Then She Was Gone
A Novel
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4.3 • 5.9K Ratings
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Family Upstairs and None of This Is True comes an “acutely observed family drama” (People) about the lingering aftermath of a young girl’s disappearance.
Ellie Mack was the perfect daughter. She was fifteen, beloved by her parents, friends, and teachers. She and her boyfriend made a teenaged golden couple. She was days away from an idyllic 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 youngest child 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.
Laurel is haunted by her long unanswered questions. What happened to Ellie? Did she run away from home, as the police have long suspected? Who is Floyd, really? And why does his daughter remind Laurel so viscerally of her own missing girl?
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
How do you regain normality after your daughter vanishes without a trace? Prolific British mystery writer Lisa Jewell pulls us into the story as anguished mom Laurel Mack confronts the possibility of a new beginning. Every bit as gripping as Jewell’s earlier thrillers, Then She Was Gone keeps us on our toes as we wade into a web of intense relationships and dark secrets. And just when we thought we had it figured out, Jewell adds a twist that touches on our deepest fears.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
More than a whiff of The Lovely Bones wafts through this haunting domestic noir from bestseller Jewell (I Found You). The disappearance of beautiful, brainy 15-year-old Ellie Mack in May 2005 from her north London neighborhood takes a terrible toll on her parents and siblings, even a decade later. Most profoundly affected is her now-divorced mother, Laurel. After a shocking development in the cold case jolts Laurel from her lonely limbo, Laurel stuns herself by agreeing to dinner with a man she meets in a caf , genial author Floyd Dunn, and quickly falls into a relationship with him and the younger of his daughters, precocious nine-year-old Poppy who reminds Laurel eerily in so many ways of Ellie. But then unsettling coincidences start to emerge, most notably Laurel's discovery that Floyd's former partner, Noelle Donnelly, who he claims vanished five years earlier after dumping Poppy with him, was Ellie's math tutor. Skillfully told by several narrators (some of them ghostly), Jewell's gripping novel transcends its plot improbabilities to connect with an emotionally resonant story of loss, grief, and renewal.
Customer Reviews
Amazing
Couldn’t put it down!
Incredible!
Lisa Jewell is an amazing author who really immerses you into the story. This book is full of twists that you suspect but still seem to audibly gasp when they’re actually revealed. A tragic, haunting story. I always want to read it again!!
Psycho
Too bizarre and psychotic for me. What scares me most is that people read stuff like this and then get crazy ideas from it.