Draft:The Reappearance of Rachel Price

Intro

The Reappearance of Rachel Price was published by Penguin Random House in 2024 and is a stand-alone thriller mystery written by Holly Jackson. The book was inspired by true crime, and includes themes such as betrayal, family & loyalty, as well as truth & consequences.

Plot

Sixteen years ago Rachel Price mysteriously vanished without a trace after having been shopping with her two year-old daughter Bell (short for Annabell). Bell was the only witness to the disappearance, but she does not have any memory of it now that she's grown up. Rachel is long gone and presumed dead, and Bell's father, Charlie has even been accused by many people including the media of murdering his wife. Bell wants everyone to move on from this Rachel-drama, but the Price family needs money and Charlie decides to let a true crime documentary about the disappearance of Rachel Price be made.

The documentary causes the case to get dragged up and puts attention on the family. Ramsey is the one who is in control of the documentary and with him he has a movie team. Ash is the cinematographer who films most of it, and during the storyline he and Bell get close to each other whilst they investigate and try to uncover the truth about Rachel Price.

One day during the filming of the documentary, Rachel Price reappears (off camera) after sixteen years of being mysteriously gone and presumed dead. Bell is the first one to find Rachel, out walking on the street, and she brings Rachel back home, where Rachel briefly tells Bell what has happened while they’re waiting for Bell's dad (Charlie) to come home and find out about Rachel's reappearance. But when Charlie gets to meet his missing wife his reaction is far from what Bell had in mind.

Charlie starts working late and is rarely home anymore. Bell is also very unsure of everything Rachel has to say, since her story doesn't always add up (Rachel keeps saying she was locked up in a basement for 15 years but she's been missing for 16). Bell feels as if something is wrong and that Rachel is lying about where she's been all these years. A few days after the reappearance Charlie disappears in the middle of the night and the police later find out that he has crossed the border to Canada, leading to him being out of jurisdiction and they can't keep searching for him. Bell believes Rachels has something to do with her dad going missing, and she gets more eager to find out the truth.

Bell starts investigating, and to her help she has Ash who films everything for the documentary. Bell is trying to find out what really happened to Rachel and where she really has been all these years –– she manages to uncover different parts of the mystery but everything is just one big question mark, forcing her to think of different possibilities even if she doesn't want to, the mystery of Rachel Price makes Bell trust her even less.

Before Patrick Price's (Bell's grandfather who has dementia) birthday dinner Bell and Rachel get into a heated conversation where Bell confronts Rachel about being a liar, but Rachel refuses to tell Bell anything about the truth as she thinks Bell won't be able to handle it. Bell then screams “I wish you'd never come back” to Rachel right before they get interrupted by the door bell. Patrick, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Cherry and their kid Carter then come in for the birthday dinner. When it's time for presents, Rachel gives Patrick a book called “The Memory Thief”, a copy of one of Bell's favorite books that her grandpa (Partick) used to read to her. This got Bell to thinking that Rachel was perhaps trying to find this book when she was snooping around at Patrick's house. Bell makes up an excuse and leaves the dinner to go to her grandpa's house. Bell meets up with Ash at Patrick's house where she finds the book and a hidden message in it that says “Help. My name is Rachel Price. I am being kept by Partick Price in a red truck on Price logging yard. Call police.” Bell and Ash then leave to the logging yard and find the red truck and container where Rachel has been held, and in the container they now find Bell's dad Charlie who's been captured and stuck there for two weeks. Charlie refuses to talk as long as Ash is there so he gets forced to leave and Charlie starts telling them how crazy Rachel is for having him locked in there. Soon Rachel appears next to Bell and she starts explaining the whole truth about how, before she disappeared, she had known that Charlie had planned on killing her for weeks, and therefore she had planned on disappearing and running away with Bell –– but that same day Charlie had blackmailed Patrick to kill her (whilst he would himself an alibi), but instead of killing her he kept her in the container believing he was saving her from Charlie. And now Rachel has captured Charlie, planning on keeping him there for as long as she was stuck as revenge.

Bell is then forced to choose between her mom and her dad, helping Charlie go or making him stay there for all the lying and pain he has caused them. Bell chooses her mom’s side, but shortly after Jeff (Charlie's brother) turns up to the crime scene and he decides he can't let Charlie stay there. While Jeff is trying to free Charlie, Rachel and Bell start running away to the car but the car is blocked and they are forced to keep running –– as they are running they can hear Charlie coming after them and Jeff screaming “ Charlie what are you doing!?” They are chased up on a cliff where Charlie gets hold of Rachel, he's pulling out an axe ready to kill her for the second time, but out of nowhere Carter appears and pushes Charlie away from Rachel, leading to him falling off the cliff and dragging Jeff down with him.

Rachel, Bell and Carter then decide to destroy all evidence connecting them to Charlie and Jeff being killed, including destroying all evidence for the documentary and the fact that Partick and Charlie were the ones behind the disappearance of Rachel Price so that the three can live a new life as a family.

Major Themes

Family and loyalty

The book takes us on the journey of Rachel Price’s reappearance, and along the way it shows us about having loyalty to your family and putting family first, but that in the end loyalty might have to be reconsidered and question who it really is who has your best interest at heart, even if it means reevaluating long held bonds.

Truth and consequences

This theme in the book emphasizes how seeking the truth is not always easy –– it can bring pain and reveal uncomfortable realities. The truth can be difficult to face because it uncovers painful realities and forces us to confront uncomfortable facts. It's not easy to see the full truth when you're hoping for a different outcome. This story shows that even if the truth can bring discomfort it is often necessary for personal growth and understanding.

Genre and style

The Reappearance of Rachel Price is a YA (young adult) thriller mystery book. The story follows the return of Rachel Price after she has been missing, leading to questions about what happened to her and whether she's hiding something disturbing. This setup places the novel in the mystery genre, as characters –– and readers –– try to uncover the truth about Rachel's disappearance and reappearance.

Development history

Holly Jackson mentions in a short interview with TMS Global Entertainment that she firstly came up with the title to her book and then wrote the story to it. She says that she came up with the title whilst she was out walking her dog and listening to a true crime podcast, thinking about how in most of true crime media it's often called “The Disappearance of … “ so she wanted to flip that around and decided on the title The Reappearance of Rachel Price. Holly Jackson also mentioned in an interview with The Bookseller that the writing of The Reappearance of Rachel Price was a long and painful process, she also said -”I think I have learned so much and was able to distill every lesson i've learned into it.”

Publication history

The Reapperance of Rachel Price was published for the first time April 2, 2024. in the UK by Electric Monkey and in the US published by Delacorte Press, New York.