Then She Was Gone

Product Information

Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. I believe in bad vibes and listening to your instincts but why include a stereotypical hippie dippy character to warn Laurel?

Hanna pays Laurel to clean her apartment, so Laurel knows that Hanna has not been sleeping at home. Hanna claims she's out partying, but that's not really her personality. Laurel finds some flowers given to Hanna by someone named "T". Laurel also visits her elderly mom who had a stroke many years ago. Her mother Ruby is old, but seems to be holding on hoping for Ellie to be found. You know, how you get to forty and you suddenly stop giving a sh** about all the stupid things you worried about your whole life. Well, nine year old Poppy is already there." Lisa is a New York Times and Sunday Times number one bestselling author who has been published worldwide in over twenty-five languages. She lives in north London with her husband, two teenage daughters and the best dog in the world. Laurel is doing her best to move on with her life. Her teenage daughter went missing years ago, triggering an avalanche of misfortune. The family splintered. Laurel and Paul divorcing. And now, their two remaining children are leaving home at the first chance they get - anxious to live their own lives, away from the oppressive tension within their home. The interesting fact is the way of disappearance of Noelle reminds of her the way of disappearance of her own daughter.

Epilogue

I read a Lisa Jewell novel last year and connected immediately with her writing style, tone, and voice. When Then She Was Gone showed up on NetGalley last month, I immediately requested it and added it to my reading queue for April. I really find myself enamored with Jewell's characters, plots, and settings, so much that I've added ten of her other books to my TBR and hope to read a few more later this year.

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. Laurel's daughter in law, Blue, spouts New Age mumbo jumbo about how she didn't like Floyd when she met him because he has a bad aura or some crap like that. Laurel and Floyd go out on a couple of dates and are soon smitten with each other, and before long she sleeps over at his house. The next morning, they are awakened in bed by young Poppy—who looks almost exactly like Ellie did at the same age. Poppy is smart, charming, precocious, and enthusiastic about Floyd and Laurel’s budding relationship. Poppy and Laurel eagerly go shopping for clothing together, and bond in friendly fashion. For Laurel it is almost like having her own beloved daughter alive again. Her first novel, Ralph's Party, was the best- selling debut novel of 1999. Since then she has written another twenty novels, most recently a number of dark psychological thrillers, including The Girls, Then She Was Gone, The Family Upstairs and The Night She Disappeared.

It’s been ten years since Ellie disappeared, but Laurel has never given up hope of finding her daughter. wow. okay. maybe i wont be playing the whole ‘predict what happens based on the synopsis only’ game because it turns out i only got 1 out of 4 guesses right and its not a good look for my ego. lol. I would listen to a friend's concerns, regardless if she believed in Mother Nature or the Great Pumpkin. still, not the worst book out there. i definitely would have loved this more if my predictions had been right, but thats completely my own fault. And then one day a charming and charismatic stranger called Floyd walks into a café and sweeps Laurel off her feet.