Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Gone Without a Trace - Mary Torjussen

More psychological suspense for my summer reading bag - Gone Without a Trace by Mary Torjussen. Yes, I love a good twisty read!

Hannah Monroe comes home from work one day to find that her live-in boyfriend Matt is gone. Not simply not there, but gone. Every piece of furniture, picture, glass and more that he moved in with is no longer there. The house looks exactly the same as when Hannah lived there alone. But wait, there's more - his phone is disconnected and any interaction they had on social media has disappeared as well. How can that be? Why? Has Matt chosen to disappear or is foul play involved?

Her best friend Katie and her boyfriend James don't seem as worried about the missing Matt as they are about Hannah. She insists that someone is coming into the house when she's not there. Is it Matt?

Hannah was a difficult character for me. I sympathized with her at the beginning, then took a step away as her worry turned to all consuming obsession. Some of her comments and interactions started raising red flags. The relationship between Hannah and Katie raised some flags as well - they seem to have a history of playing a game of one upmanship.

Great premise - there were lots of questions and situations that only kept me turning pages trying to figure out where Torjussen was going to take her tale. And honestly, she broadsided me with only a few chapters left. I did not see the twist coming at all! My suspicions had been nicely manipulated by Torjussen along the way. Well done! And that last line is a really good one. Good summer escapist reading!  Read an excerpt of Gone Without a Trace.

2 comments:

bermudaonion said...

I love books like this and don't read nearly enough of them.

jenclair said...

I thought I was going to love this one--the premise intrigued me. The twist concerning Matt's disappearance took the novel in a direction. Hannah was a difficult character for me, too. Even in well-written novels, I want to care about someone; that was a problem in Gone Without a Trace.