Title : Then She Was Gone
Author : Lisa Jewell
Narrators : Helen Duff
Genre : Mystery
Publisher : Dreamscape Media
Listening Length : 10 hours 12 minutes
Rating : 3/5
Narrator Rating : 4/5

Ellie Mack, a lovely teenager, the light of her mother’s life, disappears one day. The police believe that she has run away although the mother Laurel Mack is sure she hasn’t. Ellie is never found and the trail gets cold. Laurel stunned by Ellie’s disappearance, has retreated from life, from other relationships, her husband, her children, but now, post-divorce has begun to put her life together again. She meets Floyd, a handsome stranger, and the relationship quickly blossoms into love, almost. Then Laurel meets Poppy Floyd’s younger daughter, and is quite taken aback because Poppy has an uncanny similarity to Ellie . . .

I have no doubt that “Then She Was Gone” is a good book. When I started listening, I was initially surprised that the book was really as good as the reviews said it would be. I couldn’t listen fast enough. Jewell is a master at her craft. She builds up the story with pitch-perfect details and manages to sketch the characters just right. She portrays events and actions and also lays out what her characters are feeling, so there is a lot of emotional depth. Her words are nicely put together and have a “literary” feel for a mystery novel.

So, yes “Then She Was Gone” is the perfect package. Except that as I listened, and I got farther and farther into the book, the book got pretty disturbing. Ghoulish (not in the supernatural sense) and gruesome, and tragic. The events are so heartbreaking that for me it shrouded this immensely interesting book in a pall of gloom. I did finish the book because I had to know, but I am torn about it, and can’t quite fully recommend it.

I have read Gone Girl where the characters are fairly psychotic, but “Then She Was Gone” is more horrific because the crime is so depraved and against a minor. The story is told via first person accounts including that of the deranged perpetrator, so unless you are pretty stoic, and/or prepared to stomach the heart-wrenching account of the damage the perp inflicts, this book may not be for you.

Helen Duff is a very good narrator; I wish I’d heard her narrating a pleasanter book.