FROM LIBRO.FM: "Glass weaves a taut web of suspicion, murder and revenge in this chilling tale."—Liv Constantine, internationally bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish, on Someone's Listening

From the Edgar Award–nominated author of On a Quiet Street comes a shocking thriller about secrets…and the lengths some people will go to keep them.

Grace Holloway keeps to herself. Since narrowly escaping death at the hands of the man who kidnapped her, she’s thrown herself into the small inn she runs in Rock Harbor, Maine. It’s quiet, quaint and, in the off-season, completely isolated—the perfect place for Grace to keep her own secrets.

But Grace isn’t the only one with something to hide, and Rock Harbor isn’t just a sleepy vacation town. Someone is taking young women—girls who look an awful lot like Grace did when she was kidnapped so many years ago.

When a surge of disappearances brings the investigation to her door, Grace finds herself unwillingly at the center of it all and doing everything she can to keep her distance. Because Grace knows something…something that could change everything. And when the truth comes to light, getting justice for the vanished might be more than Grace can handle alone…

3.5⭐

In Rock Harbor, Maine, “The Strip” on Hemlock Lane is a shady part of town people tend to avoid after 10.00 p.m. (dubbed "the vanishing hour” by the locals) that earned its reputation partly on account of separate instances of the disappearance of several people who were last seen that vicinity. The recent disappearance is that of nineteen-year-old, Brooke Everett whose mother Kira is frantically searching for her missing daughter. Another recent disappearance is that of long-time resident, Martin Coleman, whose friend, an affluent businessman who was also reported missing, was recently discovered to have been murdered. The narrative is presented to us from three perspectives – Grace Holloway (third person limited PoV), a kidnapping survivor who is haunted by the traumatic events that occurred eight years ago and leads an otherwise reclusive life save for managing the local inn where Aden rents a room for the duration of his stay, Brooke’s mother Kira Everett (first person PoV) and Aden Coleman(third person limited PoV), who is called back home by his mother when his father disappears.

The Vanishing Hour by Seraphina Nova Glass is a dark, atmospheric and gritty thriller. Having read and loved the author’s On a Quiet Street, I was eager to read the author’s latest offering. I found the narrative disjointed for the larger part of the story. Perhaps using multiple perspectives wasn’t the best way to tell this story. Though it takes a while to weave the three narratives into a coherent narrative, I did not lose interest at any point and eagerly followed the narrative as the plot progressed. Plenty of red herrings and plot twists kept me engaged. However, I didn’t quite like the ending. As far as the identity of the culprit is concerned, I had my suspicions but I was surprised (which is a good thing) at how we got there. Having said that, I found the ending rushed and more than a tad unconvincing after the suspenseful build-up preceding it. Overall, while I did not dislike this thriller , I didn't enjoy it as much as "On a Quiet Street" .But I do look forward to reading more from the author in the future.

Many thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel.

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There's something bad happening on Hemlock Lane, a dismal strip of seedy businesses in Rock Harbor, Maine. It's where you go if you want to buy meth or sex. It might also be where someone is abducting girls, young women like Grace, suffering from trauma after escaping from captivity but without her captor found, or like two other girls who have been found dead.

Now Grace is guarding her privacy at a country inn, all but closed for the winter, avoiding news and all human connections except for the owner of a local grocery who makes deliveries. She reluctantly lets a room to Aden, whose elderly father has gone missing – possibly just off on an impromptu fishing trip, but Aden's mother is worried. As he begins his search, he crosses the path of Kira, whose daughter, like Grace and the two murdered girls, has gone off the radar. Kira is frantically, doggedly, pursuing every lead while Aden gradually wakes up to the realization that the comforting stories he's telling himself about his dad's fate are less and less likely. Then another man, the same age as his father, is found dead, murdered with the same method as the girls.

We learn their stories in separate chapters, loosely connected but growing more tightly braided together as time goes on, with a few brief but chilling passages from the perspective of Kira's captive daughter, trapped somewhere unknown. Both Aden and Kira learn things about the loved ones they are searching for that call all of their certainties into question, and Grace begins to find it increasingly difficult to maintain her shell of isolation from the world.

With the focus tightly on these three characters, the pieces of the puzzle begin to come together, the emphasis on their efforts, with the police investigation so far at the periphery it's nearly irrelevant. While the trope of girls held in captivity by depraved monsters is a tired cliché, Glass does a good job of developing characters, balancing the quotidian details that make them come alive with ratcheted-up pacing that pushes the story forward in proper beach thriller fashion, leaving readers with a dramatic finish and a moral quandary to wrestle with at the end.

Reposted from Reviewing the Evidence

This is my first book by this author, and I have to say I was disappointed. I should have finished this over the weekend but kept finding myself setting it aside.

Told from multiple POVs, I sometimes had difficulty keeping the characters straight and didn’t make an emotional connection with any of them. Grace Holloway is a recluse after escaping from a man who kidnapped her and kept her locked up. But now two more girls, who looked a lot like Grace, have disappeared. Grace knows she must provide some information that may help find the kidnapper. Aden, whose father is missing rents a room at Grace’s inn. The other primary protagonist is Kira, whose nineteen-year-old daughter is missing. These three characters come together to solve the mystery of all these missing people.

I did enjoy how the author slowly brought together multiple threads to finally reveal how entangled they are. I thought a couple of the secondary characters actually had more interesting personalities than did the major players (i.e., Vinny and Blake). But the ending just did not work for me at all. ( )

I really loved the characters, and the suspense. I was on the edge of my seat for most of the book, and I didn't want to put it down to shower, because I was almost at the end, and I needed answers! I was even tempted to skip to the end, and I NEVER do that. ( )