on a corner without some idiot making a comment about how attractive they are. And the women smile because it’s easier than telling them to go fuck themselves. And less dangerous, because if a man rejects a woman, she goes home and cries for a few days. If a woman rejects a man, he can rape and kill her.
Pretty Girls · Karin Slaughter
She tells everyone it's fitness; it's really the last high she has left.
I tell everyone that I’m trying to keep fit, but the truth is, the adrenaline I get from running is the only thing close to what I used to feel when I was in the courtroom. If I ever stopped running, I would probably have to start taking speed. I love pushing myself as hard as I can.
Want to Know a Secret? · Freida McFadden
The word you only get to say to one person.
I’m trying to say Mom as many times as I possibly can because I know I’ll never call another person that again. It’s reserved only for her. There is no replacement.
Home Is Where the Bodies Are · Jeneva Rose
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