Vanishing Falls

A Novel

By: Poppy Gee

Narrated by: Caroline Lee

Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

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…

©2020 Poppy Gee (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Fantastic.

This was one of the best books - incredibly in-depth character development, interesting twists, beautiful ending, and fantastic narration. Highly recommend.

Loved it!

Great storyline, pacing and character development. And I love Caroline Lee!!!
Looking for more books by this talented author.

Good read, semi confusing at the start

The story moved along and the characters were believable. Plot was predictable. Narrator Caroline Lee is perfection as always.

A really good listen

The narration was good. A reall great mystery that keeps you guessing until almost the end. Enjoy!

Good story, good narration

The story starts out a bit slowly, but does pick up and does make you want to keep reading/listening to see where the story goes. Caroline Lee does a good job with the narration, changing inflection slightly from character to character, so you have a better idea who’s speaking. I would recommend this book if you like fiction/mystery.

Suspenseful !

Story is good and plenty going on, but easy to follow due to the great narration!!

Such talent!

The story was written with vividness. The characters, especially Joelle, seemed alive. Storyline very interesting and kept my attention. But took two stars off for a scene with unnecessary sexual explicitness and for scenes of animal cruelty, both of which I firmly believe weren't, and never are, necessary. I Fast Forwarded past the explicit sex so got out of hearing most of that, but the animal scenes came up suddenly without warning. This upsets readers, and/or listeners.

Satisfying ending.

Caroline Lee was phenomenal again. Just amazing.

I tried and failed to like this book

I started this book about a year ago. I got about a chapter in before the narrator's voice drove me crazy. I took it off my phone and forgot about it. I recently found it in my library again and decided to try again. I wasted another 30-45 min before I remembered why I hated the narrator's voices for the characters so much. To be honest, I could barely concentrate on the story so I can't even comment much on it. It was slow moving. I will not be trying this one a third time.

OK Story

Didn't enjoy all the animal deaths. Seemed a bit excessive. But just my opinion.