Life as a missing person is absolute murder…
When artist Eloise Ford hears that human remains found in an abandoned mine are believed to be those of long-missing teenager Elizabeth King, the shock sends her reeling.
It can’t be true. Eloise knows this for a fact because… she is Elizabeth King.
Now, her carefully curated life in Cornwall is falling apart. Her husband is acting strangely, her children aren’t speaking to her and she can’t sell a painting for love nor money. But much more worrying are the signs that someone knows exactly who she is… and why she had to vanish thirty years ago.
Eloise needs answers. Is her son’s ex-girlfriend just plain annoying… or does she know something? Will the detection skills of the online ‘Truth Seekers’ group prove more than amateurish? What’s the real story behind those village newcomers?
And just how far would she go to keep her family, her friends, and her fraudulent life, safe?
Book Info: Print length: 368 pages. Publisher: Constable. Publication Date: 11 Sept 2025
My Thoughts:
I thoroughly enjoyed Jo’s previous book One Bad Apple, so I was thrilled to get an early copy of The Vanishing Act to read.
I would class this book and One Bad Apple as thoroughly entertaining, easy crime/cozy mystery thrillers and are absolutely ideal for the times you need a break from the gruesome, but still need to engage your brain in the who, what and why’s.
The Vanishing Act is all about Eloise King. An artist living in Cornwall with her husband and children. Her marriage is going through a rough patch, one of her children has stopped speaking to her and the other is leaving to go to University soon. She’s also struggling financially with her art gallery and has lost her creativity to paint and this is all before a body is found in an abandoned mine house close her her home.
The blurb above explains Eloise/Elizabeth’s dilemma, and with the help of her son’s ex-girlfriend they start to find out who this body really is and why it has appeared now.
Jo Jakeman has the wonderful ability to create funny, flawed and believable characters. Some you love and some you hate, but all are brought to life within the pages and keep the reader engaged, entertained and utterly enthralled.
Overall I would recommend this to all fans of cozy crime and amateur armchair detectives.
