All Reviews - A Kind of Vanishing
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Lesley Thomson is a class above, and A Kind of Vanishing is a novel to treasure.
Ian Rankin
A thoughtful, well-observed story about families and relationships and what happens to both when a tragedy occurs. It reminded me of Kate Atkinson. Thomson is particularly good at capturing the minutiae of childhood as well as the secrets, the lies, the make believe, the jealousies and spitefulness, the confusion and wonder of being nine years old.
Scott Pack
Thomson skilfully evokes the era and the slow-moving quality of childhood summers, suggesting the menace lurking just beyond the vision of her young protagonists. A study of memory and guilt with several twists.
The Guardian
Complex, disturbing and surprising... the sort of book where you simply have to completely rethink what you thought was going to happen - before sleeping with the lights on.
Candis Magazine
Complex, disturbing and surprising...the sort of book where you simply have to completely rethink what you thought was going to happen - before sleeping with the lights on.
Candis Magazine
Skilfully lays the foundations in the earlier chapters for what is to come. Each layer of the plot is carefully interwoven with the thoughts, wishes and desires of the main characters. Years pass culminating in the explosion of a shocking truth. If you enjoy a good thriller with more twists and turns than a cork screw, I recommend it.
The Parkinson
Such is the vividness of the descriptions of the location in this well structured and well written novel that I want to get the next train down...just when one thinks one can guess where it is leading, it switches, and the conclusion is a tense and gripping one. On the edge of my seat? No way - I was cowering under it.
Shots Magazine
A masterful exploration of human feelings that is paired with an equally masterful description of the settings that form the background to this gripping story. Full of unexpected twists, this is a crime story that will leave you wondering until the end whether a crime has, in fact, been committed at all.
Book After Book
There is a touch of Susan Hill or Ruth Rendell in her (Barbara Vine) gothic mode here. Very well written.
Abbey's Bookshop
The characterisation is particularly excellent...A sensitively written story, evocatively described, this is also an unusual thriller in that it easily bears a second reading.
The Argus
A Kind of Vanishing is about two nine-year-old girls ...One of these girls "disappears" and the book is organised around this event. It has a detailed plot, good surprises and some unanswered questions. Lesley Thomson builds the suspense and the ending did not let me down.
Ryl Harrison
