The Vanishing of Class 3B by Jackie Kabler
Genre: Psychological thriller, Domestic thriller, Suspense
Read: 8th May 2023
Amazon
Published: 11th May 2023
★★★★★ 4.5 stars (rounded up)
DESCRIPTION:
One spring morning, a bus full of children and their teachers from a Cotswolds primary school head off on a much-anticipated day trip.
But as night falls and the well-heeled parents – one or two of them famous, as well as wealthy – wait at the school to collect their weary offspring, it soon becomes clear that something has gone very wrong.
The children and their teachers simply do not come back.
What’s happened doesn’t seem possible.
How can an entire class of children simply vanish?
MY THOUGHTS:
What happens when your worst nightmare comes true...?
After reading a couple of reviews I wasn't sure what to expect from this my fourth thriller by Jackie Kabler but I was pleasantly surprised. Whilst many of my fellow reviewers, who read much the same books as I do, and I share similar tastes and more often than not similar ratings, this time most of those differ. But then we can't all like the same books all of the time.
So...THE VANISHING OF CLASS 3B...the further I read the more I was getting "Criminal Minds" vibes from a very similar episode in which an entire busload of children had simply disappeared whilst on an outing one day, leaving the BAU to get into the mind of the perpetrator and thus discovering not only who was behind it but where the children were being kept. But without the BAU in this case, the sleepy Cotswold village of Littleford had to rely solely on the Cotswold Police (both fictitious created for the story).
The story opens from the various perspectives of selected parents as they stand outside the gates of Littleford Primary School where ten students and four of their teachers were going on an excursion to the Cotswold Wilderness Park (another fictitious place for the story) in Stratford-upon-Avon. The school had recently acquired a brand new Mercedes minibus paid for with a generous donation by one of the more wealthy parents, Reynold Lyon, TV personality and host. But this morning there seems to be an error lighting up on the minibus's dashboard indicating a possible serious issue and rather than put the childrens' lives at risk they opt for leaving the vehicle behind and managing to secure a last minute booking with a local taxi firm. So 45 minutes after their intended departure time, the minibus departs the school with the children and their teachers for the day's excursion. Given their delay, they are now not expected to return until 5.30pm at the latest.
When that time comes and goes and the children have still not returned, parents begin to worry that something may have happened. The head teacher has attempted to contact each of the four teacher but all four phones are going straight to voicemail. And as the children are all 7 and 8 year olds, none of them are permitted to have mobile phones themselves during school hours. So as it stands, the children and their teachers are unreachable. The parents elect to contact the police without delay and given the gravity of the situation - that is, ten children and four adults disappearing - the police begin investigations immediately.
After several days with no word and no clue as to their whereabouts, police and parents are mystified as to the reason for their disappearance. And then...contact is made. Each of the parents receive a text message stating :
"All of the adults and children taken from Littleford Primary School bus trip on Friday are safe and well. We will tell you what we want from your very shortly. There will be no engagement or discussion. Await further instructions.
PS. One of you has a secret. We know what it is. And if you want to keep it a secret, it's time to PAY."
So it is a kidnap and they want something from the parents. But what exactly. And one of them has a secret? Which one of them? Because from where I was sitting every one of them had a secret, none of which they wanted to share with the police...even to get their children back! Instead they were intent on destroying their marriages and each others' lives by sharing them with each other. Well the final eight of them, that is. Which is the how the group of parents narrowed themselves down, the fact that they were hiding a secret that could potentially be the reason their children had been taken. And boy, did they go to work on blowing up their lives and sending their unsuspecting spouses into meltdown. Of course none of these secrets - bar one - was worth kidnapping for. Not in my opinion anyway. Not unless there was something more to their secrets someone wasn't sharing. So I figured it was either the pretty shocking secret one of them revealed...or it was a whole different secret altogether. One we knew nothing about...yet.
The parents in this book are all unlikeable and all pretty selfish putting the secrey of their...er...secrets above the safety of their children. I mean, wouldn't a normal person disclose whatever secret they had been harbouring if it meant saving their child? OK, so one of the secrets (the pretty shocking one) was...well...shocking and even criminal, so I can kind of understand why they were reluctant to reveal that little tidbit to the police. But affairs? Nothing worth their childrens' lives, surely. In fact, those affairs weren't even very secret because I had figured them out long before they revealed them to the "final eight". Even another little kicker of a twist I suspected. So yeah, my money was on the shocking secret or something not yet known to us.
Quite honestly, I was in the dark as to who was behind the kidnapping and was as eager as the rest of them to find out who it was...and why. I did figure out the identity of The Visitor (so dubbed by Luca) simply by one simple clue I picked up on and then later on they kind of overplayed their hand and revealed themselves to the readers in a pre-emptive move. But the big secret and reason why the kids were taken? Not as big or as shocking as the one we were already privy to but to those involved I can understand why it meant what it did to them. The ending was a little different and wrapped things up nicely...albeit with a nice little final twist to round off this addictive read. And one I definitely didn't see coming...though did wonder in passing at one point. But in the end, it was the perfect conclusion.
Overall, THE VANISHING OF CLASS 3B had a bit of a Midsomer Murders feel to it, given its setting in the Cotswolds, with a hint of "Criminal Minds". It definitely was something different and made for thrilling and addictive reading. Plenty of secrets and as many twists to accompany them.
I would like to thank #JackieKabler, #Netgalley, #OneMoreChapter and #RachelsRandomResources for an ARC of #TheVanishingOfClass3B in exchange for an honest review.
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MEET THE AUTHOR:
A former news reporter, she spent more than nine years with GMTV as a roving correspondent and newsreader, covering some of the biggest stories of the decade including President Clinton’s impeachment trial, the Asian tsunami, the Kosovo crisis, famine in Ethiopia, the Athens Olympics, the Soham murders and the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Jackie left GMTV to work as a freelance broadcaster in 2008. She became a regular presenter of the ITV national morning news and a reporter across ITN’s news programmes including News at Ten; a reporter and presenter on the BBC’s Midlands Today programme; presenter of property show Selfbuilder TV on Sky’s Information TV channel; and guested as a TV gardening expert. Her work also appeared on the BBC’s News Channel and on CNN.
She also worked as a media trainer and in media simulation – in particular with the armed forces – and produced, wrote and presented corporate and promotional films.
In January 2013 Jackie joined the UK’s biggest shopping channel, QVC, as a presenter.
A former newspaper reporter, she has also worked as a reporter and presenter for Channel TV, ITV West, Central TV, Five News and Setanta Sports News.
Jackie is also an internationally bestselling crime writer, author of the Cora Baxter Mysteries, a series of humorous murder mysteries set in a television room, and of psychological thrillers Am I Guilty? and The Perfect Couple. The Happy Family is her sixth book.
Jackie lives in Gloucestershire with her husband.
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