Now You See Them by Elly Griffiths

This book is from The Brighton Mysteries series. 

Teenager Rhonda has gone missing from her boarding school.  She has left a note and it is thought that she has gone to London to see the young American film star Bobby Hambro who is in the country to begin a new film.  

Superintendent Edgar Stephens is in charge of the police force in Brighton and has to look into the disappearance of Rhonda.  Edgar's wife Emma, who used to be one of his detectives before they married and had a family, realises that there could be a link between Rhonda's disappearance and two other young women who have also disappeared in similar circumstances, each leaving a note.  One of them suddenly turns up on the beach.  She has been murdered. 

Edgar's friend, the magician Max Mephisto, has returned to Brighton as he too will be taking a part in the film with Bobby Hambro.  Max's daughter Ruby goes missing, also leaving a note, which is very unlike her as she never misses a day's work.  Together they need to work out who is taking the girls and find them before any more murders take place.

Gone by Leona Deakin

On the day of her birthday Lana Reid received an unusual birthday card.  On the front was 'Happy 1st Birthday' and inside the message was 'Your gift is the game, dare to play?'  She then went missing. Her 16 year old daughter Jane reported her disappearance to the police, but they didn't investigate as she seemed to have gone willingly.  

Jane contacted Marcus Jameson, the brother of the family she is staying with, to ask for help in finding Lana.  Marcus works with Dr Augusta Bloom, a psychologist who also assists the police with their investigations, and together they start to uncover the details of a number of other people who received the same card, also on their birthdays, and then disappeared.  

Looking into the lives of those who have disappeared, they all seemed to have been living a lie in one form or another.  More and more disappearances are uncovered.  What links all these people and makes them walk away from their lives needs to be found so that the people themselves can be found.  

I really enjoyed this story it was unusual and quite involved.

The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson looks back over his childhood in Des Moines in the 1950s and 1960s.  He reminisces about his family life, going to school, or not going to school, and playing with different friends.  

A few chapters cover the politics of the times and the current news events.  

He was the Thunderbolt Kid who tried to illiminate people who annoyed him.  

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I have enjoyed other travel books by Bill Bryson.  I have read: 

Notes from a Big Country

Notes from a Small Island

A Walk in the Woods 

Down Under

and I have A Short History of Nearly Everything on my bookshelf.