Title: Vanish
Author: Shelley Burr
Publisher: Hachette, 2025; RRP: $34.99
Review by: Marian Chivers, May, 2025

The author: Shelley Burr grew up on Newcastle’s beaches, her grandparents’ property in Glenrowan and on the road between the two. She is also studying sustainable agriculture and working to establish a small permaculture farm. Her debut novel Wake won the prestigious UK Crime Writers’ Association’s Debut Dagger Award (for unpublished novelists) in 2019. When published in 2023, it was a Top Five bestseller winning Australian crime fiction awards. Her second novel, Ripper, went straight to Number One on the Australian Fiction Bestseller list and was shortlisted for two Australian crime fiction awards. Vanish is Burr’s third book in the Lane Holland series and can be enjoyed as a stand-alone novel.

The book: Lane Holland’s crime-solving career ended the day he went to prison. As his parole hearing approaches, he faces the grim reality that an ex-con can never work as a private investigator. Yet one unsolved case continues to haunt him: the disappearance of Matilda Carver two decades ago.

Lost souls are drawn to the Karpathy farm near Albury Wodonga in the hope of a new life. Some stay. Some leave. Some are never heard from again. Through a series of fortuitous events, Lane is able to get work release at the Karpathy farm, enabling him to investigate Matilda’s last known location. Is the farm a cult, commune or something else? Did those who vanished choose to disappear or did they meet some fatal end? Lane’s time at the farm begins with flood and ends with bushfire; the Australian countryside featuring as another worthy character.

Shelley Burr on the inspiration for Ripper (aka Murder Town)

@ Authors on the Air, Global Radio Network

Vanish is a solid example of Australian noir with enough red herrings and plot twists to keep the reader guessing. Burr’s writing is clean and the story demands the turning of the page to find out what happens next.

I have read all three of Burr’s books and each story can be read alone. The thread of Lane Holland’s tale provides a strong link between them all if read in order. A surprise return of a character from one of the previous novels helps to provide a satisfying ending while providing a hint of future possibilities for Lane’s investigative skills.

Marian Chivers has a lifelong interest in reading and writing with her work and study involving books from children’s literature to post graduate studies.

Review copy provided by the publisher