The Vanishing Place

By Zoe Rankin

Book Overview

Instant #1 International Bestseller - A New York Times and Washington Post's Best Thriller of 2025

A shocking murder in the New Zealand bush--and the witness who looks all too familiar--draws a woman back to the very place she swore she'd never return to in this breakneck debut thriller.

A child who ran from the forest.
A woman who must return to it

Growing up with her younger siblings in the unforgiving New Zealand bush, Effie believed their parents had cut them off from civilization because they loved Nature. She never suspected that their reasons might be more menacing. After witnessing a terrifying episode of violence, she escaped the wilderness to forge a life for herself halfway across the globe.

Now, when she learns the only witness to a murder is a little girl who looks just like her, Effie is compelled to return to the scene of her troubled childhood, where the secrets of her upbringing and the terrors of her past come rushing back to the surface. In order to find out once and for all what became of her family--and possibly help this mysterious girl who could be her younger self--Effie must face her greatest fears once more.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0F211STY3
• ISBN13: 9798217188093
• Release Date: September 2025
• Publisher: Berkley Books
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Challenging read

The girl from the bush seems to be an enigma present in two timeframes at once. The story is dark, convoluted, and required my full attention to make sense of what was happening. Yet it was oddly compelling and well worth the effort to skip doing the laundry and march along to the conclusion. I requested and received a temporary uncorrected proof copy from Berkley Publishing Group | Berkley via NetGalley. Pub Date Sep 16, 2025 #TheVanishingPlace by @zoerankinwrites @berkleypub #NetGalley **** review #suspense #investigations #NewZealand #spooky #secrets #unputdownable #fiction #mystery #lies #debutthriller #psychologicalthriller #crimefiction #ThrillerSuspense #deceit #Fiction #penguinbooks #twisted #bushnoir

Darkness in the bush

This was a dark and visceral story about a family living in the bush of New Zealand and how the actions of some of them in the past carved the path to even greater horror in present day with the appearance of a child covered in blood and unwilling to speak. It really sucked me in with that premise and it was a thrilling novel to read that I couldn't put down till I found out what happened in the bush during Effie's childhood and why she ran and why Anya did the same thing several years later. I could really feel myself in the setting, the descriptions were vivid, as well as the horror, mostly religious fervor (which gets really bad), though the heartbreak of Effie's mother was also quite dark too. It is a thrilling read and pretty darn good for a debut, even with all the punches being thrown at the end when all is revealed and I ended up a little confused at times (name changes and all) but it all wrinkled out and while there is sadness and death, Effie and Anya do get closure for their childhoods (except for that last note for Anya!) and a chance to reunite with long parted family. I think this was a good debut and I will definitely look for any other books that Zoe Rankin might write in the future. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to discover this new author and a thrilling dark novel.