The Rose Arbor

A Novel

By: Rhys Bowen

Narrated by: Nicola Barber

An investigation into a girl’s disappearance uncovers a mystery dating back to World War II in a haunting novel of suspense by the best-selling author of The Venice Sketchbook and The Paris Assignment.

London: 1968. Liz Houghton is languishing as an obituary writer at a London newspaper when a young girl’s disappearance captivates the city. If Liz can break the story, it’s her way into the newsroom. She already has a scoop: Her best friend Marisa is a police officer who is assigned to the case.

Liz follows Marisa to Dorset, where they make another disturbing discovery. Over two decades earlier, three girls disappeared while evacuating from London. One was found murdered in the woods near a train line. The other two were never seen again.

As Liz digs deeper, she finds herself drawn to the village of Tydeham, which was requisitioned by the military during the war and left in ruins. After all these years, what could possibly link the missing girls to this abandoned village? And why does a place Liz has never seen before seem so strangely familiar?

©2024 Janet Quin-Harkin, writing as Rhys Bowen (P)2024 Audible, Inc.

Gripping and emotional

Well written and narrated, kept my interest in reading further. I enjoy good historlcal romance without fowl language and smutty sex scenes.

WW2 dual timeline mystery at its best.

Rhys Bowen does it again.
She delves us into the worlds of characters during WW2 and in the mid 1960’s and makes us care about them.
3 missing girls from 1942. 1 missing girl from 1968. Are they related in any way?
And who is the dead body in the Rose Arbor?
This book is so twisty, yet never descends into the macabre.
Another home run stand-a-lone from Ms Bowen.

Liz, the heroine of the story, so strong so caring!

Well written story that kept my interest. And it was not easy to figure out what had happened to the lost ones before the story began revealed their fate.

A haunting perspective on World War II’s other effects in Britain

This is four stories blended into one: the story of a newspaper reporter and her life/family and the story of three different little girls who disappeared during the war. As the story goes on you unravel the mysteries. The story is interesting and well told - I was hooked from the beginning - with a good narrator. But, without giving anything away, I will say that it’s darker than most of Rhys’ stories and some parts will haunt me for a while (but nothing too graphic and I don’t think it would set off trigger warnings).

A bit soppy and unbelievable

In general the reader was good. However the voice she chose for the main character was insipid and girly and did not fit with the strength of the character