Isolated among the hills in southern NSW is a mysterious organic farm that hides a rotten secret. The residents are there voluntarily, but there’s something not quite right about this operation, and it’s not just the farm’s connection to more than one missing person that seems off. It’s the perfect set-up for a jailed private investigator on a redemption arc.
Vanish is the third book in Shelley Burr’s Lane Hollard series but it stands alone and can enjoyed without reading the others. It opens with Lane, the disgraced PI, still in prison and determined to solve the mystery of what happened to Matilda Carver, the daughter of the prison governor, who went missing decades ago. Lane’s nearing his first parole hearing, and he has a lead, so with the help of the governor, he’s able to secure supervised work experience on the farm where the residents have some very strict ideas about how things should be done.
Kitted-out with an ankle monitor and a prison guard supervisor, Sweeney, Lane heads south.
He’s dogged and devoted with a touching, protective love for his younger sister. New readers learn pretty quickly that Lane has taken the fall for someone else. He has a rigid sense of morality.
The farm’s workers live on site, commune-style. Clothing is communal and 100 per cent cotton to avoid microplastics leeching into the grey water, and the soil. Vanish is not the first book to explore the relationship between extreme wellness practices and cults. The prescriptive nature of the former makes it a perfect match for the latter. Virtuous rules are the perfect disguise for a high-control group. The farm’s owner, Sam Karpathy, has charisma in spades. However, the body count and palpable sense of danger at the farm makes this read a notch-darker than other sinister-wellness titles.
Shelley’s break-out debut, Wake, was praised for its eerie, atmospheric tone and she puts her skills seeding disquiet to good use again in Vanish. There’s a sense of menace in the air.
Lane arrives amid torrential rain, and the news that one of the farm’s residents has crashed a ute on her way into town. She doesn’t survive the accident, and the farm’s earnest façade cracks before Lane has even gotten his boots dirty. The dead girl was reportedly driving to pick up sandbags, even though the farm is set high on a hill. Lane’s suspicions were spot on: The Karpathy farm has something to hide. Once on-site he runs into a familiar face that completely throws him (no spoilers) and complicates his plan.
As Lane gets further into his high-stakes investigation he uncovers more strange things about the farm. The narrative is punctuated by a mysterious, first-person account of a man who is seemingly trapped. Could it be a future Lane? A flashback to another of the farm’s victims? As Lane gets closer to the truth, the danger closes in. Shelley weaves together clues, misdirection and red herrings, leaving the reader guessing, and eager for the big reveal we know is coming. In the final pages, Vanish delivers a surprising climax worthy of Shelley’s reputation as one of Australia’s most exciting new crime writers.
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Book club: Vanish by Shelley Burr
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