In Watch Me Disappear, Tina Humber is a marine biologist who lives in the U.S. who must reencounter a childhood trauma when she returns to her native England. As a child her best friend disappeared one day leaving behind questions and no hope for closure. Returning to her hometown, Tina tries to piece together the few clues she remembers to figure out who abducted her friend decades ago.Though this novel does have a detective feel, it doesn’t allow for the logic and closure generally afforded to the detective genre. Instead, the novel uses the detective device to explore memory: how much weight one should give to it, how faulty it can be, and exactly what memories can be trusted…or which ones have actually been designed as a self-defense mechanism. Having said this, the novel has much depth in exploring these themes and the character development is professionally done. Except for the fact that, as a marine biologist, Tina seems to have no interest in conservation and even mentions her indifference to it, which I personally could not understand considering that the health of the ocean determines her livelihood. I will say that the novel does sacrifice plot at times in its bid to explore weighty themes. The redeeming factor of the novel is the level of writing—Jill Dawson has a good understanding of her craft.
