Set in the remote New Zealand bush, in the South Island. A young girl stumbles into a supermarket in a small town, desperately thirsty and hungry after days walking solo. She only speaks to say her name, Anya, but the locals are aware that she looks exactly like a girl who went missing years earlier…

A woman who grew up  in the bush with her younger siblings, cut off from civilisation, is forced to unpack the secrets of her childhood in the face of a double murder.

When Effie flies from Scotland back to New Zealand, everything changes as she takes on a child who looks eerily like her and the two of them reconsider everything they thought they knew. For readers of All The Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker and The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, The Vanishing Place is a stunningly emotional and cinematic book that will stay with you long after putting it down.

The Vanishing Place has been nominated for the 2026 Barry Award for Best First Novel, and for the Bloody Scotland Debut Award.

To be published by Moa Press, NZ on 26th August 2025, Berkley Press, US, 16th September 2025 and Viper Books UK Oct 2025.

US cover

Irish Examiner (Chloe Barrett): ‘The Vanishing Place is an addictive, atmospheric read that refuses to play it safe. Zoë Rankin delivers a gripping and unflinching exploration of faith, isolation, and the slow crumbling of the human psyche when trapped in darkness.

Nothing is off limits for Rankin, and it likely won’t be long before she’s climbing the bestseller charts and sitting amongst the literary greats in a well-earned space.’

New York Times: “Sizzling…a reminder that memory is slippery, that people are capable of both unspeakable cruelty and unbelievable heroism and that the reader shouldn’t jump to conclusions about the characters too soon.”

Washington Post:  Included in ‘Six noteworthy books for September’. “Rankin’s knockout debut unfurls at a brisk clip.”

Kirkus Reviews – “You’ll get lost in the wilds with this gripping debut.”

Publishers Weekly – STARRED REVIEW “Triumphant…a must-read for fans of Jane Harper.”

The Vanishing Place was selected in the ‘The 10 best thrillers of 2025’ by The Washington Post (18.11.2025)