Review: Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

Genres: Mystery, Thriller

Release Date: April 17, 2018

Format: eARC

Source: Atria Books/NetGalley

Find it here: GoodReads

Ellie Mack was the perfect daughter. She was fifteen, the youngest of three. She was beloved by her parents, friends, and teachers. She and her boyfriend made a teenaged golden couple. She was days away from an idyllic post-exams summer vacation, with her whole life ahead of her.

And then she was gone.

Now, her mother Laurel Mack is trying to put her life back together. It’s been ten years since her daughter disappeared, seven years since her marriage ended, and only months since the last clue in Ellie’s case was unearthed. So when she meets an unexpectedly charming man in a café, no one is more surprised than Laurel at how quickly their flirtation develops into something deeper. Before she knows it, she’s meeting Floyd’s daughters—and his youngest, Poppy, takes Laurel’s breath away.

Because looking at Poppy is like looking at Ellie. And now, the unanswered questions she’s tried so hard to put to rest begin to haunt Laurel anew. Where did Ellie go? Did she really run away from home, as the police have long suspected, or was there a more sinister reason for her disappearance? Who is Floyd, really? And why does his daughter remind Laurel so viscerally of her own missing girl? 

Back in the early-2000’s I read everything Lisa Jewell wrote. At that time she was all about romance and women’s fiction and I inhaled each and every one. Then she made a shift to mystery novels and, since that’s not usually my genre of choice, it’s now been several years since I’ve read anything from Jewell. But the synopsis of Then She Was Gone captured my attention and I was instantly wondering what happened to this girl named Ellie, who is this man her mother meets a decade later, and why does his young daughter look so much like Ellie.

Told by several narrators, we get pieces of the story doled out at the perfect pace. While a few aspects were easy to figure out, most kept me guessing until the very end. Jewell did an amazing job of gradually unraveling the threads of Ellie’s history and weaving other strands together to create Laurel’s present-day.

Then She Was Gone feels as much like a character study as a mystery. I found it interesting that despite few of the characters being particularly likable, I was still fascinated by their actions and their motivations. From Laurel, who was never warm and fuzzy to start with and became only more distant after Ellie’s disappearance, to the charming Floyd and his precocious daughter, to Laurel’s beleaguered ex-husband Paul, and her somewhat estranged other children. Jewell brought these characters to life and humanized them to an extent that I found myself genuinely invested in their lives.

We know fairly early what happened to Ellie, but it’s the how and the why and all the repercussions that provide the intrigue. As one who isn’t accustomed to the content of mystery/thrillers, there were several scenes when I was truly horrified and utterly heartsick by events that took place. Jewell used the multiple points of view and the dual time frame to craft a story that kept me completely enthralled until the very end. I highly recommend this twisty domestic drama/mystery.

4.25/5 STARS

Note: An advance reader copy was provided by Atria Books. This is no way changes my opinion of the book or the content of this review.