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A Novel
by Lisa Jewell
Ten years after her teenage daughter disappears, a woman crosses paths with a charming single father whose young child feels eerily familiar...
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?
"Starred Review. Jewell teases out her twisty plot at just the right pace, leaving readers on the edge of their seats. Her multilayered characters are sheer perfection, and even the most astute thriller reader won't see where everything is going until the final threads are unknotted." - Booklist
"Skillfully told by several narrators (some of them ghostly), Jewell's gripping novel is an emotionally resonant story of loss, grief, and renewal." - Publishers Weekly
"For thriller readers, Jewell's latest will not disappoint. Sharply written with twists and turns, it will please fans of Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train, or Luckiest Girl Alive." - Library Journal
"Dark and unsettling, this novel's end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed." - Kirkus Reviews
"If you were the first of your friends to read Girl On The Train, and have read Gone Girl more times than you can remember, then here is your summer read." - The Sun (UK)
"Smart and engrossing." - Sunday Mirror (UK)
"A dark, compulsive psychological thriller, yet one which is also uplifting and tender. I absolutely loved Then She Was Gone." - Rachel Rhys, author of Dangerous Crossing
This information about Then She Was Gone was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Lucinda Chua
Lisa Jewell is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-three novels, including Don't Let Him In, None of This Is True, The Family Upstairs, and Then She Was Gone, as well as Invisible Girl and Watching You. Her novels have sold more than fifteen million copies internationally, and her work has also been translated into over thirty languages.
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