Lisa Jewell’s Then She Was Gone is a domestic drama with hints of suspense and an eerie mystery at its heart. Obsession underpins the plot, and a mother’s determination to find answers about her missing daughter takes an unsettling turn when she meets the daughter of a new flame—a daughter whose resemblance to her own leads her down a dark, twisted path toward answers that may be too horrifying to bear.

Jewell’s writings is crisp and engaging, easy to read with a natural flow. Though there is little action, the pace is swift, and the mystery unfolds as different perspectives are explored in five parts. Laurel is the anchor in the story, a woman who is detached and emotionally distant, haunted by the disappearance of her golden daughter and desperate in the face of a lack of answers ten years on. The strength of the story lies in the authentic portrayal of the psychology involved in a missing child case. The dynamics explored with Laurel and her family, particularly with the daughter she secretly wishes had been the one to disappear, is particularly well done and poignant.

While the story begins with a solid hook and the pace is swift, everything was wrapped up too neatly to be satisfying. The book had the foundations of being a chilling thriller, but it was too sanitized with an easy resolution. The story warranted a more complex denouement, and in the end, it was not grim, gritty, or disturbing enough for the harrowing subject matter.

Then She Was Gone is a disquieting, unsettling story that does an exemplary job of exploring family dynamics in the wake of an unspeakable tragedy. The mystery that unfolds is appalling, but in the end, the execution was flat and sanitized.

Recommended for fans of domestic dramas focused on mothers of missing children