Whatever Happened to the Cowley Twins?

by Gail Schimmel

The unsolved disappearance of two blonde baby girls in Johannesburg thirty years ago is a subject regularly raised around northern suburbs dinner tables. The twins’ older brother Tim has lived in the shadow of their disappearance all his life, and it’s crept, insidiously and not, into his marriage with A-type Alison. Journalist Amanda spices up her career by rehashing the story whenever another baby disappearance story hits the news, and gay (jilted) Cricket … well, he lives in Joburg too, and to find out how else he fits into this engrossing new novel from the author of Marriage Vows, you’ll just have to read it yourself!

Paperback

First published June 1, 2013

About the author

GAIL SCHIMMEL has been writing stories since she could put pen to paper. By day she is a qualified attorney, and the CEO of the South African Advertising Regulatory Board. But she still makes sure that to write!

In South Africa, Gail published a children’s book, Claude & Millie, in 2007, under her married name Gail van Onselen. Her first
adult novel, Marriage Vows, was published in 2008, by Kwela Books. Whatever Happened to the Cowley Twins? was published by Kwela in June 2013. The Park, was published by Pan Macmillan in 2017 and The Accident in 2019 (The Accident was released internationally as The Aftermath in 2021). Two Month was published in South Africa in 2020.
Gail is also half of the writer Katie Gayle.
Gail's newest book - Never Tell A Lie - will be available internationally on 30 November 2021.
Gail lives in Johannesburg with her husband, two children, two naughty dogs and one very very old cat.

Reviews

[Daphne]

Cannot stop reading these fascinating stories, They just suck you in.

[Susan Marsh]

Quite holding. Easy read. Enjoy her books

[Alison Smith]

A mystery set in Joburg. An engrossing page-turner. An enjoyable, easy read. My true rating is 3.5 stars.

[Clare Grové]

Giving myself seven days to read a novel, left Whatever Happened to the Cowley Twins? sitting just below 38 pages a day. It’s apt then to call it a page turner, as in between life and work and everything, I read it in two.

The delicious wickedness of it makes up for the obviousness of the plot. You can see where it is going but do not mind as long as the pace keeps up and Amanda’s craziness and Tim’s stupidity are sprinkled throughout.

Schimmel certainly captures the vibe of the white upper middle to upper class Jo’burgers of the inner ring road variety. You know the sort who don’t venture to the Eastern suburbs unless flying out of ORT and whose only sojourn over the ring road is heading down William Nicol to the theatre at Monte. However, two characters who fall short of authenticity are Tertia and Le Roux.

Nevertheless, I find her writing entertaining.

Onto The Park.

[Shiraz Bosman]

3.5 ⭐s

[Loretta]

Enjoyed this one, especially how all the tendrils of the story linked together. Ending was superb.

[Hecate]

It's hard to know how to review this -- the author sent it to me as a gift at a terrible time in my life. I read it over the course of two appalling days in which my sister was in critical condition on a ventilator, and I remember clinging to it desperately. I can't remember much about it because I could only concentrate for a few minutes at a time. But it had a central mystery that was absorbing, while at the same time being light and entertaining enough that I could manage it. Schimmel also writes with breezy ease and acute observation, and that helped too. But above all, this was one of several books that got me through hell. (My sister lived: after 65 days on a ventilator during the second wave.)

[Kathe Coleman]

Tertia Crowley, a Johannesburg mother, goes to the doctor with her twin girls. She had made arrangements with her husband to meet her at the doctor’s office to take the girls but the doctor was ready for her before Alan arrived so the receptionist agreed to watch them until he showed. The twins have not been seen since and that was thirty-four years ago and this is where the story begins. Although the subject matter may seem dark it is a fast, unputdownable read.

[Rhoda Bean]

Re-read this book - wonderful

[Anita]

An amusing, fast-paced mystery story by a local author. Tim Cowley's twin sisters disappeared from the doctor's rooms while their mother was at her scheduled appointment. Although they were supposedly collected by their father, they subsequently disappeared from the face of the earth. Despite searches by police detectives and media investigations, no trace of them has been found for 34 years. When Tim's wife, Alison, decides to investigate some puzzling entries in the accounting books of the Cowley family business, matters become more and more confused almost causing the breakdown of Tim and Alison's marriage.
The author is an observant chronicler of human behaviour, many of the incidents in this book made me smile or laugh out loud. I enjoyed the characters of James, Anton and Amanda. It was a well-written and engaging read.
I found the ending a little disappointing. Hence the 3.5 star rating.