Book review: A Disappearing Act by Jo Dixon

A Disappearing Act by Jo Dixon is one of those novels in which – secrets from the past – are revisited in the present… and of course it’s far too late to do anything about past actions or behaviour. I read a lot of crime fiction and thrillers that are similarly themed, and almost always those involved have lived with regret and fear in the intervening years. Here, four friends gather 25 years after they became housemates in an eclectic warehouse. There are several precipitating factors – their former residence is for sale and Sarah (an architect) is keen to buy it but she needs financial support from Marnie – now a celebrated author. It is in fact Marnie who gathers the group, making all arrangements despite a threat looming over her head and struggling to replicate the success of her early work.

Bestselling author Marnie Elliott has invited her three oldest friends to a secluded holiday house in Tasmania. On the surface it’s an excuse to catch up and drink champagne — but really, Marnie’s there to escape the fallout from an upcoming exposé. Sure, she’s told some lies over the course of her career... but this time the allegations go further... Did Marnie even write the books that made her millions?

As the days unfold, it becomes clear that time has pulled the women apart, and that perhaps they don’t know each other as well as they thought they did. And when long-buried secrets and resentments rise to the surface, tensions spiral out of control.

And then one of them disappears.

No one can survive the harsh elements of a Tasmanian winter for long, and soon panic sets in. Did she get lost? Run away? Or is something far more sinister at play?

And does it have anything to do with what happened twenty-five years ago, when the four of them lived together in a rambling warehouse, fuelled by ambition, and where nothing — absolutely nothing — mattered more than being part of the group?

This opens with the disappearance of Marnie in the present, before going back to the events in the days prior. We’re also taken back to 1999 when Sarah, Poppy and Xanthea live together in a warehouse and Marnie’s introduced to them at one of their parties. She’s immediately drawn to the group, particularly Sarah, and is thrilled when they invite her to move in. Desperate to fit in and be respected as a fellow creative, wannabe-author Marnie puts herself under pressure to be published. It’s this desperate need that precipitates everything that follows.

Sarah is our narrator in the present and in 1999 our host is Marnie. It’s a clever approach as it means we get to know Marnie without needing to be in her head (keeping secrets buried for as long as possible) and Dixon times the reveals well – the past meeting the present at the most pivotal of moments, creating a sense of taut anticipation. We have an idea of what transpires in the past, but can’t be sure.

The group stay close over the years catching up to varying degrees but the bonds created as they were growing into themselves are strong and I could very much relate to this. I have a bunch of school friends I still catch up with. Mostly online nowadays and we have a permanent Facebook chat thread on the go. And then there are the friends I made at University and my early twenties who remain kindred spirits today.

Theirs was a connection born of having lived through all the shades of their selves: the self-discovery; the stuff-ups; the experiments; the good times; crap times; sad times. They’d forgiven each other for failings that, in a shorter-lived friendship, would have been the end. 14% through novel

Friendship and the need to ‘belong’ is a strong theme here. Our desperate need to be accepted and the lengths we’re prepared to go. As an adult reading this I can’t help but wish twenty year old Marnie understood that she’d be accepted into the group without having to go to extreme measures that trigger a series of events that continue to reverberate into the future.

A Disappearing Act by Jo Dixon will be published in late October by Allen & Unwin.

I won a copy of this book from Better Reading.