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    Gone Without a Trace
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    Gone Without a Trace
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    Gone Without a Trace
    Audiobook8 hours

    Gone Without a Trace

    Written by Mary Torjussen

    Narrated by Emily Pennant-Rea

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A jaw-dropping novel of psychological suspense that asks, If the love of your life disappeared without a trace, how far would you go to find out why?  
     
    Hannah Monroe's boyfriend, Matt, is gone. His belongings have disappeared from their house. Every call she ever made to him, every text she ever sent, every photo of him and any sign of him on social media have vanished. It's as though their last four years together never happened.
     
    As Hannah struggles to get through the next few days, with humiliation and recriminations whirring through her head, she knows that she'll do whatever it takes to find him again and get answers. But as soon as her search starts, she realizes she is being led into a maze of madness and obsession. Step by suspenseful step, Hannah discovers her only way out is to come face to face with the shocking truth...

    READERS GUIDE INSIDE


    From the Trade Paperback edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 11, 2017
    ISBN9781524756628
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Gone Without a Trace

    3.5/5

    83 ratings24 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I found the first three quarters of this book really well done. It's all told through the main character's POV which is a great way to lead the reader along without the whole story. Only seeing the events through her eyes kept me really engaged and fully absorbed in trying to figure out what was going on. While the first half of the read was really very suspenseful, I did think it could have been just a tad shorter. My problem started when the story started to unfurl in the last third. The plot twist was a good one (I never saw it coming) but I wasn't so sure about the motive and the cunning of the actual disappearance. I am also just not sure about the reveal of weird happenings with the main character. It's hard to explain without giving too much away. Ultimately I felt like this was an amazingly good suspenseful read that could have been concluded a bit more interestingly. Thanks to the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy for an honest review.
    • 3/5
      Hannah's live-in boyfriend, Matt, has suddenly vanished without a trace. Not just his person, but all physical and digital proof of him and their four-year relationship have disappeared. How is that possible? It's enough to drive anyone mad.I was so intrigued by the premise of this book. How could someone erase his existence like that? I was hooked right away, and the author did a great job pulling the reader into Hannah's crazy obsession over finding Matt. There came a point, though, that I'd had enough with the minute details of her search and wanted something big to happen.At about the three-quarters mark, things get pretty exciting and plot twists are revealed. One I expected, but the others were surprising, including something that's not addressed very often. I guess I'm left with mixed feelings about the outcome. It's hard to talk about without revealing spoilers, so I'll just say that I was all around frustrated with Hannah. I enjoyed the big twists, though the last quarter of the book felt a bit disjointed from the rest. OMG, the last sentence! I guess there's a lesson there.Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      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!
    • 4/5
      [Gone Without A Trace] by Mary Torjussen4 StarsFrom The Book:Hannah Monroe's boyfriend, Matt, is gone. His belongings have disappeared from their house. Every call she ever made to him, every text she ever sent, every photo of him and any sign of him on social media have vanished. It's as though their last four years together never happened. As Hannah struggles to get through the next few days, with humiliation and recriminations whirring through her head, she knows that she'll do whatever it takes to find him again and get answers. But as soon as her search starts, she realizes she is being led into a maze of madness and obsession. Step by suspenseful step, Hannah discovers her only way out is to come face to face with the shocking truth.My Views:Anyone who likes to follow the clues and try to solve the mystery before the last sentence on the last page, will absolutely love this book. The thing that presented a little problem with that was that everyone quickly became a suspect. Everyone had motive and opportunity. I'm usually pretty successful at hunting out the villains and finding the "why" of the story...but in this case the truth was something that I had never in a million years thought of. [Gone Without A Trace] is a twisted psychological thriller that will keep you spellbound right up until the very end...even if you never guess it.
    • 3/5
      After four years of living together, Hannah returns home from work one evening to find her significant other, Matt, has taken all his belongings and has disappeared. There is no trace of him: their entire call history deleted, all photos vanished, his social media profiles gone. What happened to Matt?The book follows Hannah's first person point of view throughout as she becomes obsessed with finding Matt to the detriment of her job and personal life.I was initially really gripped by this. The premise was very interesting and the first few chapters strong. But once the author started providing background information on the characters, I thought the story became predictable and the twists weren't exactly surprising. It's very difficult to go into any details without giving the entire story away. Reviews of this differ wildly and I seem to be totally in the minority with my opinion that the revelations were easy to anticipate.I would have preferred if the author had kept the main character's mental state more consistent. Again, difficult to explain without spoiling the plot. I really loved the ending though.There were some nice unsettling and creepy bits and overall, it kept me entertained. Not always for the right reasons though. I listened to the audiobook narration and found it really amusing how the narrator used a posh Southern accent when Hannah was on her own and then switched to a really strong Liverpool accent for direct speech. What was the reasoning behind that? With a first person POV, it certainly didn't make the character very credible. Apart from that the narration was actually well done.
    • 4/5
      This seemed to start out a little slow for me and I wasn't sure how I liked the characters but then there were some great twists and turns and I really began to like this story. Make sure to keep reading because I loved the ending. I wasn't sure who to be rooting for through most of this book. I received a copy of this book from penguin random house for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.
    • 2/5
      This book and me did not get along. I was so excited to read this novel because the story sounded exactly like the kind of book that I enjoy. I thought it started out okay but then I found myself wanting to put it down. I would set this book aside and read another book and go back to it and quickly find that I was bored again. I actually ended up reading a couple of other books in the middle of this one which is something that I rarely do. I considered not finishing this book but I pushed myself to finish it instead. After finishing the book, I do wish that I had just stopped as soon as I realized that it wasn't working for me.Hannah comes home from work to find her boyfriend, Matt, gone from their home. Matt has taken absolutely everything that he had in their home. It is like Matt never lived there. Photos are gone. He even erased all of the phone records, texts, and emails. Hannah is stunned and has no idea where Matt has gone or why he left. She can't get his loss out of her mind and starts working to figure out where he has gone.After the initial shock of Matt's leaving, there didn't seem to be a whole lot going on in this book. Hannah does not deal with his leaving well at all and her spiral downward is detailed in the story but it seemed to me that the story needed something to keep things moving forward. I found that I spent most of the book rather bored.The story does have a big twist and the last quarter of the book does pick up the pace. I would imagine that most people will really appreciate this giant twist but by the time it was revealed, I had really lost any investment in the story that I had ever had. I did find that the last section of the book did seem to move faster and was more entertaining. I think that this is a book that some readers will love but it will not work well for others. Unfortunately, I was in the later group. I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading it that really thinks that they would enjoy it based on the description but I won't be encouraging readers to pick it up either. I received an advance reader edition of this book from Berkley Publishing Group via NetGalley.
    • 4/5
      GONE WITHOUT A TRACE was a very unexpected read for me. It wasn't at all what I was thinking it would be. It didn't take me long to figure out that Hannah - the narrator - was an unreliable narrator but I was completely wrong about the area of her unreliability.The story begins with Hannah's live-in boyfriend Matt disappearing along with all his stuff while she was at a day long training. She come home excited to tell him about the glowing comments her boss made about her to find him and all of this things gone. She can't understand why as all of her memories are of things going well and the two of them being happy.She determines to find him and her obsessive search causes her to pay less attention at her job and to neglect her personal appearance. She has a best friend Katie who is possibly the most toxic best friend in the history of fiction. Katie's live-in boyfriend is a former boyfriend of Hannah's who she had lost track of for a number of years. Hannah's parents are dysfunctional. Her father has anger issues and abuses his wife who refuses to leave him. Hannah seldom sees them and when she does hear from her father it is mostly when he is angry at her. I don't think that there was an admirable character in the whole book. Hannah's friend at work is having an affair with her assistant who is busy sabotaging Hannah's career - not that Hannah isn't doing a good job of that herself.Without spoilers, I will say that the ending was both expected and unexpected. Fans of psychological thrillers will enjoy this one.
    • 3/5
      This is such a hard one for me to review. There are some great thrilling parts in this book. Hannah coming home after a conference to find that her live-in boyfriend has moved out. He's taken his flat screen TV and replaced with your huge tube TV (including the stand his was on). His jazz pictures are gone, leaving empty walls. All his albums including the player, which was his, is gone. Everything. He's gone through your phone, deleted his number, his photos, all the texts he's ever sent, the one's you've sent. He's deleted his Facebook account. He quit his job weeks ago. His mother moved a year ago. It's like he was never there.Now that is creepy.Next thing Hannah knows, she gets a text. It says "I'm home now", while she is at her best friend's house. Of course, she goes running home and no one is there. This is when things start happening in her house. Things are moved, the kettle is warm, flowers are replaced, etc. She knows its her boyfriend, Matt. She is obsessed with finding him. So much so, it's all she thinks of. I can't tell you any specifics without spoiling it for you.This is where I start to lose focus. She is driving me crazy. This girl is 32 and is acting like some love obsessed teenager who has lost her first boyfriend. This girl is running everywhere to find Matt. I'm pretty sure that you could cut about half of her hysteria out and it would be a whole lot better book. And at the very, very end (no spoiler) I just threw my hand up. I want a thriller to be a thriller, not drama. The thriller is there. There were lots of things I did not see coming. I was even blown away by some of them. Tone back Hannah and you've got a great read.Thanks to Berkley Publishing for approving my request and to Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.
    • 1/5
      Do you ever pick up a book with the intention of hating it? Or course not. What reasonable person does that? When I chose this book to read, I thought I would at least like it, if not love it. Then I read it, which was a test to my stamina and resilience, and I find I didn't like it even a little bit. I don't want to bash any book. Really. I want to say nice things. But, oh, I didn't like this book at all. The story starts out with huge promise. As you know from the book's description, Hannah comes home to find that not only has her boyfriend left her, but all traces of him are erased from her life. The opening is eerie. All sorts of possibilities raced through my mind.And then we get to know Hannah...This woman is obnoxious. Seriously. She is an obsessive, childish, whiny, disaster. Her life is instantly consumed with finding Matt. I get that she wanted answers, but this woman couldn't even manage to wash her hair for days because she was too busy with Post-It notes tacked all over her kitchen. Every phone call she made and every detail she found or remembered went on a Post-It note, so she could spread them out, rearrange them, wallow over them, and rearrange them again. She goes from a high-powered position in accounting to a dribbling mess in no time at all. This goes on and on... and on. The first two-thirds or more of this book is Hannah obsessing and whining. Rinse. Repeat. She is so ridiculous that I couldn't manage a shred of sympathy for her.Then we get to the twist, where something finally happens aside from Hannah's incessant whining. I won't give spoilers. If you make it this far in the book, you've earned the surprise. But I read this twist in which we learn what happened to Matt, and I said, "Are you kidding me?"The last quarter or so of the book reads like Hannah is an entirely different character, though no more likable. Nothing about the Hannah we've come to know resembles the Hannah with whom we finish. Suddenly, when confronted with the truth, Hannah has a host of new and different memories. She even speaks differently. I suppose her character is meant to fit in with this new trend of 'unreliable narrators', though Hannah seems more deluded than unreliable. I wish I could say something good, but, hey, this is only my opinion. Other readers have loved the story. The great thing is that you can always read it and decide for yourself.*I was provided with an advance copy by the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.*
    • 5/5
      Anyone who reads constantly knows by the halfway point in a story generally how the tale ends. Not so in this disturbing read! I did not see the story taking it's eventual twist. This is a must read, and I look forward to further books by this author!
    • 4/5
      This was a highly suspenseful mystery - I really enjoyed it. The author did a great job of keeping you guessing throughout the entire book. You don't know who Hannah can trust and every time I thought I had something figured out something else would happen that would change my thinking. I definitely didn't see the twist at the end coming - the author did a great job of setting it up and explaining it. I look forward to reading more by Mary Torjussen. I received an ARC of this book form NetGalley.
    • 3/5
      I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.My absolute favorite thing about this book was how suspenseful it was. I could not put it down,and found myself squeezing in chapters throughout the day whenever I could. What was perhaps most impressive was that for the first two thirds of the book, there were no big reveals (except for the main one revealed in the book description), but small mysterious occurrences, and yet the suspense not only held, but grew. The little reveals made everything eerier and even more of a mystery.The concept is really unique, and had me having to know the solution. I could not figure out how Torjussen could possibly bring everything together in a way that made sense. This was a case of really surprising reveals (every time I thought I knew what was going to happen, I was completely wrong), but ones that did seem a bit out of the blue. There were so many completely surprising twists one right after the other in the last few chapters, that they seemed somewhat disjointed from what I had read before. The few flashbacks definitely made things clearer,This was a gripping read, and while I would have liked a little more foreshadowing, the twists were a big surprise, the kind that made me question everything I'd read before. This is a unique take on the psychological thriller, and the mystery did not disappoint.
    • 3/5
      The first couple chapters made me cringe a bit (overly dramatic for my taste), but I have to admit that this had a twist that I didn't see coming and it was a bit of a page turner.

      There were some questions that I didn't feel were answered (why was she being sabotaged at work, what happened with her dad, etc.), but overall, it was a good read.
    • 5/5
      4.5 starsOne day, when Hannah comes home from work, she finds her boyfriend, Matt, gone. All his stuff is gone, and her stuff is put back in its place from before he moved in. It’s as if he was never there. All his online profiles are gone, all photos that included him are missing, including from Hannah’s devices, all emails and texts are gone. There is no trace of him. I got sucked into this right away! This sure kept me wanting to read! And the twist!!! I didn’t see it coming at all, but to be honest, I usually don’t. Hannah was extremely obsessive, and there was plenty to not like about her, but I still felt badly for her and wanted her to find Matt. I couldn’t believe the way her best friend, Katie, was treating the whole thing – I did not like that at all. I will stop there; I don’t want to say too much more, for fear of accidentally giving something away.
    • 1/5
      Alright ... where do I start with this novel? Let me begin by saying that I did not enjoy this thriller for various different reasons:

      The first half of the story was boring. Hannah keeps crying and calling and making stupid mistakes. She is also fixated on Matt to the point where I felt embarrassed of her and for her. Her work starts to suffer, her friends become impatient with her, and she just can't seem to do anything but mope around and call the same number over and over again in the hopes that things are going to change.
      Weird things begin to happen to her and she does nothing at all about it. She just assumes it is Matt. Okay, fine, keep that assumption, but why don't you get some video cameras placed so you can find out if it really is him? Why do you do nothing to find out how someone is getting in and out of your house and spying on you? Her lack of thinking just made me shake my head.
      The twist ... it was awkward. What does that mean? It means that it took my by surprise but it was not done well. It was a sloppy twist that came out of nowhere and made no sense. Nothing from the first half of the story was indicative of this twist, and the rest of the story seemed to try to explain the twist .... which was also done unsuccessfully. It could have been done better.
      The random stuff with her parents. I get that the author was trying to explain some of the psychological impact that they may have had on Hannah but it didn't work because it seemed to have just been thrown in there and not been fully developed.
      The characters sucked. I hated all of them. They were not believable and they were just so unlikeable.
      Overall, this novel failed for me on a lot of levels. It had bad character development, a sloppy explanation for the events, sloppy events in general, and a very awkwardly-placed, underdeveloped twist. I read it because I felt I had to but not because I enjoyed it.

      I received this novel as an advanced copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Hannah Monroe comes home from work expecting her boyfriend Matt to be waiting for her but instead, she finds all trace of his presence in their home to be erased. His artwork is missing from the walls, his clothes, his furniture, and even his TV has been replaced by her old TV as if he was never there at all. She tries to call him only to find that his number has been erased from her phone, all of their text messages, e-mails, as well as every single picture from their four-year relationship. They were happy, they never fought, and life was good. Hannah doesn’t understand why he would up and leave like that without even trying to talk to her about it and all she wants is for him to give her a reason why.‘I knew that if I were to just see him again, just talk to him, he’d remember how much he loved me. And then he’d come back.’Desperate to find answers, Hannah begins to search for Matt any way that she knows how and she starts by contacting him at his office only to find that he had quit the week prior. She tries to get in touch with his mother only to find she moved months before Matt had left and nothing was ever mentioned to Hannah. Social media is also a dead-end and she quickly becomes even more determined to find him. She contacts his barber, any and all hotels in a reasonably distanced area, she stands outside the pub he used to frequent, and she only gets worse as time progresses. She starts keeping a notebook and post it notes to keep track of places she’s contacted hoping to uncover some connection to Matt during her research.‘For a moment I didn’t know what to do; I knew that if I didn’t write (the) details down somewhere noticeable, I’d forget them, so I picked up a red marker pen and made a note on one of my glossy cabinets.’Months pass and her obsessiveness over finding him only increases. She spends so much time looking for him that the job she used to pride herself on begins to suffer and she can’t seem to keep up with the workload anymore. She has trouble sleeping, she drinks far more than normal, and her appearance, physical (and mental) health quickly begins to deteriorate. And to make matters worse she’s started receiving unsettling text messages from unknown numbers, letters in her postbox, and she thinks someone is coming into her house when she’s gone.‘I wore the same clothes as I’d worn the day before. They were my lucky clothes now. And I’d lain awake all night in them, too, so that the luck didn’t wear off. I couldn’t risk that.’Hannah was quite the unlikeable character because of how exasperating her obsessive tendencies became. She became absolutely delusional but you couldn’t help wanting more for her, for her to be stronger, especially when you begin to realize just how much time has elapsed where she’s let this obsession take over her life. What I found most alarming yet fascinating about watching everything unfold was trying to uncover what motivated her, what possessed her to take things to such extremes. One can expect heartbreak from being left alone, but Hannah’s supposed heartbreak transformed into something terrifyingly destructive. In addition to all this, other facets of Hannah’s life are slowly revealed and we’re given glimpses into a troubling childhood and a best friend whom she shares a toxic relationship with. As the story unveils itself, you begin to question everything because there’s clearly something missing from this elaborate mystery. Admittedly, these scenes where she describes the feeling of being watched were so thoroughly unsettling that I began to feel one with Hannah and her paranoia.Gone Without A Trace is a psychological thriller brimming with anticipation and tension that will make this an impossible read to put down.
    • 4/5
      Hannah Monroe returns home one night to find her boyfriend of four years gone. All his belongings are gone and everything of Hannah's has been put back the way they were before Matt moved in. All trace of him being in her life is gone - the call logs, the texts, pictures. His cell number is no longer in use and all his social media accounts have been deleted. She can't understand why he'd do this but she's desperate to find him so he'll know she's not mad at him and that he can explain himself when he comes back to her. She'll do whatever it takes to track him down.

      Right from the beginning I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. What happened to Matt?! Things weren't moving fast enough. It was so suspenseful. Then when I found out, eh. I wasn't really surprised. There was one thing I didn't see coming that tied the whole story together but it just felt anticlimactic. I wish a few things could've been different. I feel so let down. But the first three quarters of the book was intense
    • 4/5
      Hannah Moore is having a great day at work after finding out she is being considered for a promotion. She cannot wait to get home and share the news with her live-in boyfriend of four years, Matt. When she arrives home, she finds that Matt, along with all of his possessions is missing.Matt has left no trace of his whereabouts and has completely erased Hannah from his life. His cell phone has been disconnected and all his social media accounts are gone. Files and photos on her computer have also been wiped clean along with her emails. Hannah is in complete shock about his departure and missed all signs that he was unhappy. Hannah can’t accept her situation and starts to search for her missing boyfriend. She becomes obsessed with locating him which begins to affect her job and her emotional well-being.This novel is a thriller with unforseen twists and turns. To say more would spoil the mystery. This is a captivating debut novel by Mary Torjussen which kept me on edge until its' conclusion.
    • 4/5
      STORY-LINE GONE WITHOUT A TRACE:In Gone Without A Trace, we find Hannah Monroe heading home from a successful conference; happy to soon be in the arms of her love, Matt. What meets Hannah is out of a nightmare. Every trace of Matt has disappeared, from text messages, photo's, personal articles, and things they had purchased together. It is as if Matt never existed. Then when Hannah did not think anything stranger could happen, odd things begin to occur. Who is messing with Hannah and why? Hannah, after days of crying, self-pity, and indecision, decides to find Matt and solve the mystery.Come along with Hannah on a journey of suspense and terror. My crime suspense novel review of Gone Without A Trace follows.CHARACTERS, PLOTTING, DEVELOPMENT:Author Mary Torjussen crafted an intriguing spine tingling, criminal suspense novel in her first offering to readers, Gone Without A Trace. First I must say, I found the main character, Hannah Monroe, whiny and insecure. I understand her stress, shock, and heart-break, however, most people would immediately call the cops. That said, I enjoyed the suspense, and twist and turns as Hannah began her search for Matt; it all made sense as the plot's revealed.Torjussen included twists and turns, dysfunctional families, thrills, suspense, mystery, and obsession in her story-line. The plot's skillful and the pace steady and fast. With an ending twist which left my mouth hanging open in amazement, I found myself dumbfounded! I never guessed what was coming.Finally, in concluding my crime suspense novel review of Gone Without A Trace, I found a solid story with fast pacing and enough intrigue and mystery to satisfy any one. Although I found Hannah's character irritating and immature in the beginning, it made sense as I neared the end of book. I found the twists in the story provided a satisfying read. I would not hesitate to buy this book for my self or a friend as it provided hours of chills and thrills and an ending which will knock your socks off.GONE WITHOUT A TRACE RECOMMENDATION: STARS 4In addition, I found Gone Without A Trace suitable for young adults and adults.FINALLY, PLEASE NOTE:Additionally, I received this book from Netgalley and the publisher; and chose to voluntarily review the book with an honest crime suspense novel review. Lastly, book reviews of any novel are dependent on the book review author’s opinion. Consequently, all book reviews on-line and on my blog, are my opinions. In addition, the free ARC did not affect my crime suspense novel review.
    • 3/5
      Gone Without a Trace by Mary Torjussen is a 2017 Berkley publication. With a big job promotion practically signed and delivered, Hannah can not wait to get home and share her good news with her boyfriend, Matt. But her bubble is immediately popped when she realizes Matt has cleared out all his belongings, and has simply vanished into thin air without a word. His cell phone, their share text messages, everything- completely wiped out. Hanna quickly becomes obsessed with finding Matt, which places a strain on her career, her health and her relationships with other people. How does someone vanish so thoroughly? Did Matt want to disappear or is something more sinister going on? It’s difficult to write this review without giving too much away, and even the slightest reference to narrative choices or plot twists could incidentally create a spoiler, but I will say I have some mixed feelings about this one. I think this story had potential, but ran out of steam around the half way point and ended up sputtering, although the ending was somewhat theatrical and perhaps a little chilling, depending your personal point of view. The author understands the formula behind the psychological thriller and did a very good job of building suspense and my curiosity remained piqued. But, the story began to lag a bit after a while and several odd threads began to crop up, most of them dealing with mother/ child relationships and the odd communication Hannah keeps receiving from someone she believes could be Matt. There is plenty here that is original, that reverses the norm, but it doesn’t flow smoothly, is disorganized, and disjointed at times, especially in the second half of the book, which is normally when things begin to firm up, where the threads all begin to come together. Once I knew what had happened and why, I realized that several of the characters behaved in ways that just did not make sense and simply was not plausible. There were also a few unnecessary complications, which were perhaps added in as red herrings, but only confused things, especially after those additional threads fell flat. Despite that, there is a malicious atmosphere that kept sending out warning signals, clueing me in to the possibility that, besides the obvious, there is something very wrong, which is what kept me turning pages, trying to decide if I could trust anyone involved, which is part of the fun. So, from that standpoint the book has the desired effect a psychological thriller should have. Overall, there are parts of the book that works very well with nice twists, and that ominous tone, but other parts do not come together evenly, with too many rough edges. However, the book is entertaining enough and hardcore psychological thriller fans will want to give this book a try.
    • 4/5
      Hannah is bursting with excitement after hearing that she’s headed for a big promotion at her job. She’s worked hard for it and she’s ready to celebrate. But when she comes home from her business trip, she’s astonished to see that her live-in boyfriend Matt has taken each of his possessions and is gone. Not only are his belongings gone but all photos and texts from her phone are missing and he’s disappeared from social media. She’s completely at a loss as things had been going so well for the two of them. She just can’t understand why he would leave and knows she has to get to the bottom of what’s happened.Thus starts Hannah’s descent into obsession. She starts getting strange texts and phone calls and sees signs that someone has been in the house when she’s not there. She’s sure that Matt’s trying to contact her. Is she mad or is there someone watching her?It was quite sad to watch Hannah’s deterioration as she struggles to come to terms with Matt’s apparent abandonment of her. I could definitely empathize with her as she went over and over in her mind everything that Matt said and did in the days and weeks before his disappearance, trying to work it all out. She longs for closure but can’t stop thinking about Matt. She has a friend, Katie, but their relationship has always been a competitive one and Katie isn’t always as supportive as Hannah needs.I didn’t see the plot twist coming though in looking back, I realize there were clues so others may guess. The twist touches on something that not many authors write about. All in all, this is a rip-the-pages-turning-them-so-fast book that is recommended.This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.
    • 3/5
      Gone Without a Trace is a new suspense novel by Mary Torjussen. Hannah Monroe is an accountant in Northwest England. She spent the day at a training course and is in a good mood because her boss implied that she will be getting a much-desired promotion to director in the fall. Hannah arrives home to find all of Matt’s, her boyfriend, belonging gone. Everything was the way it was before Matt had moved into the house. Hannah goes to call Matt and his contact information was removed from her phone along with pictures she had taken. She goes online and finds that all of his social media accounts have vanished. Hannah is shocked and confused. She thought everything was fine with their relationship. Hannah calls his phone number, but it has been disconnected. On Monday, she contacts his work to find out that he had quit a week earlier. She goes by his mother’s home to find that she moved several months prior. Hannah does not understand what is going on and starts calling area hotels looking for Matt. Hannah is neglecting her work searching for Matt. A week later Hannah receives a text from an unknown number stating, “I’m home”. Hannah is sure it is from Matt and rushes home to find the house empty. Then little things start happening at home. She comes home to find the dead flowers replaced and another time the tea kettle is hot with steam on the tiles. Is Matt behind these incidents? If not Matt, then who? Hannah is more determined to find Matt and get answers. But will she like the responses? Gone Without a Trace sounded like a great suspense novel. I was eager to read it and was quickly let down. The novel is told from Hannah’s point-of-view, and it is soon obvious that she has an unusual as well as unreliable view point (she is also very unlikeable). I believe the story would have been better if told from the third person (narrator) perspective. Readers are subjected to every single thing that Hannah does to find Matt. I did not understand why Hannah was going to such lengths to find him. I can understand wanting answers, but she took it to another level (which is the point, but it is still odd). The pace of the book is slow in the beginning (monotonous), but picks up in the last forty percent of the book. There is finally some action and things start coming together (in a way). I give Gone Without a Trace 3 out of 5 stars. I could tell what had happened early in the book. It was obvious what had occurred and who was behind it (limited cluster of suspects and obvious clues). I do wish that the mystery had been more intricate and difficult to decipher (and a faster pace). I never felt the suspense. Gone Without a Trace was an acceptable mystery novel. I just wanted more. I wanted the hair on my arms to stand at attention and for me to be riveted. The book has potential. With a little rewriting and editing it could be superb. This is the author’s debut novel. I will be interested to read her next creation.
    • 4/5
      3.5 Hannah Moore is on top of the world, a manager for a group of accountants, her talk so well received, a promotion to director almost a sure thing. She arrives home to, share the wonderful news with her live in boyfriend of four years, Matt but when she enters her home she finds all his things are no longer there. So the story begins, there are some other revelations she discovers that ratchet up the suspense. How could this happen? Where could he be? First person narration so we watch as her search for Matt becomes obsessive. Her best friend offers not so welcome advice, move on, forget him but Hannah cannot. Soon everything she has accomplished is in jeopardy, but still she can't let go.I probably would have rated this a four but the first third of the book just irked me somehow, Hannah running to and fro, just lasted too darn long. Also one thinly veiled plot twist that I caught on to straightaway and was ultimately proved right. The reader knows there has to be more to the story and there is plenty, including something very seldom talked or written about but is also why I have this an extra .5. That I didn't see coming. So a good read, some slow bits but ultimately a surprise if cluttered dénouement. ARC from Netgalley.