I would like to thank Bonnier Zaffre and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘She’s Not There’ by Joy Fielding in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
This novel starts with the events that happened fifteen years ago when Caroline and Hunter Shipley’s two year old daughter Samantha is stolen from her cot in their hotel room whilst on an anniversary trip to Mexico.
As the story unfolds I could see similarities between this novel and the real life kidnapping of a five year old girl that happened in Praia da Luz in 2017 and unfortunately has never been resolved.
I was engrossed by this story, hoping that the stranger who contacted Caroline could actually be their long lost daughter. Although I had no idea which of the characters could have been responsible, I was slightly disappointed by the ending. Nevertheless, the story was absorbing and the way the chapters kept moving between fifteen years ago and the present time worked very well. This is the first novel of Joy Fielding’s I’ve read and I’ll be looking out for more titles to read in the future.

Carole and her husband Hunter are enjoying a romantic getaway in Mexico when he convinces her to leave their two young children alone in their hotel room while the couple has dinner in the hotel’s restaurant. When they return , their two-year old daughter, Samantha is gone. Crucified by the press and convicted in the court of public opinion, Carole never gives up on finding her daughter. Now, 15 years later, Carole gets a call from a young woman claiming to be Samantha. Carole is torn between wanting it to be true and fearing it’s all a scam. Fielding makes a parent’s worst nightmare come to life in a story that mimics a real life missing persons case