Dorie - Cats&Books :) 's Reviews > Then She Was Gone

This is the third Lisa Jewell thriller that I have read and she has penned another winner! After finishing this book I really had to wait a few days to sort of “SETTLE ME DOWN” as this mystery touched some very delicate feelings in me, more so than her first two books. Call me a snob but in my experience with thrillers, it has been hard to find many with the combination of great writing, past and present POV’s that flow seamlessly together, and create emotions that well up inside of you and really stay with you.

The main character in this novel is Laurel who has three children, two of whom are daughters whom she adores and they have great family dynamics. On a seemingly “normal” day, her youngest daughter Ellie leaves for the library and never returns. There are no clues or hints to explain her disappearance and the police keep coming up empty handed. Laurel however still feels that her daughter is alive even though many years go by. It is hard to read the despair and feelings of inadequacies that the family members encounter and at one point it was a little hard for me to continue. Not because the plot was stagnant but quite the opposite, it was speeding along so fast and with an outcome that seemed too terrible that I just had to stop, just until the next day when I furiously turned the pages to find out the mystery.

I won’t go over the plot, I rarely do that, you all read the blurbs on the books I know you do! This is a true thriller to me as it contains an extremely deviant sociopath who is so mentally ill that it’s painful to read her thoughts. You know where it’s going but you just can’t stop it.

I love strongly character driven novels, including thrillers and that is what Ms. Jewell does so so well. I became invested in the feelings of Eliie’s mother, and as a mother of four daughters, I wanted so badly for things to somehow turn out that this poor woman didn’t have to continue without knowing what happened to her missing beautiful, intelligent, golden girl!

If you loved “Girls in the Garden” and “I Found You” you will definitely love this book. For me this one was a little difficult to read because the behavior of this probable psychopath was just so twisted and ugly. After starting this novel I couldn’t quit, her writing is just so compelling, those of the words I would use to describe it!

I received a ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss, thank you, will post to public media upon publication.