Vanished

An intriguing tale of guilt, desire and suspense from the bestselling author of Finding Ashley . In the late 1930s in New York, Marielle Patterson shares her life with her husband Malcolm and their little boy Teddy. But their lives are filled with secrets. Haunted by a past she has kept secret even from her husband, Marielle secretly lights a candle each year for a child who died in a tragic accident when he was scarcely more than a baby. Then Marielle runs into her first love, American expatriate Charles Delauney. And when her little Teddy is kidnapped Charles is first blamed, then arrested, as the Pattersons, the New York Police and the FBI turn the country upside down, looking for Teddy. A terrifying court drama seeks to put Charles Delauney behind bars, as a series of revelations begin to unravel the truth about Marielle, Charles, and Malcolm. Piece by piece the uncovering of their pasts creates a complex mosaic of the motives and passions controlling their lives. Praise for Danielle Steel and Vanished : ***** 'One of Danielle Steel's classics... keeps you guessing right to the end.' ***** 'An intriguing book filled with suspense.' ***** 'This book is full of young love and mystery... I whole heartedly recommend.'

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY TRIVEDI SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2025 & BSHS PICKSTONE PRIZE 2026 A GUARDIAN & TELEGRAPH BEST SCIENCE BOOK 2025 WATERSTONES BEST POPULAR SCIENCE BOOK 2025 'A vital and important book' David Olusoga From an award-winning historian of race, science and empire, a path-breaking and poignant history of extinction as a scientific idea, an imperial legacy and a political choice Anyone alive today is among a tiny fraction of the once living: over 90% of species that ever existed are now extinct. How did we come to think of ourselves as survivors in a world where species can vanish forever, or as capable of pushing our planet to the verge of a sixth mass extinction? Extinction, Sadiah Qureshi shows us, is a surprisingly modern concept – and a phenomenon that’s not as natural as we might think. In Europe until the late eighteenth century, species were considered perfect and unchanging creations of God. Then in the age of revolutions, scientists gathered enough fossil evidence to determine that mammoth bones, for example, were not just large elephants but a lost species that once roamed the Earth alongside ancient humans. Extinction went from being regarded as theologically dangerous to pervasive, and even inevitable. Yet Vanished shows us that extinction is more than a scientific idea; it’s a political choice that has led to devasting consequences. Europeans and Americans quickly used the notion that extinction was a natural process to justify persecution and genocide, predicting that nations from Newfoundland’s Beothuk to Aboriginal Australians were doomed to die out from imperial expansion. Exploring the tangled and unnatural histories of extinction and empire, Vanished weaves together pioneering original research and breath-taking storytelling to show us extinction is both an evolutionary process and a human act: one which illuminates our past, and may alter our future.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY TRIVEDI SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2025 & BSHS PICKSTONE PRIZE 2026 A GUARDIAN & TELEGRAPH BEST SCIENCE BOOK 2025 WATERSTONES BEST POPULAR SCIENCE BOOK 2025 'A vital and important book' David Olusoga From an award-winning historian of race, science and empire, a path-breaking and poignant history of extinction as a scientific idea, an imperial legacy and a political choice Anyone alive today is among a tiny fraction of the once living: over 90% of species that ever existed are now extinct. How did we come to think of ourselves as survivors in a world where species can vanish forever, or as capable of pushing our planet to the verge of a sixth mass extinction? Extinction, Sadiah Qureshi shows us, is a surprisingly modern concept – and a phenomenon that’s not as natural as we might think. In Europe until the late eighteenth century, species were considered perfect and unchanging creations of God. Then in the age of revolutions, scientists gathered enough fossil evidence to determine that mammoth bones, for example, were not just large elephants but a lost species that once roamed the Earth alongside ancient humans. Extinction went from being regarded as theologically dangerous to pervasive, and even inevitable. Yet Vanished shows us that extinction is more than a scientific idea; it’s a political choice that has led to devasting consequences. Europeans and Americans quickly used the notion that extinction was a natural process to justify persecution and genocide, predicting that nations from Newfoundland’s Beothuk to Aboriginal Australians were doomed to die out from imperial expansion. Exploring the tangled and unnatural histories of extinction and empire, Vanished weaves together pioneering original research and breath-taking storytelling to show us extinction is both an evolutionary process and a human act: one which illuminates our past, and may alter our future.