Watch Me Disappear

May 22, 2017
Almost a year after failing to return from a solo hiking trip, Billie Flanagan has been presumed dead. However, her teenage daughter Olive refuses to believe it. As the anniversary of her mother’s disappearance approaches, Olive begins having visions that lead her to believe Billie is still alive and trying to communicate with her telepathically. Olive’s father, Peter, who has let go of any hope for Billie’s return and is writing a memoir about their lives together, believes Olive is having seizures and should be medicated. After Peter quits his job to work on the book, intense concentration on his and Billie’s life leading up to the hiking trip uncovers clues that their marriage wasn’t all he thought it was. If he chooses to accept his daughter’s idea that his wife may still be alive, he risks shattering every happy memory he has of their past. But living a painful lie might be a worse outcome for everyone. Brown’s (All We Ever Wanted Was Everything) novel is more than just a page-turning suspense story. It’s a gripping family drama that focuses on the choices we make and the ties that bind us to the ones we love. Agent: Susan Golomb, Writers House.

Narrator Tavia Gilbert's skill at conveying a range of emotions takes the spotlight in this audiobook about how a father and daughter cope with the disappearance of their dynamic wife/mother. As Jonathan and Olive prepare for the hearing to declare Billie legally dead because a body has never been found, they begin to sort through her belongings and are surprised to discover that she kept many secrets. Gilbert expresses Jonathan's conflicting feelings of loss and anger and Olive's distress when she starts to hear her mother's voice and see her in visions. Gilbert avoids giving away the answers to the mystery of what happened to Billie until it's appropriate, keeping listeners guessing to the end. A second narrator, Kaleo Griffith, is clear and expressive when delivering the handful of excerpts from Jonathan's memoir-in-progress. C.B.L. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine