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Title details for Vanishing Falls by Poppy Gee - Available

Vanishing Falls

A Novel

by Poppy Gee
Caroline Lee
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available

One of CrimeReads Most Anticipated Books of the Year!

""This literary thriller paints as vivid a landscape as any book coming out this summer...Gee creates a lush, tantalizing world that readers will want to travel into deeper and deeper.""—CrimeReads

Celia Lily is rich, beautiful, and admired. She's also missing. And the search for the glamorous socialite is about to expose all the dark, dirty secrets of Vanishing Falls...

Deep within the lush Tasmanian rainforest is the remote town of Vanishing Falls, a place with a storied past. The town's showpiece, built in the 1800s, is its Calendar House—currently occupied by Jack Lily, a prominent art collector and landowner; his wife, Celia; and their four daughters. The elaborate, eccentrically designed mansion houses one masterpiece and 52 rooms—and Celia Lily isn't in any of them. She has vanished without a trace....

Joelle Smithton knows that a few folks in Vanishing Falls believe that she's simple-minded. It's true that Joelle's brain works a little differently—a legacy of shocking childhood trauma. But Joelle sees far more than most people realize, and remembers details that others cast away. For instance, she knows that Celia's husband, Jack, has connections to unsavory local characters whom he's desperate to keep hidden. He's not the only one in town with something to conceal. Even Joelle's own husband, Brian, a butcher, is acting suspiciously. While the police flounder, unable to find Celia, Joelle is gradually parsing the truth from the gossip she hears and from the simple gestures and statements that can unwittingly reveal so much.

Just as the water from the falls disappears into the ground, gushing away through subterranean creeks, the secrets in Vanishing Falls are pulsing through the town, about to converge. And when they do, Joelle must summon the courage to reveal what really happened to Celia, even if it means exposing her own past...

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 4, 2020

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780063016934
      • File size: 365702 KB
      • Duration: 12:41:52

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 22, 2020
      Australian author Gee follows 2013’s Bay of Fires with an intriguing if at times slow mystery set on the island of Tasmania. As art collector Jack Lily races through his mansion outside the remote village of Vanishing Falls, looking for his missing wife, Celia, he’s certain of one thing: if Celia is a victim of foul play, he’s the prime suspect. Mousy Joelle Smithton, whose intelligence many of the locals underestimate, knows Jack is hiding secrets, but so are others. Could poultry farmer Cliff Gatenby and his wife, Kim, who are struggling with addiction and financial problems, be envious enough of the Lilys’ easy lifestyle to kill? As Inspector Kanton gets nowhere searching for Celia’s body, Joelle shows her prowess as a sleuth. One important clue may lie in a rare find now in Jack’s possession—a long-lost oil painting of Vanishing Falls by English artist John Glover. Gee’s fully developed female characters stand in contrast to her somewhat sketchy male characters. Agatha Christie fans will welcome the inhabitants of Vanishing Falls as kin to the residents of Miss Marple’s St. Mary’s Mead. Agent: Julia Kenny, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Atmospheric and engaging, this audio mystery features compelling family histories, small-town secrets, and a wide cast of interconnected characters. Narrator Caroline Lee's pacing adds to the multilayered story, set in Vanishing Falls, a small town in Tasmania. Lee particularly shines as Joelle Smithton, a young mother who is dismissed by many as simpleminded. But she is actually incredibly attuned to the secrets of both her wealthy neighbors--like the Lily family who live in the legendary Calendar House--and the town's seedier elements. Lee's character differentiation is sometimes indistinct, and the novel's points of view and locations shift within chapters. So listeners will have to focus in order not to miss anything. Still, with surprises right to the end, this audiobook is a good listen. K.S.M. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
    • Booklist

      May 1, 2020
      Fans of Jane Harper's thrillers and their atmospheric Australian settings will be riveted by this gripping novel set in a small town deep in the Tasmanian rain forest. When Celia Lily goes missing, the evidence points to her husband, Jack, who is suspected of murdering her, although there is also the possibility that she has become another victim of the dangerous Vanishing Falls. Joelle Smithton knows that her neighbors view her as simpleminded, but she is clever in her own way. However, as she listens carefully and sorts out the details, she unwittingly places herself in danger. Joelle was implicated in a tragic crime as a young teen and has guarded that secret even from her husband, who has a past of altercations with the Lily family. Jack has plenty to hide, too, as does the down-on-their-luck couple he and Celia befriended. Many secrets, many motives. The reader will be hard put to figure this one out and will be amazed by the unique and amazingly resilient protagonist, who is revealed in clear and steadily paced prose.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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