‘The Vanishing of Katharina Linden’ was one of the best things I’ve read this year
By Rebecca / Spinebreakers Crew
Any book that begins with the line ‘My life might have been so different had I not been known as the girl whose grandmother exploded’ is bound to be a fantastic read, and ‘The Vanishing of Katharina Linden’ by Helen Grant is definitely that.
Set in the small town of Bad Münstereifel in Germany where everyone knows everyone else, this is the entertaining and sometimes chilling tale of the mysterious disappearances of several young girls and Pia Kolvenbach’s quest to find the truth behind them.
Though the book centres around a protagonist of about ten, this novel is by no means infantile and in fact I was impressed by its sophistication and depth. Helen Grant has a gift for storytelling and her narrative is extremely engaging and original. I would like to say that the outcome was surprising and that she had me fooled but actually I was proud to find that I accurately guessed whodunit from the beginning. Who’s to say if others will find that but this guess did not take any of the pleasure or the suspense out of the story and in fact I probably read it more avidly, desperately trying to see if I was right.
There is not a dull moment in this book and I raced through it. Helen Grant manages to perfectly capture the dynamic of a little town and the voice of a young girl and for me, ‘The Vanishing of Katharina Linden’ was one of the best things I’ve read this year. It also greatly increased my German vocabulary (which isn’t saying much I suppose).