THE DISAPPEARANCE by KATHERINE WEBB

 THE DISAPPEARANCE

BY KATHERINE WEBB

THE BLURB:-

What was hidden will be revealed...

When Frances's best friend, Bronwyn, disappeared over twenty years ago, her body was never found. And in that moment Frances's life changed forever.

Now it's 1942 and bombs are raining down on Bath. In the chaos a little boy goes missing. Frances was meant to be looking after him and she is tortured by guilt at his disappearance. Where has he gone, and is there any chance he could have survived?

Bombs conceal, but they can also reveal- as quiet falls and the dust settles, a body is disturbed from its hiding place. What happened to Bronwyn all those years ago? And can Frances ever put right the wrongs of the past?

THE REALITY:-

Well, my last book took four months to plough through, and this offering took less than a week. Wowzers! I guess I'm never going to be a literary person; and always more of a commercial women's fiction devotee. I always did state, during my MA Creative Writing course, that my reading wasn't exactly highbrow. Mind you, it does include Shakespeare and Dickens, so it can't be that bad, can it? I guess that what I'm trying to say is that I need a storyline, as opposed to a mealy-mouthed exploration of character (although a hybrid- such as the last book I read, Donna Tartt's The Secret History, which offers up both, isn't necessarily a bad thing.)

Whilst not my favourite Katherine Webb book, this certainly wasn't my least liked, and what I enjoyed most was its gently gathering pace, which encourages you to read on. The story flipped between the relevant two timelines easily, in quite short chapters, (or so it seemed) meaning that I never lost the thread of what had gone before. I enjoyed that it was set in Bath, which is a city I've visited and loved, and would certainly return to. I only spent a weekend there, so maybe next time I can explore more off the beaten track, and maybe try and discover some of the areas mentioned in this novel.

The idea of a child so traumatised that they lose part of their memory isn't new to me, and I believe that both Maggie O' Farrell and Lisa Jewell have explored this idea through their novels. I have wondered before if this occurrence is even possible. I don't know- but as this story came across as believable, I'll not explore this point further.

Very atmospheric, and with some extremely (and painfully) “real” characters, the chief protagonist wasn't easy to work out, and I would never have guessed it was (spoiler alert!) smooth, charmer Clive. I also didn't guess that it was drunken Carys trailing Frances throughout the novel (I always love a female villain!) I did wonder how, in a small community, Frances didn't manage to chance upon Clive in all the years since he'd (another spoiler alert!) abused and terrified her. But I suppose that part of make-believe had to be invented, to make Frances's puzzlement over whom the stranger in the hospital bed actually was take shape.

For me, the most enjoyable part of the novel was the friendship between Bronwyn and Frances, and the details surrounding the discovery of the circumstances surrounding Bronwyn's death and burial. An unusual (for that time) character, in that she didn't follow the norms of convention, both in her style of dressing and her attitude, Frances was extremely likeable, as was her adulterous paramour, Owen.

A good read; it's certainly worth a go. Oh, and by the way, I love, love, LOVE the cover, with its holographic 3D girl in the red coat.