The Vanishing Place

• Author: Zoë Rankin
• Genre: Mystery/Thriller
• Publication Date: September 16, 2025
• Publisher: Berkley

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A shocking murder in the New Zealand bush—and the witness who looks all too familiar—draws a woman back to the very place she swore she’d never return to in this breakneck debut thriller.

A child who ran from the forest.

A woman who must return to it.

Growing up with her younger siblings in the unforgiving New Zealand bush, Effie believed their parents had cut them off from civilization because they loved Nature. She never suspected that their reasons might be more menacing. After witnessing a terrifying episode of violence, she escaped the wilderness to forge a life for herself halfway across the globe.

Now, when she learns the only witness to a murder is a little girl who looks just like her, Effie is compelled to return to the scene of her troubled childhood, where the secrets of her upbringing and the terrors of her past come rushing back to the surface. In order to find out once and for all what became of her family—and possibly help this mysterious girl who could be her younger self—Effie must face her greatest fears once more.

As we turn the corner on summer, I find myself seeking out darker stories and reading more mysteries and even dipping a toe into horror when the weather cools off and the days are shorter. So it is completely on-brand for me to be drawn to this kind of book. Additionally, the setting works out well for my reading around the world efforts, since I don’t come across too many books set in New Zealand, a place I’ve always wanted to visit.

In the opening scene of the book, there is a young child who is starving, hurt, and covered in blood who walks out of the bush into a small town. That was enough to suck me in immediately—I needed to know who this kid was and what happened to her, and if she is going to be okay. 

From there, we are tossed into two different timelines, one featuring Effie’s upbringing, and then the other, revealing Effie’s present-day interactions with the girl, Anya. To start with, Anya refuses to talk to anyone aside from telling them her first name, and she’s a dead ringer for a younger version of Effie. Naturally, someone from New Zealand reaches out to Effie, who works as a police officer in Scotland, where she ended up after leaving New Zealand. It’s clear that both of these characters are carrying around some hefty trauma, but we don’t know exactly what they’ve been through.

This never felt like a debut novel, especially in a genre that can be quite unforgiving. Rankin builds the setting and introduces the major players. The New Zealand bush isn’t an easy place to live, but Effie and her younger siblings don’t know any other way of life. Early on, we only see how the family interacts with each other. Effie and her siblings love living in nature and being free. However, when she sees a shocking act of violence, she runs for her life, leaving everything she knows behind. She creates a whole new life across the world, but gets dragged back to the small town on the outskirts of the bush to help someone who might be related to her, and maybe even find some answers.

Leaving the way Effie did is bound to leave some loose ends, and once she touches down in New Zealand, she is confronted the harsh reality that she left behind. Right off the bat, she encounters a few of the people who lived in town that she knew relatively well. It’s obvious that Effie has a lot of unresolved emotions surrounding just being near where she grew up, as well as the people she encounters. On top of that, she seems to be the only person who can reach the girl. 

Both timelines involve a mystery, and both held my attention equally. There are limited characters in the book, but we get a pretty good look at who they are and to see that each is a fully fleshed out character. The adults in the book are more complex, with backstories that influence their behavior and choices, and it was intriguing to see the life that Effie has made for herself after the upbringing that she had. Additionally, it was interesting to watch how she opens up and gets willing to be vulnerable over the course of the book, especially when it comes to Anya.

There’s a low-key romance occurring in both timelines, but it never overshadowed the story, yet they still felt realistic, especially as occurring between traumatized people. Rankin delivers background information in drips and drabs, using wonderfully vivid writing to set the scene and show readers instead of telling them. Plot twists come hard and fast towards the end of the book, but the pacing also felt consistent throughout the earlier parts of the book. Both timelines were engrossing, and I found myself staying up late reading. This is the fastest I’ve read a book in quite some time, so trust me when i tell you it’s a really good one.

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