Her third novel, The Secret of Raven Point (2014), follows a young WWII army nurse determined to find her older brother who's gone missing in action in Italy.
The New York Times celebrated the "two separate mysteries [that] create and maintain suspense throughout this gripping World War II coming-of-age novel."
The Washington Post called it “fresh, compelling… War gives men and women a chance to become monsters or heroes, and Vanderbes finds her footing exploring these two extremes…[ Juliet] is a companionable protagonist... she emerges from the experience as someone altered yet not conquered by war….Vanderbes performs admirably.”[2] And in a starred review, Library Journal said about it, "Readers will fall in love with the delightful Juliet, who is a smart and courageous heroine....the only disappointing thing about this book is that it has to end.
"[3] During graduate school, Vanderbes wrote a one-act play called "The Applicant" which was produced by the Soho Rep theater in New York.
In 2014, she returned to playwriting, and her two-act play, Primating,[4] about primatologists in Africa, was optioned by Tony Award-winning producers Jeffrey Richards Associates.
[13] Her first investigative non-fiction book, Wonder Drug: The Secret History of Thalidomide in America and Its Hidden Victims, was published by Random House and HarperCollins UK in June 2023.
Vanderbes was named an NEH Public Scholar for her investigation into the thalidomide scandal[16] and the book was long-listed for the 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction.