Book Review
2021 mystery The Night She Disappeared by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell. The Night She Disappeared is a whodunnit with a big cast of people, lots of red herrings, and a modern take on spousal abuse, teen moms, risky friendships, and the alluring draw of wealth.
Twenty books have been written and published by Jewell, whose 2007 book 31 Dream Street won the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance. Her writing has been praised by critics for being “acutely observed” and for “crafting a complicated and completely fascinating thriller.”
Introduction
With three periods and three narrators—Kim Knox, a divorced mother of two; her daughter Tallulah Murray; and Sophie Beck, a school headmaster’s girlfriend—this book has a complex structure.
The first time period is 2017, one year after Tallulah and her lover Zach vanished. Noah, the son of Zach and Tallulah, is now cared for by Tallulah’s mother Kim, who also laments the loss of her daughter, Tallulah, whose disappearance was never discovered.
2018 is the second time period. Sophie, a mystery author who is experiencing writer’s block, and her lover Shaun, the principal of the school where Sophie and Zach vanished, settle in the same community. When Sophie becomes involved in the investigation into Tallulah and Zach’s disappearance, she finds information that she passes on to Kim.
2016 is the third time period. Tallulah tells the story of what happened before she vanished. She makes friends with the seductive Scarlett Jacques, a wealthy banker’s daughter. Tallulah has felt suffocated by her domineering lover Zach, who makes sure that Tallulah’s mother Kim never sees his dark side, leading Kim to believe that he is a wonderful guy. Ultimately, a secret relationship between Tallulah and Scarlett starts. Tallulah should break up with Zach, according to Scarlett.
Zach and Tallulah are brought to Scarlett’s mansion by her pals for a pool party. If Tallulah leaves him, Zach threatens to take Noah away. As Scarlett hears this, she grabs up a large ornament and strikes Zach in the head, killing him.
Joss, Scarlett’s mother, devises a scheme to dispose of the body by burying it in a secret tunnel under the estate. Joss then prepares hot chocolate and adds sleeping pills to Tallulah’s cup. In order to escape to their yacht with a drugged Tallulah, Scarlett, Joss, and Scarlett’s brother persuade their mother to let Tallulah survive. They set out into the broad ocean.
Sophie manages her concern about moving from London to the countryside with a guy who is ten years older as she searches for information about what happened to Tallulah and Zach, mostly through social media. Sophie is also concerned about her boyfriend’s young twins’ upcoming visit.
The police are able to find witnesses who can shed light on the crime thanks to Sophie’s assistance. Police find the yacht after a tense standoff and manage to rescue Tallulah just as Scarlett and her mother are ready to murder her. As Tallulah returns home, her mother Kim, and her son Noah are happy to see her.
Shaun despises his job, and Sophie finds that the countryside stifles her creativity. Sophie realizes that she and Shaun made a mistake by leaving London. Sophie makes the decision to return to London, either with Shaun or by herself.
PART 1, CHAPTERS 1 – 10 ANALYSIS
In their depictions of problems involving dysfunctional, imbalanced, and otherwise destructive relationships, the opening chapters weave hints at the mystery.
There are several instances that highlight how unsettling Zack and Tallulah’s relationship is. Tallulah acknowledges in Chapter 8 that she is unsure whether she wants Zach around. In Chapter 9, Kim expresses concern that if Tallulah declined Zach’s proposal, Zach’s temper may flare up: “She’s seen it flare up from time to time when he’s watching sports on TV, when he loses something and wounds himself, or when someone cuts him up while he’s driving”. These brief intervals serve a variety of functions. Secondly, they imply that Zach is an abusive partner to Tallulah, which Kim is aware of but eager to ignore since she believes that Tallulah cannot raise Noah by herself. Second, they present a red herring explanation for Tallulah’s disappearance, namely that she might have been slain by a furious Zach.
Although Sophie isn’t directly involved in the main plot, her life offers a fresh perspective on relationships with imbalanced power dynamics. Although Sophie is clear that she loves Shaun, the strain is revealed by her choice to leave London so that Shaun could support his children financially. The main reason Sophie decided to relocate was her concern over being alone at age 35. She and Shaun have a very different power dynamic now that the pressure to date has exacerbated their already unfavorable age and marital status differences: Shaun makes Sophie feel like an older, more accomplished adult when it comes to his kids than she does. As she hasn’t been in the correct frame of mind to do any work, Sophie’s anxiousness has begun to impact her writing.
The work also examines the subject of desire. Scarlett appeals to Tallulah, who feels insecure about her postpartum body’s rapid aging and finds her attractive and enigmatic. Scarlett is a symbol of independence. Tallulah notices how many of her friends are loyal to her and that she is artistic. She has stylish clothing, and her artwork is eccentric, one-of-a-kind, and odd. Tallulah is intensely pulled to all of these qualities that Scarlett embodies, despite the fact that she is disturbed about being such a young mother, attending college, and not wanting to be in a relationship with Zach. It is therefore not surprising that Tallulah is thrilled when Scarlett speaks to her. More importantly, though, Tallulah feels that Scarlett has truly seen her: When Tallulah looks at Scarlett, she “finds Scarlett looking straight back at her”. Unlike Kim, who adores her daughter but is ashamed of Tallulah’s early and unmarried pregnancy, or Zach, who only views Tallulah as a victim, Scarlett accepts Tallulah for who she is.
PART 1, CHAPTERS 11 – 22 ANALYSIS
Tallulah’s reluctance to reconcile with Zach is revealed to be a result of his domineering, violent behavior—a personality quirk that encourages readers to hold Zach responsible for Tallulah’s abduction. Although there have been signs of this before, these chapters show him directly holding her wrists, stalking her around campus, looking through her phone, and ordering her to stop going to college and stay home. Along with the interactions Kim has with McCoy and Megs, as well as these irate and combative behaviors, it appears that Zach is at fault.
Tallulah is shown in the book as being motivated by sexual desire. She only rekindles her relationship with Zach after she has a sexual attraction to him. Eventually, after growing tired of Zach, Tallulah becomes fixated on Scarlett. Tallulah is fascinated by Scarlett, and her fascination is tinged with sexual tension. The heiress is far more interesting than the rest of Tallulah’s life because of her peculiar appearance, her disturbing artwork, and her carefree way of making friends. In some ways, Tallulah’s pursuit of Scarlett resembles Zach’s attempts to limit Tallulah’s freedom: just as Zach suspiciously pursues Tallulah, so does Tallulah spy on Scarlett.
The tension in each plotline is raised by the many timelines and points of view that hint at future occurrences. The book employs dramatic irony in these situations: a literary method where readers are privy to more information than the characters. We witness plotlines in this instance come to a climax when sections set in the past weave into the present since we frequently know the results of previous actions.
Because she can’t write, Sophie devotes her attention to investigating and spends time learning about the lives of strangers. This endeavor masks Sophie’s true inner dilemma, which is the impact Sophie’s rash decision to leave London has had on her creative endeavors. It is obvious that this dissatisfaction with a rural living will eventually become externalized, though.
PART 2, CHAPTERS 23 – 36 ANALYSIS
The writing style of the work varies significantly in the second half. Jewell omits the date and substitutes a narrator without a character-specific point of view for the restricted omniscient one used in the other chapters while writing Liam’s backstory. The chapters of the novel’s main narrators then start to include more interior discussion. We notice mental patterns that characterize character motivation when we immerse ourselves in the characters’ thoughts more frequently. Readers can see Tallulah’s terrified, imprisoned state of mind as specific descriptions of Zach’s abuse recur. For instance, Tallulah frequently imagines the sensation of Zach holding her arms or wrists as if to detain her. Kim, on the other hand, oscillates between hope and despondence, her emotions changing with the investigation’s ups and downs. Eventually, Sophie makes every effort not to question whether leaving London was the right decision; instead, her inner monologue constantly researches the case of Tallulah and Zach.
The pursuit of love is a common thread across the three women. Even when she is feeling the worst, Kim can’t help but wonder what her life would be like if Tallulah had stayed. She is desperate for adult company, love, and for companionship, and she can’t help but notice how attractive Detective McCoy is as she puts on makeup and swells the pillows on the furniture for his visit. She also observes that “[h]e has lost weight” and “he no longer wears a wedding band”. Tallulah, who is desperate for love, ignores Scarlett’s many red flags, including her drug usage, her insistence that she cannot be monogamous, and her tendency to be needy and manipulative. Finally, Sophie comes to terms with the fact that she hurriedly decided to leave London out of dread of becoming completely alone.
But how do I get rid of him? Tallulah asks menacingly as the second section of the book comes to a close. The rest of the plot gains structural velocity as a result of this foreshadowing scene. Tallulah might not have wanted the murder of the father of her child, but she might not have realized the repercussions of her reckless pursuit of Scarlett.
PART 3, CHAPTERS 37-42 ANALYSIS
Part 3 sees a rise in action as well as the novel’s investigation of the many elements of domestic violence, which ratchets up the plot tension. Tallulah, who is caught in the love triangle involving Zach and Scarlett, is under a lot of pressure from Scarlett, Zach, and her growing love for her. She also worries that Scarlett won’t ever be able to commit. Tallulah is being pushed by Scarlett to leave Zach as he becomes more and more abusive. He escalates his actions, threatens the infant Noah, and uses Tallulah’s screaming to his advantage. Tallulah is divided between wanting to end the relationship and needing to appease Zach as she realizes the growing likelihood of violence.
Zach is shown as a realistic abuser in this story. He increases his physical abuse and manipulation when he senses his lover drifting away. The author accurately describes how the severity of domestic abuse increases. Also, Jewell is fascinated by the psychology of abuse victims: despite the fact that Tallulah is aware of what is occurring, she finds it impossible to leave Zach. She has no safe haven to retreat to because Scarlett is, at best, a somewhat less controlling version of Zach due to her impulsive, unpredictable personality, and wishy-washy attitude toward commitment.
PART 3, CHAPTERS 43 – 51 ANALYSIS
These chapters, which include clues that will help solve this mystery and involve persons expressing things they’d been reluctant to face, are replete with the motif of unwanted revelations. Going detective, Sophie and Kim find a web of comments and postings on social media that show the teenagers who were present the night Zach and Tallulah vanished have kept in touch using aliases and cryptic posts. On a boat, Scarlett continues to direct her pals’ movements. Similar to how Kim ultimately connects the dots about Tallulah and Scarlett’s connection, which Kim obviously suspected but refused to accept. She was anxious to get Tallulah and Zach together despite knowing about his abusive tendencies, which is understandable given her denial of Tallulah’s sexual orientation.
The amateur sleuth whose investigations are far more successful than those of the police is a popular motif of the mystery genre, which is one that the book embraces. Because she is more willing than he is to lie to possible witnesses (as she did with Jacinta) and because she is skilled at finding links between seemingly unconnected occurrences, Sophie is able to find information that Detective McCoy hasn’t found in this case (something the novel attributes to her work as a writer). As the police have turned up nothing, Sophie deciphers the social media links between Scarlett’s group, spots through Lexie’s fabrication regarding the “Dig Here” sign, and recognizes the unidentified tool in Scarlett’s artwork.
The relationships between two pairs of women are contrasted in the book: Sophie and Kim, whose friendship gives them both adult company and empowerment, and Scarlett and Tallulah, whose union never becomes the escape from a difficult living environment that it was intended to be. Working with Sophie gives Kim a proactive approach to look into her daughter’s absence, which helps her process her grief and lessen her loneliness. Similar to how helping Kim makes Sophie feel valuable and involved, solving the mystery offers Sophie meaning and purpose while her personal and professional lives are falling apart. Together, the characters are more powerful. Contrarily, it is obvious that Scarlett is only motivated by selfish goals; she enjoys Tallulah’s attention but is unwilling to give up other sexual partners or anything else for Tallulah’s sake. This is despite the fact that Scarlett’s role is ostensibly to give Tallulah the courage to break up with Zack. Tallulah is not motivated to leave Zach as a result of Scarlett’s game-playing because she manipulates Tallulah almost as much as Zach does, not the other way around.
PART 4, CHAPTERS 52 – 60 ANALYSIS
The “Dig Here” signs, the strange tool, Zach’s fate, and the mystery of Tallulah’s whereabouts are all questions that need to be answered even though the book’s central mystery—what happened to Zach and Tallulah—seems to be its only central mystery. The book’s three timelines connect in just the perfect way to increase suspense, supporting its multiple-mystery premise. For instance, we in the present learn with horror that Tallulah’s cell phone has been found there when she finds herself in the tunnel in the past.
The tone is raised in this section of the book to convey a growing sense of gloom. Zach and Scarlett have completely surrounded Tallulah on one side, with Zach on the other. Her conflict is accentuated by her vacillating allegiances and her lack of resolve. The novel increases the strain by having Zach jeopardize Tallulah’s access to Noah as she comes to the realization that her son is all she really wants. The stakes are elevated once further once Zach perishes because readers are uncertain as to whether or when Tallulah will follow.
Joss had a reputation for being mysterious before the murder; she drove her daughter to school in a Tesla. She is a woman who doesn’t panic or appear frightened about the dead body in her home, but now is her chance to shine. The book illustrates how wealthy people are shielded by their wealth through her response to the murder. When Joss refers to the murder as a minor annoyance and acts blasé about concealing the crime, Jewell effectively illustrates how money corrupts people. She has no sense that any of her family members would ever be held accountable for what has happened. We fully comprehend Scarlett’s deceptive, childish, and attention-seeking activities as we see how the novel’s wealthy people can afford to be dishonest, corrupt, and immoral.
PART 5,
CHAPTER 61- EPILOGUE ANALYSIS
The style of police interrogation helps to develop the minor characters in the book by giving them personalities and illuminating the finer points of the mystery storyline. In contrast to the chapters that explain Tallulah’s intoxicated and hallucinogenic state, these fact-based chapters. “She finds herself once more in a dark, silent space, all alone, the rhythm and roll of slumber, cold water pulsating through her bones,” the language gets lyrical and dreamy at this point. The ocean represents a “cement wall,” and her sleep is a metaphor for “death”.
As Tallulah is taken off the yacht by an airlift, the issue of the corrupting and emasculating effects of riches is once again brought up. She notices the comfort Scarlett and her family enjoy while she was sedated and imprisoned. It is astonishing to see that, after keeping her as a prisoner for a year, the family continued to live well, with no sense of regret or mixed emotions over their heinous actions. Scarlett may have killed Zach in a fit of rage and misguided protectiveness, but by telling the truth, she partially atones for her actions. In contrast, Joss has spent a year shackling and torturing a helpless teenager—a frightening act of psychopathy that the story is unable to completely explore.
The stories of the three main people end mostly happily. Tallulah gets her abusive partner out of her life and is reunited with her son and mother. The most unselfish character, Kim, now has a second child. Sophie recognizes that leaving London with Shaun was a mistake and resolves to make decisions for herself rather than according to her mother’s schedule.
It’s interesting how Liam’s story, which includes many of the difficulties the other characters experience, is where the book concludes. Like Tallulah, Liam is drawn to and attracted to Scarlett on a sexual level. Like Sophie, he abandons his farm life to be close to his romantic interest despite obvious warning signs. Like Kim, he never loses faith in his ability to discover Scarlett and her family’s perpetrators and place the lever that opens the tunnel where Sophie would find it. In the end, Liam abandons Scarlett, rejecting his prior commitment and deciding to live for himself, much like Tallulah—and to some extent, Sophie.