The Vanishing Triangle by Claire McGowan
Genre: True Crime
Read: 21st December 2024
Published: 1st May 2022
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
From the bestselling author of What You Did comes a true-crime investigation that cast a dark shadow over the Ireland of her childhood.
Ireland in the 1990s seemed a safe place for women. With the news dominated by the Troubles, it was easy to ignore non-political murders and sexual violence, to trust that you weren’t going to be dragged into the shadows and killed. But beneath the surface, a far darker reality had taken hold.
Through questioning the society and circumstances that allowed eight young women to vanish without a trace―no conclusion or conviction, no resolution for their loved ones―bestselling crime novelist Claire McGowan delivers a candid investigation into the culture of secrecy, victim-blaming and shame that left these women’s bodies unfound, their fates unknown, their assailants unpunished.
McGowan reveals an Ireland not of leprechauns and craic but of outdated social and sexual mores, where women and their bodies were of secondary importance to perceived propriety and misguided politics—a place of well-buttoned lips and stony silence, inadequate police and paramilitary threat.
Was an unknown serial killer at large or was there something even more insidious at work? In this insightful, sensitively drawn account, McGowan exposes a system that failed these eight women—and continues to fail women to this day.
MY THOUGHTS:
The frustrating thing about reading these kinds of books is there is no real ending, no closure. Because while it is based on evidence at the time, it ends with no real facts or answers as to what really happened. The "investigation", such as it was by the author, is merely supposition. Theories on what she supposes "might have" have happened to these women, therefore ending in no real evidentiary fact.
It was an interesting look into a time in Ireland's history that largely seemed to be ignored or swept under the carpet, as it were, as the powers that be seemed to do on a regular basis with many issues that did not bare facing. Society today might look at Ireland and this sad piece of history (and those that were largely prevalent at the time) and think how archaic the country was, how steeped in antiquated laws they were. But as Ms McGowan tells it, that's what Ireland was like. Some of it until only recently.
Religion and politics aside, though that does play a huge part in Ireland's history, this read is compelling though also disturbing that these women went missing in a time when someone somewhere should have noticed something. CCTV, ANPR and forensics were in their infancy in the early 90s though by the end of the decade they were much more widespread. But sadly, not in Ireland it seems. For these women to have vanished without a trace is both sad and disturbing. Can a killer still be out there? Has he gotten away with murder for more than three decades?
How can 8 young women have disappeared without anyone noticing anything? Without a trace? The lack of thorough investigation at the time of their disappearance is equally disturbing.
I'm not even going to touch the religious or political aspect that was prevalent at the time with the social upheavel of unrest against abortion, divorce, homosexuals, contraception and the Catholic church. While that painted a bleak backdrop for the disappearance of these women, it also took the focus away from them.
Ms McGowan analyses the similarities and differences between the disappearances and other crimes and murders which were buried beneath the social unrest in the country at the time. She speculated and gave us her thoughts and while it was cleverly done, it still left me feeling frustrated at having no real answers. These women deserve answers. They deserve closure. Their families certainly do.
I would like to thank #ClaireMcGowan, #Netgalley and #AmazonPublishing for an ARC of #TheVanishingTriangle in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Her first novel, The Fall, was published by Headline in 2012. She has also written a series of novels about the forensic psychologist Paual Maguire, which currently consists of The Lost (2013), The Dead Ground (2014), The Silent Dead (2015) and the novella Controlled Explosions (2015). There are three more novels to follow in the series. This crime series has been optioned by BBC Drama.
Claire has been described as ‘a knock-out new talent’ (Lee Child) and ‘Ireland’s answer to Ruth Rendell’ (Ken Bruen). Her short story ‘Archaeology’ was broadcast on Radio 4 in 2015 and her story ‘Rosie Grant’s Finger’ appeared in the anthology Belfast Noir, as well as ‘The Last Resort’ in the CWA anthology Deadly Pleasures. She is now also writing romance as Eva Woods, and The Thirty List was published in 2015 and The Ex Factor in 2016. Her first stageplay, Backseat Drivers, was produced in London in 2015.
For two years Claire ran the Crime Writers’ Association, and is now a Senior Lecturer in Crime Writing at City University London. She also enjoys teaching workshops for other festivals and organisations. Her journalism has appeared in Glamour, You magazine, Stylist, and other publications.
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