Catherine Steadman

"Once a year, actors from across the globe descend on the smog and sunshine of Los Angeles for pilot season. Every cable network and studio looking to fill the rosters of their new shows enticing a fresh batch of young hopefuls, anxious, desperate and willing to do whatever it takes to make it ... British star Mia Eliot has landed leading roles in costume dramas in her native country, but now it's time for Hollywood to take her to the next level. Mia flies across the Atlantic to join the hoard of talent scrambling for their big breaks. She's a fish out of water in the ruthlessly competitive and faceless world of back-to-back auditioning. Then one day she meets Emily, another actress from out of town and a kindred spirit ... She stands out in a conveyor-belt world of fellow auditionees. But a simple favor turns dark when Emily disappears and Mia realizes she was the last person to see her, and the woman who knocks on Mia's door the following day claiming to be her new friend isn't the woman Mia remembers at all. All Mia has to go on is the memory of a girl she met only once...and the suffocating feeling that something terrible has happened. Worse still, the police don't believe her when she claims the real Emily has gone missing. So Mia is forced to risk the role of a lifetime to try to uncover the truth about Emily, a gamble that will force her to question her own sanity as the truth goes beyond anything she could ever have imagined"--Provided by publisher.

A Novel

The Disappearing Act

Rachel Kanyid

This is the first thriller I have loved in a long time.

Cheri McElroy

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to #NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. 

After being dumped, up and coming actress Mia heads to Hollywood to try and find her big break. She meets fellow actress, Emily and does her a favor. When Mia next sees Emily, she realizes it’s not the same person. 

Steadman shines here in her knowledge of acting and the theater world, and crafts an interesting story. The ending was more positive than her previous two books. I enjoyed this one.

Samantha Glass

This books might be a little slow to start, but the plot twists through the middle and end of the book are well worth it! My heart was beating out of my chest at times. Highly recommend! 

Fellowes Cynthia

This is the third book by Catherine Steadman and I have read them all. I loved The Disappearing Act and also loved Something in the Water. Mr. Nobody was okay.

The Disappearing Act is about a British actress who travels to LA for her career and gets involved in some mysterious incidents. I don't like to know a lot about a book before I read it, so I hadn't even read the book jacket. I don't want to give anything away.

It was very suspenseful and since I am in the acting business myself, I was interested in the plot about an actress attempting to move forward in her career.

Highly recommended.

nuha ✨️

Jolie

I usually don’t read books that are written by famous actresses/actors. I have read a few books that have soured me on even picking books up by them. The books I have read were awful, and I felt that they were published because of the name associated with them and not because the book was good. So, I was surprised when I saw that Catherine Steadman had starred in two of my favorite British dramas: Downton Abbey and The Tudors. And that made me very apprehensive about reading The Disappearing Act.

I was surprised when I started reading The Disappearing Act, and I was enjoying it. It hit everything I like in a mystery/thriller/suspense novel. I won’t go as far as to say that Ms. Steadman changed my mind about reading books written by famous actresses/actors, but it has made me more open to trying them.

The Disappearing Act occurs mainly in L.A., briefly being set in London at the beginning and end of the book. I felt that the author captured the frantic pace and the darkness under the glittery facade perfectly.

The Disappearing Act is a medium-paced book for the first half of the book. The author spends a lot of time building up Mia’s backstory and her first week or so in L.A. It might get tedious, but it is well worth the wait. The second half of the book zips right along.

I liked Mia but felt she was very naive for someone in her profession. She was almost too nice at various points in the book. I mean, she kept a stranger’s keys and fed a meter for nearly two days. She was also too trusting. There were parts in the book where I just wanted to shake her and tell her to stay away from so and so. But I couldn’t, and I had to watch her get more and more involved in this mystery.

Speaking of mystery, the author did a great job of keeping what was going on under wraps until the end of the book. I was shocked when specific facts came out. And I was even more shocked with how the book ended. It was not what I expected at all.

There is a small romance introduced as the book’s plot started to take off. Again, I wasn’t sure where it was going, and I was surprised when it was mentioned at the end of the book.

The end of The Disappearing Act was interesting. I say interesting because it wasn’t how I expected the book to end. I thought that it was going to end like your typical mystery/thriller. I wasn’t upset by it, but it did confuse me.

I enjoyed reading The Disappearing Act. It took some time to get the plot going, but it was terrific once it did.

I would recommend The Disappearing Act to anyone over the age of 21. There is violence and mild language.

Charlie

Emily Hupp

Bethany Williamson

'Ingenious and intriguing' BA PARIS 'I devoured this Londoner in LA story in a day’ CAROLINE KEPNES 'I loved it' TM LOGAN THE NEW GRIPPING PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF MR NOBODY AND SOMETHING IN THE WATER * A woman has gone missing But did she ever really exist? Mia Eliot has travelled from London to LA for pilot season. This is her big chance to make it as an actor in Hollywood, and she is ready to do whatever it takes. At an audition she meets Emily, and what starts as a simple favour takes a dark turn when Emily goes missing and Mia is the last person to see her. Then a woman turns up, claiming to be Emily, but she is nothing like Mia remembers. Why would someone pretend to be Emily? Starting to question her own sanity, she goes on a desperate and dangerous search for answers, knowing something is very, very wrong. In an industry where everything is about creating illusions, how do you know what is real? And how much would you risk to find out? Praise for The Disappearing Act ‘Engrossing and unputdownable . . . I devoured this Londoner in LA story in a day’ Caroline Kepnes ‘A fascinating glimpse of the darkness behind Hollywood’s glittering façade. I loved it’ TM Logan 'Another page-turning winner from Catherine Steadman. Ingenious and intriguing, with a fascinating insight into the acting world' BA Paris 'As tense as John Buchan and suspenseful as Patricia Highsmith' Emma Bamford 'Glamour, greed and gaslighting - the perfect summer read!' Harriet Walker Praise for Catherine Steadman ‘A thriller for our times’ Louise Candlish ‘A proper page-turner’ New York Times 'Fans of The Silent Patient will love it' CJ Tudor 'Had me racing through the pages’ Sarah Vaughan 'An enjoyable, nail-biting ride' Observer ‘Original, ingenious and utterly gripping, with characters you’ll really care about as they race towards the brilliantly unexpected ending’ JP Delaney 'From the intriguing opening to the shocking ending, I loved it…' CJ Tudor 'Very clever, brilliantly compelling, another amazing read from Catherine Steadman' BA Paris ‘A highly imaginative tale tinged with Hitchcockian tension and kinetic pacing… Deliciously provocative… Delightfully compelling’ Washington Post 'Perfectly paced with an exciting race to the end, this is one clever novel' Woman’s Weekly

The Disappearing Act A Novel

Reviews