Synopsis:
Megan Foley knows she saw the little boy. So why does everyone at the perfect seaside house insist he never existed? The house was perfect. That was its first lie.
When Megan and her husband Patrick accept an invitation to spend the summer at a luxurious house share in Stone Beach, Connecticut, everything seems too good to be true. The rent is absurdly low. The host, Mrs. Monahan, is attentive to the point of unease. The other guests are pleasant — until they aren’t.
One day, Megan sees a boy, Tommy, playing… and the next, Tommy is simply gone. Not moved. Not spoken of. Erased, as though he never existed. All the other guests at the house look at Megan blankly when she asks.
One by one, the guests succumb to long hours in front of the television in a glassy trance. Patrick grows cold and distant. Something stirs in the attic.
Megan alone seems immune — but for how long? As she begins to doubt herself and the house tightens its hold, she must confront the terrifying truth about Mrs. Monahan, the attic room, and the price of a perfect summer.
A chilling gothic thriller for fans of atmospheric domestic horror — available in Kindle Unlimited.
Book Details:
Genre: Paranormal Gothic Thriller
Published by: dp DIGITAL PUBLISHERS
Publication Date: May 7, 2026
Number of Pages: 298
ISBN: 978-1918343335
Shop The Book: The Vanishers
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Read an excerpt from The Vanishers:
PROLOGUE
Hudson Lake, Michigan
I know everyone in this diner is looking at me like I’m strange.
Well, I’m sure used to that by now. It wasn’t always that way, of course. I mean I’m blonde-haired, just turned 30 and once – a million years or so ago before the terrible times happened – people said I was pretty. But now I realize that I look old beyond my years. I’ve lost a lot of weight, my face is pale and gaunt and I’m trembling noticeably right now even though it is the first real warm day of spring.
I make my way unsteadily over to a stool at the diner’s counter and sit there quietly, without talking, even when a guy comes over and asks for my order.
“What’ll it be, ma’am?” he smiles.
I stare at him with a confused look on my face. Nothing people say these days – even simple questions like that – seem to make sense to me anymore.
“Ma’am,” he repeats.
“Pardon?”
“My name is Danny. Danny Heller. I own this place. What do you want?”
I think about if for a second, then say: “Do you think I could have some tea?”
“Tea, sure.”
He walks over to the kitchen area, pours a cup and brings it back to me.
“How about something to eat?” he asks. “A sandwich. Some soup. Maybe a nice piece of pie. We got some nice pies today. Apple. Cherry. Lemon meringue.”
“Lemon meringue?”
“Sure. Want a piece?”
I nod. “Yes, that would be nice.”
Danny Heller cuts an extra large slice of the pie, places it onto a plate and carries it back to where I am sitting. I begin eating. Silently and without any emotion. Just like I do everything else now.
“Are you from around here?” he asks.
“No, not from around here.”
What’s your name?
“Uh, I’m Megan…
“Well, I’m glad to meet you, Megan. Are you just visiting around these parts?”
“I’m…,” I hesitate, because it’s painful to say the words., “I’m…looking for a vacation house.”
“Hey we’ve got some good ones. The lake this time of year is one of the prettiest spots in all of Michigan. Or anywhere else, for that matter. Have you looked at many houses?”
“Not here. Other places.”
“You’ve been traveling then?”
“Yes, I’ve been traveling quite a bit.”
The truth is I have been traveling for nearly a year. I started back east, moving from resort town to resort town along the New England coast. When fall came, I started moving down along the coast toward the winter resorts. Miami Beach. The Gold Coast. The Gulf Shore. Then, with the advent of spring, I had come north and inland to look at lake areas. Ohio. Minnesota. And now Michigan.
In all the places, I’ve done the same thing. Gone through ads for house rentals. Checked with real estate brokers. Driven aimlessly around shore areas looking.
Always looking.
Looking for the house.
The house I can never forget.
The house of my nightmares.
“We have some local house listings on that bulletin board over there,” Danny Heller says, pointing to a wall at the end of the counter. “People with a place to rent put stuff up there. Maybe you’ll find something you want.”
I get up from my stool and walk over to the bulletin board.
Looking through the ads posted on the bulletin board without really expecting to find anything.
But then I see it.
And I scream!
I scream so loudly that everyone in the diner stops eating and looks at me.
It’s a scream that keeps gathering momentum as it goes on like a runaway train, terrifying everyone there.
“What’s wrong?” Danny says, rushing over to where I’m standing by the bulletin board.
I point to a picture of a house in one of the ads.
“It’s here,” I whisper.
“What?”
“The house.”
And it is.
The house I’ve been looking for.
The house from Pleasant Street.
“I don’t understand,” Danny is saying.
“It’s the house,” I sob. “Oh, my God, it really is the same house…”
***
Excerpt from The Vanishers by R. G. Belsky. Copyright 2026 by R. G. Belsky. Reproduced with permission from R. G. Belsky. All rights reserved.
I had never considered myself a fan of sci-fi. I have watched the occasional movie and accidentally stumbled across the occasional book but it has just never been my thing. It always felt too outrageous, too metallic and shiny and futuristic for my taste. But this book completely opened up a door for me to appreciate paranormal gothic thrillers with a sci-fi edge to them. I was genuinely surprised to learn this author had never written anything like this before, because it was executed with the confidence of someone who has done it a hundred times.
If everyone around you insisted a person you clearly remembered never existed, would you trust your own mind or start to believe them?
Story Structure
Megan Foley knows she saw the little boy. So why does everyone at the perfect seaside house insist he never existed? When Megan and her husband Patrick accept an invitation to spend the summer at a luxurious house share in Stone Beach, Connecticut, everything seems too good to be true. The rent is absurdly low. The host is attentive to the point of unease. The other guests are pleasant, until they are not. One day Megan sees a boy playing. The next day he is simply gone. Not moved. Not spoken of. Erased, as though he never existed at all. As the guests around her begin succumbing to long glassy trances in front of the television and Patrick grows cold and distant, Megan must confront the terrifying truth about the house before it tightens its hold on her too.
Reading Experience
This gave me such eerie The Others energy, and that Julianne Moore movie where her child disappears and no one remembers she ever had one. It was a completely otherworldly reading experience. Once I opened this book I genuinely could not put it down. I had to know what was going to happen next and then next again because it was that suspenseful. However, there were also definitely moments where I had to set the book down and do a literal head count of my own household to make sure everyone was accounted for and nobody had vanished. It got into my head. It gave me goosebumps. It made me feel on edge in my own house.
Writing Style
I am still shocked this is RG Belsky’s first attempt at something leaning paranormal sci-fi because he wrote it like a total pro. It was perfectly balanced in a way I do not fully have the words for. It was like starting a show on Netflix that ends up being so captivating you binge the entire thing in one night because you cannot tear yourself away. I would genuinely love to see this as a movie or a series.
The writing balances very realistic characters with real flaws and tumultuous relationships and ordinary responsibilities against paranormal elements that are unique and creepy and genuinely interesting. At no point did the sci-fi adjacent elements ever tip into cheesy or fake territory. It all felt like a tangible, real experience, and I connected emotionally with the main character in a way I did not expect going in.
Characters
Megan is our main character and her isolation, whether from people not believing her or simply not experiencing the same reality she was, made me root for her incredibly hard. I would have held her hand through this entire thing if I could have jumped into the pages myself.
Patrick was irritating in a way I think was intentional. Their marriage is rocky for a reason and he never seems supportive or trusting of Megan or her feelings. If my husband came to me with something unbelievable that he was experiencing, I would not make him feel like an idiot for it, even if I did not understand or believe him. Patrick does not extend Megan that same grace, and that is good writing doing exactly what it is supposed to do.
When Megan needs someone to confide in, we meet a handful of characters I fell completely in love with. Sam was my favorite. Quirky, knowledgeable about all things paranormal, but also grounded and normal rather than a caricature. I loved him and I loved watching him and Megan work together. Jackie, Megan’s best friend, remained compassionate and supportive even without fully understanding what Megan was going through, and that steadiness was pivotal to the whole story. Later in the book we also meet Mitch, who I will not say much about to avoid spoilers, but I really liked him too.
The rest of the cast is creepy in their own unique ways, elusive or not quite all there or carrying something mysterious that makes you not want to get too close.
Heartbeat
The heartbeat of this book is support your loved ones. Even when you do not understand what someone is going through, even when it does not make sense to you, they still need somebody to lean on and confide in, and that somebody should be you. If you tell them they are crazy or overreacting or exaggerating, they will have no one to turn to. You can still be a safe space for someone even without fully understanding their experience. What I appreciated most is that the people who chose to believe Megan did so because of her character, not because anything she said made logical sense. They knew her heart. They knew her intelligence. They had no reason to think she was lying or unraveling. So the only remaining explanation was that she truly was experiencing something strange, and they chose to support her anyway. That meant a lot to me.
Final Thoughts
I highly recommend The Vanishers to anyone who loves suspenseful, mysterious paranormal thrillers. I also recommend it to anyone unsure whether they like sci-fi and want a gentle way to test the waters. This is my first full solo experience with RG Belsky, having previously only read Swipe, which he co-authored, and this completely won me over on his solo work.
Released May 7, 2026.
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Thank you to Partners In Crime Tours for letting me read and review this book as part of the tour.
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Author Bio:
R.G. Belsky is an award-winning author of crime fiction and a journalist in New York City. His newest mystery, THE VANISHERS, was published by dp DIGITAL PUBLISHERS. Belsky has published 26 novels. He also writes thrillers under the name Dana Perry. And he is a contributing writer for The Big Thrill magazine and BookTrib.
Catch Up With R. G. Belsky:
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