Unsolved cold case mystery. Characters with obsessive love disorders or neurotic personality traits. Sinister plot. Predictable. ( )

Those months, the months before she disappeared, were the best months. Really. Just the best. Every moment presented itself to her like a gift and said, Here I am, another perfect moment, just look at me, can you believe how lovely I am? Every morning was a flurry of mascara and butterflies, quickening pulse as she neared the school gates, blooming joy as her eyes found him. School was no longer a cage, it was the bustling, spotlight film set for her love story.

Then She Was Gone had the makings of a fantastic book, and it was, mostly.

Extremely well-written, good plot, nicely defined characters, and overall I have nothing to point a finger at - but it just wasn’t a home run, maybe more like a triple.

Ms. Jewell is an incredibly accomplished author, and I only wish to be anywhere near her status, but from a reader’s perspective, Then She Was Gone just didn’t feel original enough to pique my interest to a ten, eight point five, maybe.

I would recommend this book for really anyone looking for a good thriller, just don’t expect to remember it for years to come. ( )

Creepy story. A bit improbable. Story of 15 yr old girl who goes missing and her body is not found until 10 yrs later. We learn that she was taken and held captive by her math tutor. This tutor has the girl impregnated and then pawns her off her "boyfriend" as his baby. He ends up keeping the child and 9 yrs later has a relationship with the kidnapped girl's mom. He does this on purpose because he knows the child is not his and this lady his the girl's grandmother. The story ends with him disappearing and guiding her to his message on his computer telling her the story of how he came to have her granddaughter.
Quick read and a lot of drama. KIRKUS: Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.

Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.

Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed. ( )

Mystery