IN THE MYSTERY BOOK BAG!......."THEN SHE WAS GONE"

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell (2018)    In the miserable COVID life we all lead now, our library remains closed to visitors, but offers curbside pickups of books we can reserve on the library's website.

         As an extra bonus, as we rush out of our car, masked, to receive our reserved pick from a masked librarian, there's a 'grab a bag 'o free books' cart parked outside to shop from.......

         The mystery bags, thoughtfully categorized by our librarians ("Mystery", "Horror", "Biography", "Romance" etc,....) are filled up with four of five books.......and there for the taking.

           So we took one. 

           And what a nice surprise, we found a real gem in the 'Mystery' bag......a book we might have even paid for if we'd heard about it in advance.......

           Since it's a psychological thriller centered around a missing child, we'll follow our usual policy of only describing the initial set up and leaving potential readers to plunge into the  twists, turns and shocking reveals in store for them. 

          Here's the deal:  Laurel Mack has endured the crushing tragedy of her beloved youngest daughter Ellie's disappearance......leading to the end of her marriage and her distant relationships with her two surviving now grown children. 

           Out of a random coffee shop encounter she finds love again with a charming guy named Floyd......whose exceptional, precocious daughter Poppy just happens to bear an unnerving, striking resemblance to Laurel's  long gone Ellie......

           And that's all you'll get from us.......other than to say by the time you get to that point in the story, you won't be able to tear through the pages fast enough.

           One final word of warning ......steel yourself for the reveals here.  Every dark disturbing turn of plot you might imagine in your worst nightmares get fully realized by author Jewell. And what goes on is both monstrous and heartbreaking. 

             You may not know whether to shiver or cry.......and that makes this book a most definite 4 star (****) find in our Mystery book bag.  Don't wait for it to pop up in your own library's free bags....BQ says seek it out by name.