Vanish by Shelley Burr

Publisher: Hachette Australia (Trade Paperback – 30 April 2025)

Series: Lane Holland – Book 3

Length: 360 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

One of Australia’s most talented new crime fiction authors, Shelley Burr, provides another complex and deep read with the compelling 2025 novel Vanish.

Over the last couple of years, I have been having an outstanding time with the fantastic writings of new Australian author Shelley Burr, who has produced some fantastic and compelling murder mysteries. Burr’s debut novel, Wake, followed a damaged private investigator, Lane Holland, as he attempted to solve an infamous missing persons case for his own selfish reasons. A complex and moving small-town story about loss and the scars it leaves behind, Wake was an outstanding novel from Burr, which ended up being one of my favourite debuts and Australian novels of 2022. Burr continued this series in a fascinating way the following year, with the amazing novel Ripper (also released as Murder Town), which saw returning protagonist Lane Holland attempt to solve another historical crime from behind bars. Ripper, which was one of my favourite Australian reads of 2023, was an excellent follow-up to Burr’s first novel that helped to present the Lane Holland books as one of the more unique ongoing Australian series. As such, I made sure to read the third entry in the series, Vanish, last year as soon as I could, and it proved to be an outstanding and compelling read.

Plot Synopsis:

People go to the isolated Karpathy farm looking for a new life – and are never seen again. A chilling thriller from the award-winning and bestselling author of Australian noir, Shelley Burr.

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

Never one to follow the rules, Lane finds a lead – a mysterious farm community led by the enigmatic Samuel Karpathy. His farm attracts lost souls. People who want a more meaningful life. People who are hiding from their pasts. People with nowhere else to go.

But those who go to the farm seem to vanish without a trace.

Is it a commune? Is it a cult? Is it something even more dangerous? Lane goes undercover at the farm to find its dark secret – but could he too find himself intoxicated by the prospect of a new life on the land?

Vanish was an impressive third entry from Shelley Burr, who tried some interesting new techniques and narrative threads in this book to create a fantastic read. Following on from the events of the previous two books, this third book sees protagonist Lane Holland continue to investigate several missing persons cases from prison, including Matilda Carver, the daughter of his prison warden. Able to convince the warden to help him investigate the disappearance in person, Lane is transferred to the Karpathy farm as part of a work-release program, the last place where Matilda was seen and the location where many other people seem to disappear from.

Arriving at the farm, Lane discovers an unusual community of outsiders who have found an unlikely home at the Karpathy property. However, the more Lane digs, the more secrets he uncovers as he attempts to work out the supposedly sinister truth behind the farm and its owners, as well as the people who have gone missing from it. This central mystery is made even more complicated when Lane discovers the secondary protagonist of Vanish, Mina McCreery, secretly living at the farm. The woman who Lane went to prison to protect, Mina was a great addition, especially as there are a lot of unresolved issues and drama between the two. Forced to work together to investigate separate missing persons cases at the same location, Lane and Mina once again form an unlikely and chaotic team that was a real joy to follow.

The resulting second half of Vanish was awesome, with a range of compelling twists, red herrings and near-death experiences for the protagonist. Burr produced a particularly emotional heavy narrative for Vanish, which focused more on Lane as a character, while also providing a more subtle mystery related to perceptions and people’s choices. The reader is constantly left guessing about whether the residents of the Karpathy Farm are a dangerous cult, which helps to cloud who the actual villain of the story is. There was also a great, slow build of tension through the plot, which comes to a fantastic and thrilling head near the conclusion of the book. The various final reveals of Vanish were quite clever, and this ended up being a very satisfying standalone mystery that way. Burr also expertly resolved several ongoing storylines from the rest of the series, and it was great to get some closure between Lane and Mina, especially after the dramatic ending of the first book. There was a certain finality to Vanish that made me feel that this was going to be the last entry in this series, and if this is the case I’d be fine with that, especially as the protagonist finally got a happy ending.

I felt this third Lane Holland book came together extremely well, especially as Burr has continued to experiment with her different writing styles. This included telling most of the book from Lane’s perspective, rather than splitting focus between another side character, which allowed the reader to get closer to the protagonist, while also being influenced by his take on events. I liked how this change in perspective allowed for a much more emotionally rich narrative, and there is a certain uncertainty at times about whether a crime has taken place, as Lane keeps finding hidden secrets and dead-ends. However, thanks to a series of short inclusions from a mystery character in distress, the reader is slyly aware that there is more going on, and I really appreciated Burr’s subtlety, as well as the clever explanation behind this hidden figure. I also enjoyed how well Burr tied Vanish’s narrative back to the events of the first book, and fans of the series get some excellent closure here, while still allowing Vanish to be a mostly standalone book. All this leads to a pretty excellent read, and it was one I was glad I checked out.

With another clever and powerful mystery, Vanish continues to showcase Shelly Burr’s fantastic skill as a rising Australian mystery writer. A wonderful third entry in a truly compelling series, Vanish was an excellent read I had a great time getting through. Highly recommended for both existing fans of Burr, and those readers looking for a unique Australian mystery.

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