The Vanishing

Recently widowed and rendered penniless by her Ponzi-scheming husband, Julia Bishop is eager to start anew. So when a stranger appears on her doorstep with a job offer, she finds herself accepting the mysterious yet unique position: caretaker to his mother, Amaris Sinclair, the famous and rather eccentric horror novelist whom Julia has always admired . . . and who the world believes is dead.When she arrives at the Sinclairs' enormous estate on Lake Superior, Julia begins to suspect that there may be sinister undercurrents to her "too-good-to-be-true" position. As Julia delves into the reasons of why Amaris chose to abandon her successful writing career and withdraw from the public eye, her search leads to unsettling connections to her own family tree, making her wonder why she really was invited to Havenwood in the first place, and what monstrous secrets are still held prisoner within its walls.

From Booklist

Webb follows The Fate of Mercy Alban (2013) with another spooky supernatural tale. Julia Bishop is at her wit’s end after the fraudulent business dealings and subsequent suicide of her husband, Jeremy, leave her penniless and reviled by their former friends. When Adrian Sinclair shows up on her doorstep and offers her a job as a caretaker for his elderly mother, horror novelist Amaris, the opportunity for escape from her life is just too good to pass up. Julia journeys to Havenwood, the Sinclairs’ Minnesota estate, with high hopes for a fresh start, but she soon finds life at Havenwood unsettling and at times downright frightening. The airy mansion appears to be haunted by sinister spirits, and a menacing intruder begins spying through the windows. And Julia is deeply unsettled by her own resemblance to pictures of a beautiful medium who visited Havenwood over a century ago. A late-in-the-game revelation feels somewhat improbable, but Webb expertly builds suspense and offers a thought-provoking tease in the final pages. --Kristine Huntley

About the Author

Xe Sands has more than a decade of experience bringing stories to life through narration, performance, and visual art, including recordings of the Nightwalkersseries from Jaquelyn Frank. She has received several honors, including AudioFileEarphones Awards and a coveted Audie Award, and she was named Favorite Debut Romance Narrator of 2011 in the Romance Audiobooks poll.Wendy Webb is the #1 Amazon Charts bestselling, multiple award-winning author of five novels of gothic suspense, including The End of Temperance Dare, which has been optioned for both television and film. Her books are sold worldwide and have been translated into seven languages. Dubbed Queen of the Northern Gothic by reviewers, she sets her stories on the windswept, rocky shores of the Great Lakes.

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