Then She Was Gone

What happens to a family when the golden child vanishes? Laurel Mack has lived a decade in suspended time, split from her husband, estranged from her children, and haunted by the day her daughter Ellie walked out the door. When human remains are found, Laurel buries what’s left of her girl and tries to start again. Then she meets Floyd Dunn in a café, a witty mathematician with a precocious daughter named Poppy—and everything inside Laurel jolts awake. Poppy’s dimple. Her way of tipping her head. Her love of books. The resemblance to Ellie is like a bell ringing from deep underground. As new love flickers to life, old mysteries press up through the cracks: a long-ago math tutor with a fixed smile, a burglary that never made sense, a basement no one was meant to see, and a set of candlesticks that travelled too far. When the truth finally arrives, it shatters in waves—terrible, tender, and irrevocable—leaving a family to choose what to do with the pieces. This is a suspense story you feel in your chest: about obsession, invention, mother-love, and the fragile safety of everyday life.

• Fans of character-driven suspense who want emotion with their twists
• Listeners who like stories about family, grief, and the long work of healing
• Book clubs looking for a page-turner that still has a lot to talk about

Lisa Jewell is a bestselling British author known for emotionally rich, twisty novels that blend suspense with family drama. Raised in north London, she writes about ordinary lives disrupted by extraordinary events, always centering characters who feel human and complicated.