The Vanishing at Echo Lake, a review by Joanna

Three 40-something year old teachers and their husbands arrive at the tiny settlement of Echo lake for a long-awaited night away from their children, intending to kick back and relax over several drinks and a barbecue. A fallen tree blocks the only road in and the owner of their rental cabin appears to have left in the middle of mowing the lawn, but they’re not worried until one of them seems to disappear. As night falls and the the stress takes its toll, love and friendship will be put to the test like never before…

This is a relatively short book, with a slow start as we are introduced to each couple and discover their marital problems – one is on the verge of splitting up, the other trying to decide whether to have a baby while in a precarious financial position, and the third husband has a guiltily wandering eye – so none of them are likeable, and Teddy in particular is awful. We know from the prologue (and the title) that something or someone is making both animals and people vanish, so I impatiently turned the pages to find out what was going on… only to be disappointed by the lack of explanation at the end. I was half expecting a ridiculous reveal like in Stephen King’s Under the Dome, which this reminded me of in some ways, or a religious twist, but unfortunately we don’t even get that. I’m aware many readers like an open ending but I personally prefer to have my questions answered.

The writing here was good in the sense scene-setting and then catching the rising sense of dread, but the text could’ve done with better editing to eliminate the numerous typos and minor language mistakes, and rein in the unnecessary repetition. I like books that acknowledge the reality of Covid, rather than pretending it never happened, but the frequent mentions of it may bother some readers. Overall I’m rounding down from 3.5 because it’s an intriguing story that lacks the expected payoff. Thanks to the author for the eARC.