Raymond FleischmannCritiques

*Received via NetGalley for review*

Elizabeth's twin sister disappeared when they were 11, and Elizabeth has moved on as best she can, with a husband, a daughter, and a career. But now, living in remote Alaska with her husband always gone and forced to homeschool her daughter, Elizabeth meets a German pilot who insists he knows things about her sister. But he only tells her this after he brutally murders her only friend in the remote town, and sends her down a twisted path for the truth.

An incredibly interesting premise that's a little let down by the execution. Alfred clearly has some kind of hold on Elizabeth that's destructive, but amplified by her unhappiness with her life. She makes bad decision after bad decision, and it's so frustrating because I wasn't really able to understand. Yes, I felt her frustration, but not her compulsion. I mean, she goes back to Alfred after he tries to kill her! She takes her daughter to him!!

And while the ultimate conclusion is satisfying (if predictable), there are still some frustrating unanswered questions that are introduced at the very end. Like What did Alfred tell Margaret to get her to help him escape? What did he do to her in the cabin that resulted in his slashed hand? These are simple questions that would have taken maybe a paragraph or two to answer, but instead we're left in the dark.

Twenty years ago, when she was 11, Elisabeth's twin sister, Jacqueline, disappeared. The mystery was never solved. Now, on the eve of World War II, she is married with a daughter and living in a small town in Alaska where her husband is a schoolteacher. A stranger flies into town, unaccountably murders one of the townspeople, and while in custody tells Elisabeth that not only is her sister still alive, but he knows where she is. This starts a cat-and-mouse game between the two, as Elisabeth tries to find out the truth and the stranger asks for more and more from her in return.

This debut was a suspenseful mystery with an exciting conclusion. The Alaskan setting is used to good effect. My only quibble might be that I didn't really believe this was taking place in 1941. Other than the wartime preparations, I didn't get a sense of the time from the way the people spoke or behaved. It's a minor thing, as I still became immersed in the story and, like Elisabeth, I absolutely had to know what had happened to her sister.

Living in rural Alaska, Elisabeth is lonely. Soul crushing lonely. A plane comes once a week to deliver supplies and mail,but other than that human contact outside her family is infrequent. Then a stranger arrives....he's a substitute pilot for the supply plane. Alfred Seidel says he has a secret....but he will only tell her if she agrees to three demands. The secret? He knows about the disappearance of Elisabeth's twin sister 20 years before. Elisabeth has been haunted by thoughts of her sister since she vanished....and the obsession Seidel creates will lead to murder and an unraveling of Elisabeth's life and relationships.

I think I liked the setting and the emotional vibe of this book better than I liked the mystery portion of the plot. I can't imagine the mental stress of living isolated in the middle of nowhere....then add in a creepy guy with a very very dark secret. Yikes. Double yikes, in fact. I feel like this book was more about Elisabeth sliding into obsession and a very dark place, rather than about the mystery of her sister's disappearance. Elisabeth changes from a woman dedicated to her child who is trying to make a difficult marriage work into a changed person....pretty much a hot mess....by the end of things. A stranger and his strange secrets and actions upend her life. The vibe and emotion was heavy and dark, and I ended up really not liking Elisabeth or any of the characters.

I've been mulling over this book for more than a week as I tried to decide how I feel about it. The story is good....but, for me, the emotion/darkness of it was difficult to read. Heavy stuff. But in my opinion, a book that leaves me thinking heavy thoughts for several days because I'm having to come to terms with events, character's actions, and the ending.....deserves at least four stars from me. This book left me thinking about how fragile people can be, and how I might react in the same circumstances.

A bit distressing for me....but, all in all, a good story. Excellent debut novel! I will be reading more by this author!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Berkley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

Very fast paced and engrossing. This story is about a woman in Alaska in the '40s trying to hold her family together. She is manipulated by a pilot stalker who claims to have been involved in her sister's disapearence decades earlier. The ending seems to be setting up for a sequel, but I think it works as a standalone book. The atmosphere is 10/10: I almost felt like I was there. The plot also surprised me in places. However, the characters all felt a little flat, especially the family of the main character who seem to act like puppets to further the narrative.

This book takes place in Alaska in the years around 1941 and WW2. Although it has nothing to do with the war. Its about a women who even after 20 years still looks for her twin who went missing when they were 10. She is now married with a daughter and living in a very small town which only gets mail once a week. She meets a man who tells her he knows where her sister is but he will give her no clues until she does 3 things for him. I thought the first couple chapters were a bit slow but after I got through them, I was quite intrigued and wanted to keep ready to find out the rest of the story. I would recommend this book, The author is very good at describing the scenery of Alaska and the story is quit unique from anything else I have read. I give this 4 stars.

I love books set in Alaska. Seriously, they always have a dark and dangerous vibe to them that I adore. Alaska becomes a completely separate character more than any other setting. Perhaps it is my unfamiliarity with the state or its apparent lack of civility, but I enjoy any story that occurs in Alaska simply because it occurs in Alaska.

Having said that, you would think I enjoyed How Quickly She Disappears. After all, the action occurs in Alaska. Unfortunately, no setting can help you enjoy or even sympathize with the characters. Even worse, Raymond Fleischmann’s thriller hinges on his characters. If you don’t feel for Elisabeth, then you are not going to enjoy the story.

Frankly, I did not like any of the characters. Alfred is creepy AF, which should be a good thing except is nothing but a distraction. Elisabeth’s husband is an asshole. Their daughter is a burgeoning teenager with all of the self-absorption and attitude. As for Elisabeth, she should be a tragic figure. After all, she lost her identical twin sister. Plus, she left behind a career and some semblance of independence to move to a remote fishing town in Alaska. Except I could not connect to her at all. I did not understand her motivation and lost patience with her eagerness to ignore her own common sense. The entire story does not hold up under rational thought, and I did not have the patience with any of the characters to set aside my rational side.

Also, even though the novel occurs at the beginning of World War II, there is an odd timeless quality to the story that disconcerted me. For someone who acts and thinks like a “proper” 40s housewife, there are times when her thoughts and actions do not fit into that pattern. At those moments, she acts more modern than she is. Those moments always jarred me and prevented me from finding her a sympathetic character. In fact, I started to fear that this was going to be another unreliable narrator story. I doubt this was Mr. Fleischmann’s intention.

I opened How Quickly She Disappears with low expectations, hoping for an intriguing lost person mystery that would entertain me at the very least. It did not entertain me so much as somewhat disgust me as I did not like any of the characters, an utter failure in a character-driven mystery. Even Alaska could not redeem this one for me.

How Quickly She Disappears by Raymond Fleischmann is a historical mystery set in Alaska.

In 1941, thirty-one year old Elisabeth Pfautz, her husband John and their eleven year old daughter Margaret live in Tanacross. John works for the Office of Indian Affairs and his latest posting is teaching the Athabaskan children in the village. Elisabeth is also a teacher and she is homeschooling Margaret. Elisabeth has never quite recovered from the loss of her twin sister Jacqueline who disappeared twenty years earlier at the age of eleven.

Past and present soon collide with the arrival of Alfred Seidel, a rather strange man who claims to have information about Jacqueline. Following his arrest for murder, Alfred is jailed in Fairbanks. Elisabeth continues to be drawn into his orbit with his promises to tell her about Jacqueline but only if she follows his directives. Will Elisabeth learn the truth about Jacqueline's fate?

Elisabeth is in an unhappy marriage and she remains deeply troubled by Jacqueline's disappearance. Despite her qualms about allowing Alfred to stay with her and Margaret while John is away, she feels like she has no but to offer him a bed. She is drawn to him but she is equally repelled by his intensity and odd behavior. Elisabeth is determined to discover the truth about Jacqueline and she makes increasingly desperate and questionable choices that could result in tragedy.

Interspersed with events in the present are dream-filled chapters about Elisabeth's childhood. These sequences reveal the somewhat strained relationship between Elisabeth and Jacqueline. Elisabeth is a dutiful daughter but her sister is defiant and desperate to run away. Jacqueline's unsolved disappearance is a defining moment in Elisabeth's life that she can never move past.

How Quickly She Disappears is a rather atmospheric mystery with a setting that springs vividly to life. The novel's premise is unique but the pacing is slow and the entire plot is somewhat unrealistic. With one exception, the characters are unlikable with whiplash inducing personality changes. Elisabeth's conviction Jacqueline is still alive leaves her willing to take extreme risks. Raymond Fleischmann brings the novel to an unsettling, cliffhanger conclusion.

This was a quick read and a psychological thriller--so much so that I was not convinced who was the pathological character until the end.

This is the tense story of a woman who was born a twin. Her twin disappeared as a child and her disappearance is unsolved twenty years later. If given the chance to find your beloved sister, now grown, how far would you go to reunite. What would you be willing to sacrifice? The story is fast paced with a most interesting ending. There is an Historical element as the story is set in Alaska in the 1940’s with threats of the Germans.
This reads like a movie and the ending is open ended enough to invite a sequel.½

This is the tense story of a woman who was born a twin. Her twin disappeared as a child and her disappearance is unsolved twenty years later. If given the chance to find your beloved sister, now grown, how far would you go to reunite. What would you be willing to sacrifice? The story is fast paced with a most interesting ending. There is an Historical element as the story is set in Alaska in the 1940’s with threats of the Germans.
This reads like a movie and the ending is open ended enough to invite a sequel.

Living in Alaska was isolation enough, but having a total stranger show up one day and tell you that he knows where your sister who disappeared twenty years ago is was unreal.

Elisabeth and her sister Jacqueline tell their tale in alternating chapters of when they were children together and then today where Elisabeth tells her tale of being alone and without her sister even though she has a husband and daughter. She never got over losing her sister.

Looking for her sister for twenty years was an obsession for Elisabeth and also someone else.

Her sister Jacqueline went missing when they were young and was never found. The news this stranger had was unbelievable.

Could Elisabeth believe this stranger when he had just killed a man?

Could Alfred be the man who took Jacqueline?

Could Alfred be the man who lured Jacqueline with his gifts of money and travel tickets?

Could Elisabeth really be wasting her precious time with her daughter and husband while looking for clues and listening to Alfred's story that he knows where Jacqueline is as he drew her into his schemes and away from her family?

Elisabeth made me nervous with her obsession with Alfred and how she was pulled into what he asked her to do to find her sister. Alfred was a manipulator.

Someone was hiding something, and Elisabeth seemed to be ruining her life for something she really wasn't sure of.

HOW QUICKLY SHE DISAPPEARS was very well written with words that pulled you in and that had a gripping, mesmerizing, menacing tone.

HOW QUICKLY SHE DISAPPEARS will be enjoyed by historical fiction and mystery fans, readers who like secrets, readers who enjoy not really knowing the background of the characters and what makes them "tick," and trying to figure it all out.

Will you be able to figure it all out?

Will you be able to handle the tension?

Will you be able to stop turning the pages? 5/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was so excited when I received this book, but I was mostly frustrated while reading.

Pacing is a slow crawl.

The plot is thin. We spend too much time wallowing in Elisabeth's memories and guilt over her sister's disappearance, and not nearly enough time with the situation at hand. Attempts at foreshadowing fall short, and I didn't feel the kind of immediacy or intensity this kind of story demands.

All the main characters behave inconsistently. For example, Elisabeth is initially portrayed as a loving, doting mother. Her daughter is the center of her world. Then, later, during a brief separation, Elisabeth doesn't even miss her daughter. Suddenly the girl is more of a nuisance in her life. Elisabeth's husband and daughter also have radical personality changes. None of these abrupt changes make sense.

Marketing this as "The Dry meets The Silence of the Lambs" sets big and specific expectations. Unfortunately, this book just barely scratches the surface of its potential.

*I received an ARC from NetGalley, and also won a copy via Goodreads.*

Elizabeth lives in rural Alaska with her daughter and husband. She has always been haunted by the disappearance of her twin. A pilot shows up (Alfred) and tells her that her sister is alive and he will lead her to her in exchange for three things. The choices that Elizabeth makes are strange. I found it to be a slow pace mystery. I did not like the ending. Possible sequel? If so I would definitely read it.
I received this book from a goodreads give away.

How Quickly She Disappears is Raymond Fleischmann's debut novel. It certainly shows a lot of promise but is hit or miss on the whole.

Other than the fact we always, one hopes, care about characters who are hurt or being mistreated, I really just didn't care enough about these people to feel the tension that should have been building. Obviously reading is a dynamic, so it is part me and part the novel. I felt the characters, Elizabeth in particular, started out and, for too long, stayed single dimensional. Since in any novel we don't yet know the characters, this is true to a large extent. But they should be well on the way to becoming fully fleshed out before the key action starts and for me this simply didn't happen. I was playing catch up trying to care about the person in the "current" narrative which kept me from becoming as engaged as I would have liked in the "past" narrative.

The writing was good. I guess good writing is why some call this a "literary" thriller? I wish they would leave off the word literary when they are writing their blurbs for genre fiction. This is no more or less literary than many other such novels. I guess the purpose is to make it sound more like "serious" fiction. It fails every time because literary, as used in current publishing, as I used it as an undergrad, as a grad, and as an instructor, and as used in most lit books, is either defined so broadly as to be useless or so narrowly as to be useful only in the context used. In book blurbs, they must mean it extremely narrowly and they rarely offer what defines those boundaries, so we have to use one of the many definitions we have from our past. And this book, as well as most others, don't meet but a very few definitions and those are almost always questionable ones. Just call it a thriller! Okay, I feel better now.

I didn't dislike this book and would still recommend to readers who love historical thrillers and/or thrillers where an incident from the past plays a part in the current incident. That said, had I still been doing editing and writing groups, I would have suggested a rewrite, nothing drastic but a lot of little tightening up chores to bring the reader in sooner, gain more investment, then let the story take off. I think, if I had been more invested before take off, I would have really enjoyed this a lot more.

Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads First Reads.

In 1921 Elizabeth’s twin sister Jacqueline disappeared without a trace when they were just eleven years old. Twenty years later Elizabeth lives with her husband and daughter in a small Alaskan town, still believing her sister is alive. When a stranger flew his bush plane in to deliver the mail he introduced himself as Alfred Seidel, a fellow German. He invited himself over to stay in her house, and Elizabeth felt obligated to take him in.

Alfred insisted he needed to stay in town longer to do repairs on his plane but, instead, killed a local Indian who was Elizabeth’s best friend. After being captured he insisted on speaking only to Elizabeth. When he told her he was involved in her sister’s disappearance she’s sure he’d lead her to Jacqueline – even though he claimed he would only give her a little bit of information at a time

As their relationship grows more intense, and in between flashbacks of growing up with Jacqueline, Elizabeth reveals her fascination and hatred for Alfred. He insisted she must complete three favors for information about her sister but, desperate to do whatever he wants, Elizabeth doesn’t know Alfred has many more secrets he’s not revealing.

The suspense kept me eagerly turning pages to find out what happens, but I was not happy with the ending. I thought it should have had loose ends tied up, instead of leaving everything to the reader’s imaginations, so I gave it 4 stars instead of 5.

Recommended for Adults.

Else's sister was kidnapped when they were both 11. 20 years later, a man says he knows where Jaqueline is. This book is a bit of a chore to slog through, but I was surprised at how gullible Else was, and how much she was willing to destroy her family for this creep. She was a bit too stupid to live, and I do have to wonder about the end of the book. She could technically be jailed for taking her daughter with her. Not trying to be spoiler-y.