It Could Have Been Her

Lisa Jewell is probably my favorite author. I will read anything and everything she writes and think she is the absolute queen of the thriller. This one was not my favorite of her books, but it was still very good! I hold Jewell to a higher standard than other authors. I pre-order every one of her books and drop everything to read them when they arrive. If I were still grading books, I’d give it an A-! It held my attention well enough that I finished it up in a single day. Jane Trevally has been married twice, has an army of stepchildren she loves, many dogs, and a country house that is falling apart. Her days are pretty empty until she spots a small white terrier while out walking, no sign of the teenage girl he’d been staying with. The dog is lost, and when she tracks down his owner, he doesn’t seem to know anything about the teenage girl, who has now been reported missing. Furthermore, the owner lives at a house where Jane experienced a traumatic incident years ago. What are the odds? Jane, an aspiring PI, becomes determined to figure out what has happened to the girl. In an alternate timeline, we meet Stuart. Stuart is a recovering alcoholic who has become obsessed with a mother he sees at the bar each day, drinking herself into a stupor before picking up her daughter. It’s dark and twisty, definitely a wild ride. It is sleepy at times, but then hits you over the head with a very dark banger of an ending.