‘The Vanishing Act’ by Sarah Ward

Published by Canelo,
4 July 2024.
ISBN: 978-1-80436-320-1 (PB)

Elsa is employed as a cleaner by the owners of several holiday homes and has to clean them every week, even when the holidaymakers are staying for a longer holiday. Tall Pines is her least favourite house to work at because it is situated deep in the forest and because it has a frightening history. The current visitors are booked to stay for three weeks, which is strange for a house set in such an isolated location. Last week the visitors arrived early while Elsa was still working in the house, but Elsa obeyed her employers’ instructions and did not open the door until she had finished her work and then slipped away without speaking to them. However, she did watch the new arrivals from the window and saw a middle-aged man, a teenaged boy and girl and a younger, red-haired girl; a woman stayed in the car and Elsa saw very little of her face because she was wearing large dark glasses.

The next week when Elsa arrives, she is certain something strange is going on. The house is unlocked but the holidaymakers’ car has gone. Inside there is no sign of the occupants, however a kettle is still boiling on the Aga, bread only half buttered and other food for a picnic is on the kitchen table ready to be used, also a chair has been over-turned as if somebody had jumped up in a hurry. Elsa is worried about the family’s absence and asks advice from Mallory Dawson, a police detective who took early retirement and is spending the summer in a caravan on the Welsh coast with her teenage son. Mallory met Elsa during an earlier murder investigation and respects the girl’s good sense and instincts, so she goes out to Tall Pines and looks around. The family have not returned, and Mallory has to admit that the situation appears unusual, but she does not think it justifies contacting the police.

Tall Pines has been renamed by its current owners. Previously it had been called Pant Meinog, which means stony valley, and under this earlier name it has a sinister history. In 2003 the house had been occupied by a remote relation of the owner, Tom Thomas, who also lives in the only house near to Pant Meinog. This family consisted of a husband and wife, who were selfishly engrossed in their own hippie lifestyle and were rarely there for their three children, two teenage girls and a younger boy. That summer the two girls were bored and amused themselves by inventing a poltergeist. They used the art of distraction to throw things around and pretended it happened by supernatural means. Police and an exorcist were involved and the older girl tired of the game, however soon after this the younger girl, Gwenllian, emerged from her room screaming, with blood pouring from deep wounds, which resembled claw marks, on her face. Despite her sister’s admission that the earlier poltergeist activity was a hoax, Gwenllian insisted that she was attacked by a supernatural creature. Soon afterwards the family moved away.

After checking out the house, Mallory decides to hang around in town and go back to the house in the evening to see if the family has returned. To kill time she contacts a friend, Harri Evans a detective Inspector with the local police. Mallory tells Harri about the missing family. While Harri says that there is too little evidence to report it officially to the police he is more concerned than he admits because when he was a young police officer he had attended two of the poltergeist incidents, including the final one when Gwenllian was injured, and this affected him deeply.

The family do not return but soon everything changes radically when a body is discovered in a local lay-by. The car matches the description of the vehicle that Elsa saw outside the house but there is no identity to be found on the corpse and the police discover that both car and house were rented using cash and stolen ID. The police have to discover the identity of the dead person and the reason why the family were on holiday under a false identity, but it is even more urgent to find the missing people, especially the children. Mallory is employed as a civilian investigator on the police team, and it soon becomes clear that the tragedy of the present is embedded in the past. Mallory probes deeper into the history of Pant Meinog, and tries to make sense of the relationships of the people involved, both in the past and present. As she does so the death count mounts, and her own life is in unforeseen danger.

The Vanishing Act is the third book in the series featuring Mallory Dawson. It is a fascinating mixture of the past and present and a subtle study of a psychopathic personality, as well as the destructive force that certain places may have upon those vulnerable to atmosphere. It has a cleverly constructed plot and engaging protagonists. The Vanishing Act is an excellent read, which I recommend.
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Reviewer: Carol Westron

Sarah Ward is the author of four DC Childs novels set in the Derbyshire Peak District where she lives. She is also writes gothic historical thrillers as Rhiannon Ward. The Birthday Girl, is the first book in her new Welsh based series, published 6th April 2023. She has also written Doctor Who audio dramas. Sarah is on Board of the Crime Writers Association and Friends of Buxton Festival, is a member of Crime Cymru, and a Royal Literary Fund fellow at Sheffield University.  

www.crimepieces.com 

Carol Westron is a successful author and a Creative Writing teacher.  Her crime novels are set both in contemporary and Victorian times. Her first book The Terminal Velocity of Cats was published in 2013. Since then, she has since written 8 further mysteries. Carol recently gave an interview to Mystery People. interview

www.carolwestron.com
To read a review of Carol latest book click on the title
Death and the Dancing