The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell

How much do I love Lisa Jewell.....she keeps you turning the pages and always has an ending that is satisfactory yet you don't see it coming.

This mystery has three different timelines and narratives. 2017: Twenty year old Tallulah and Zack have a child and they live with Tallulah's mother Kim in an English suburb. You read this from Tallulah's perspective and learn she isn't in love with Zach anymore. Zach had abandoned her after she told him she was pregnant.  After months of handling things alone her feelings have changed when he insinuates himself into her life again.  This tension charged situation is well written.  One evening when the two are out on a "date" Scarlett Jacques appears at their table and invites them to a party at her house.

Tallulah contacts her mother Kim and asks if she minds watching the baby longer as she has been invited to a party with college friends.  By morning there is no sign of them.  Tallulah and Zach have disappeared into thin air. 

In the 2018 timeline Kim is still frantically trying to find her daughter with zero help (or concern) from Zach's mother Megs. A year passes and the disappearance of the two becomes a cold case.  You read about Kim's life handling her grandson, always sad and hoping someone will come forward about her daughter's disappearance.

In 2019 thirty-four year old Sophie, a mystery novelist,  moves into the head master's quarters at Manton College with her boyfriend Shaun.  While Shaun is dealing with the responsibilities of his new position at Manton college, Sophie explores the wooded area around their living quarters. She comes upon a cardboard sign with the message Dig Here and a downward arrow attached to a post.  Sophie does dig and comes up with an engagement ring still in the box. This is the thread which starts the naturally curious Sophie to research the missing couple and leads her to Kim.

There are many supporting characters in this novel and the author fleshes them out so you can visulaize them quite clearly. As you turn the pages and chapters lands you back into 2017 a dangerous game of deception is revealed.

The ending - it all comes together and it most certainly was not what I expected.  Well done.

Publication date September 7, 2021 by Atria Books.  Genre: Mystery, Thrillers.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced reader's copy of this book.  I was not compensated for the review, all opinions are mine.

Sharing with Joy for British Isles Friday.

The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell

  

This is the fourth novel by Lisa Jewell I have read and obviously I am now a true fan.  I love the way she weaves a story and makes you care about characters.  They come to life and I found myself invested in the outcomes, good or bad.  Didn’t matter if there were a few unlikable characters, I needed to see what would happen.  Let’s face it, you have to have a few villainous  characters or there wouldn’t be tension.

The house in question here is a lovely place in the Cotswolds, home of the Bird family.  Colin and Lorelei Bird have four children.  Megan, Bethann, Rory and Rhys.  We journey through their lives and the drama unfolds over the years.  We meet the children when they are small and by the end of the book they are middle aged.

This book addresses the mental illness of a hoarder and what it does to a family.  It was distressing to watch Lorelei at times; I felt such empathy for Megan and Bethann and developed a dislike of Megan’s partner Bill after a bit.  Rory was a product of his environment and Rhys….I won’t spoil that part because it’s integral to the way everyone’s lives play out.

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

First off - why have I not been reading Lisa Jewell's novels before this?!  I couldn't put this book down.

Libby Jones knows she was adopted and also knows there was some controversy about her past and her birth parents. At the age of 25 she knows all will be revealed as she receives she long awaited letter and "inheritance."  Here is a blurb from the book description so you have the setup: Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.

 What a setup.  I was intrigued from the beginning and found myself surprised by revelations in the book. The main setting is London but you have scenes in France as well. The story is told from different perspectives.  Libby's brother Henry narrates the past story line and we get an inside view of the crazy scenarios in his childhood home.  In the Libby chapters you'll read about her search for the older siblings, Henry and Lucy, as well as researching information on her socialite mother and well-to-do father, Martina and Henry Lamb.  At the end of each chapter I would want to continue with Libby's search, yet when young Henry narrated I didn't want that to end.

This book is categorized under adult fiction, mystery and thrillers. A+

 Lisa Jewell is a British author of popular fiction. Her books include Ralph's Party, Thirtynothing, After The Party, a sequel to Ralph's Party, and most recently The House We Grew Up In, The Girls in the Garden, and Then She Was Gone.

 Publication date is November 5, 2019.  Much thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book.  I was not compensated for a review, opinions are mine.

Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell

 

This book is labled as a psychyological/thriller drama involving a host of characters to which I only slighted warmed. Is it wrong to let a character name put you off? Let me just start with that – one of the main characters, or I should say a supporting character – named Roan Fours.  Maybe it’s just me but Roan Fours sounds like a game or an intersection.  He was not a likeable or sympathic character.

The main character is a 17 year old girl named Saffyre Maddox who went through some heavy trama early in her life. Roan Fours was the young woman’s child psychologist when she was 10 years old, helping her get over self harming herself.  Three years of sessions and he stopped therapy. We follow 17 year old Saffyre along as she sits outside the Fours household, watching the comings and goings of Roan, his needy haunted and suspicious wife Cate and their two children Georgia and Josh.

The abandoned lot Saffyre sets up camp is next to an apartment building where 34 year old virgin Owen Pick (yes, he is described this way in the book) lives with his aunt. He and Saffyre exchange greeeings some days but otherwise they do not intersect in each other’s worlds.  Owen is looked upon as the “creepy guy” at work and by the neighbors on the street.

There are random attacks on women in the area, grabbed from behind and groped, some raped.  Thankfully there isn’t vivid detail of the attacks, just suspicion thrown around.  During all this Saffyre suddenly disappears.  I she hiding or dead? You will wonder if it’s creepy Owen or the son Josh or the misogynistic Harrison John who makes his appearance near the end of the book.

This was my least favorite of any book authored by Lisa Jewell and I had difficulty connecting to anyone.  No empathy from me on any of them…ok, maybe Saffyre’s uncle Aaron but he does not get a big part in the book.

Would I read more by this author?  Absolutely!

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

 

Here we have another good mystery and family drama by English author Lisa Jewell.  Sixteen year old Ellie Mack heads off to the library one day and simply disappears.  This is resolved in the book but I don’t want to give any spoilers.

Ellie’s mother Laurel Mack is consumed with looking for her daughter and, as happens in real life scenarios, the other children and her husband take a back seat and are somewhat neglected.  This isn’t the plot of the entire book but it sets up the character development.  You see/read why the relationships fracture.

Moving ahead roughly ten years Laurel meets a man named Floyd in a chance encounter in a coffee shop.  They start seeing each other (Ellie’s ex-husband is now happily remarried) and eventually she is invited to his home to meet his daughter Poppy.  The little girl is very grown up for a 9 year old,  her physical attributes reminding Laurel of her lost daughter.

As the supporting characters move in and out of the story you feel you know them.  You can feel the tension between Laurel and her oldest daughter, the slim tether of a bond with her son and his girlfriend, the absolute support of her ex husband and the growing relationship with Floyd as Laurel tries at a second chance for a happy life.

All is not as it seems and the mystery about Ellie’s disappearance, good intentions that went awry and revelations come in a big ending in this psychological drama.

Creepy and disturbing, a page turner!