Will post a spotlight on April 11th at the Dew. http://dewonthekudzu.com

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.

Hannah Monroe has everything she ever wanted. She enjoys her work and her career is on the rise. She's paying down her mortgage on her own home. And she's in a great relationship with a wonderful man. Hannah's life is turned upside down when she returns home from a conference to find that the man of her dreams has disappeared. Not only has he left her, but he has removed all trace of himself from her home and their life together. Matt's disappearance is the beginning of Hannah's downward spiral into possible madness. She calls Matt's employer only to find he left months ago. She calls every hotel for miles to find him. She tracks down his coworkers to see if they can reveal any clues to where he is. She even tries to find Matt's mother, a woman she despises, to get answers only to find she's disappeared as well. Just when Hannah feels she's starting to come to grips with Matt's disappearance, she begins to receive strange text messages and phone calls and it seems as if someone is coming into her home when she's away. Has Matt returned? If these texts, calls, and visits aren't from Matt, who are they from and why? Why did Matt leave the way he did? Hannah is desperate to find answers to these questions and more, but will she be willing to accept the truth if she ever finds it?

I found Gone Without A Trace to be a fast-paced and engaging read. Ms. Torjussen has crafted a story with plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing until the bitter end. Initially, I felt sorry for Hannah, but the more I read the more I realized that all is not as it appears (no, I won't tell you any more...read the book!). Ms. Torjussen introduces us to only a handful of characters and they all come across as deeply flawed in some way. Hannah's past is slowly revealed as the story develops and the reader gradually comes to understand that her childhood was far from idyllic. Her father was and continues to be abusive and very manipulative, with her mother often being the victim of that abuse. Hannah's best friend seems to epitomize passive-aggressive behavior and isn't very likable. I found Gone Without A Trace to be a chilling psychological thriller and suspenseful read. There's a lot going on in this story and if I revealed it all you wouldn't need to read it, but here's a partial list: childhood abuse, spousal abuse, anger management issues, and murder. If you enjoy reading stories with unreliable narrators or a good thrill, then you'll definitely want to add Gone Without A Trace to your TBR list. I look forward to reading more by Ms. Torjussen in the future.

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.

Hannah returned home to the biggest surprise of her life, her boyfriend Matt had packed up every trace of himself from the home that the shared and is gone from her life without a trace. Checking her cell phone to try to call Matt he’d even gotten a hold of it and wiped all texts and numbers so she would have no way to find him.

Without even a picture to remember Matt, Hannah is more than hurt and only wants answers. Hannah’s life in the days and weeks that follow Matt’s disappearance become completely consumed with tracking him down to get the answers she feels she deserves. With her work life coming undone Hannah throws everything into discovering what led to Matt’s disappearance.

Gone Without A Trace by Mary Torjussen quickly became a real page turner when I picked up the book and began reading. I’m sure almost every adult has had a relationship end at some point in their life but how and why would someone move out and remove every trace of the relationship while their partner was gone?? I just couldn’t wait to find out what had happened that would lead to these events and didn’t want to put the book down.

Now, I will admit that Hannah’s complete spiral after Matt’s departure did have myself wondering a few times why she would or could not just try to start moving on with her life. But as soon as I would begin thinking this the author would throw in a twist that would have me back on the edge of my seat wanting to search with Hannah for the answer. The I will admit that the ending was nothing that I expected and will give the author credit for tossing in something I wouldn’t have thought of myself.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Hannah heads home from a fantastic day at work, a promotion on the horizon and the perfect man waiting at home for her. She's walking on sunshine and ready to celebrate. What she comes home to is one whopper of a surprise. Every trace of Matt, her boyfriend, has disappeared. The house has been changed completely back to before he ever moved in. Her old tv in place of the tv he had bought when he first moved in. Furniture moved around. Every single item that was his is gone. There's no trace of him on her phone, in her emails... poof! All traces erased from her life. How could he do this to her? How far will she go to find him and get some answers?

This novel keeps you guessing for the entire first half. I'm turning pages (or swiping left) as fast as my eyes can read. Why did Matt leave? Why can't Hannah find him? How did he manage to erase ALL traces? Is that even possible? Watching Hannah spiral in her obsession to find him, not knowing if she's completely crazy or if someone really is messing with her really kept my interest. Then we get some answers and the novel seems to take a wide turn in a different direction. Still engaging, but certain parts felt repetitive and dragged a bit here and there. Seeing how everything came together was pretty fascinating and I absolutely love the entire premise and where the author took it. I just wish it had been a little more seamless - I needed just a tad more integration from the first half to the second. Certain areas felt a bit abrupt but I do love Mary Torjussen's mind. And that ending. Yes, please and thank you. :D 3.5 stars

Suspenseful, complex, and highly descriptive!

This is a psychological thriller that emphasizes that people aren't always who they seem and victims have many faces.

The pose is clear and precise. The main character, Hannah, is intelligent but hard to relate to. She is incredibly selfish, in constant denial and consistently makes poor choices. And the plot, which is ultimately about obsession, anger, hatred, physical abuse and violence is mysterious and very twisty but has just a little too many sub plots including family, neighbour, friendship and work drama to remain believable and realistic.

I have to admit that this story captured my attention from the moment I read the synopsis and for the first half of the book I was exceptionally intrigued and curious, but I found that by the time Torjussen wrapped up all the loose ends she had lost me. I will commend the author on an incredible imagination though and I do believe that this is one of those books that some people will absolutely love, unfortunately for me the moments of lucidity in this novel were too outweighed by all the chaos.

Thank you to NetGalley, especially Berkley Publishing, for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I am not usually not one to read psychological mind-numbing books but over the last few months I've been able to read many of them. This latest book by the author truly had me wondering what to expect.

Imagine how you would feel if your live-in boyfriend just disappeared one day. All traces removed. Not being able to understand what was going on. Creepy!

Then you add into that weird things start happening at work, weird phone calls and texts. Maybe you really are losing it.

That's exactly the feeling that you get as you dive deeper into the story. While on the surface this story can seem a little bland and boring since Hannah will just not give up. She's hunting and searching for him, desperate to find any trace of a clue.

Then the twists start showing up and you're left wondering what in the heck just happened. That is a sign of a great story. And the author certainly took us right down the garden path and left us hanging, just a little bit.

Mary Torjussen brings us an engrossing read that is full of hints and secrets that are right there but you just cannot put a finger on. With a bit of a twisted ending, this is one that I couldn't stop reading.

I am not sure why I agreed to read this book. I rarely read straight mysteries. Don’t get me wrong, I like mysteries. I just normally read romantic mysteries, paranormal mysteries, historical mysteries, etc. I just don’t care for straight mysteries.

Wrong!!

I may not normally like them, but this book is amazing. I had a hard time getting into it because I didn’t think it would be all that interesting. I was so wrong. Once I gave it a chance, I was hooked. I had to know what had happened to her boyfriend. Was he alive? Had he left of his own free will?

At one point, I was convinced I knew who the bad guy was or maybe it was this other person. Hell, maybe they were working together.

My only criticism of the book is Hannah’s reaction to her boyfriend’s disappearance. She fell apart. She was completely obsessed with locating him. She quit eating; she quit bathing; she barely made it to work at all. I have issues with her giving up her entire life to hunt for him. It did not make her a likable character.

The mystery itself, however, was engrossing. Even though I had my moments of disliking Hannah so much, I didn’t want to continue, I HAD to know what was going to happen.

And I never saw it coming!

I’m not going to say anything further because you need to read this for yourself. It is an absolutely amazing book.

This book was sent to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

A deeply suspenseful novel; what started as a slow burner quickly turned into a wild and crazy ride with a twist I never saw coming. Highly recommended to fans who enjoy fantastical twists and turns!

The premise of this book sounded very interesting. What could've possibly happened to Matt to make him leave all traces of his life with Hannah as if he never existed? I actually began to have problems with the execution with this one right away though. The first person "I" narration can often work but I think the protagonist must be pretty strong and interesting to carry it off...Hannah was not. The constant "I" this and that regarding very irrelevant details and every single tiny thing began to make feel irritated. I don't want to be told every detail about what a character is doing, I want to feel that I'm there with the character. Hannah wasn't a character I connected to in any way and for me that makes it hard to invest in a story. I also felt that the second half of the book was very disconnected from the first half, almost like a totally different story. I just didn't care by the end which is not how I like to feel when reading a thriller. I think do think the author has talent and I appreciate the hard work involved in writing an entire book, this one just didn't work for me.

This was the second psychological thriller that I read in a few weeks that I highly recommend. This is a page turner with a twist that was unexpected. I loved the story line and could easily put myself in Hannah's place and feel the confusion and devastation that she felt.

The writing was captivating and realistic and the story was well flushed out. I really enjoyed this and read it very quickly.

Reading Gone Without a Trace by Mary Torjussen is like having select seating to watching someone have a nervous break-down. It's impossible to look away even as the suspense just keeps building and building.

Hannah Monroe has everything going for her, a job she loves and a long-term (4 year) relationship with Matt, who she adores. At 32, she is poised to be named the youngest director ever at her company. Excited to share the news, she buys champagne to celebrate and rushes home to find that Matt has moved out and taken every shred of evidence that he was ever there at all - every book, every painting, every picture, even his food items are gone. Her house has been painstakingly put back the way it was before he moved in. Why did he move out? Where did he go? What the h*** happened? She is at a total loss. She waits, she calls and calls, she texts him, but there are no answers. No one has seen him. She is beside herself. When she learns that he has erased all emails and text messages to/from/about him from her phone and computer, quit his job weeks ago, has removed himself from all social sites and ditched his phone, she realizes he has been planning this for some time and her missing him begins to turn to anger at the humiliating way he broadsided her. Why can't they just talk it out? She had thought everything was fine!!

Her compulsion to find Matt and find out why he left soon become an obsession - nothing is as important as finding Matt. Her work suffers and her friends are concerned. Meanwhile, she is convinced that someone has been coming into her house while she's not there. Dying flowers have been replaced with fresh ones, a message has been left, someone is calling her and not speaking, her notes are rearranged. Is it Matt? Who else would be doing this? Her friends begin to doubt her. Are these things really happening or is she imagining them? And still the spiral out of control continues....

I found the book mesmerizing. I too, wanted to know what happened to Matt! What would make anyone who wanted to leave a relationship take such drastic measures to do so? The author is skillful at keeping the suspense high and tossing in unexpected twists and turns. I found it a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for allowing me to read an e-ARC of this book!

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.

The main character, Hannah, comes home from a business trip to find that her boyfriend Matt is gone. Not only is he gone, but he has basically erased the fact that he was ever in her life to being with. He has removed himself from all social media, he removes all the pictures of himself, deletes every email and even takes the furniture that they bought together and replaces it with Hannah's old items that were in storage. Hannah is fairly shocked at first and begins searching for him, which quickly turns into an obsession. She becomes obsessed to the point that she starts neglecting everything else in her life. I don't like to use the word crazy, but her obsession with finding him becomes maddening to her.

I enjoyed this book, as well as the author's writing. I did feel that the beginning/middle of the book had a bit of a different feel to it and I felt as it shifted a bit as we got towards the ending. I felt like the story moved along at a pretty steady pace and didn't find myself getting bored at all during the book. Without giving away any spoilers, I did find that that the big twist wasn't quite what I expected it to be, but I did enjoy it. I did find that the book was fairly suspenseful throughout and I found myself trying to figure out what was going on. Hannah adds in memories throughout the story that help fill in some of the blanks. Overall, I enjoyed the book and recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the suspense/thriller genre. Thank you to the publisher for sending me an advanced reading copy of the book.

Hannah, our protagonist, is an Accountant who is living with Matthew. When she returns home from a conference, she discovers that Matthew is gone along with all his belongings up to and including everything from their life together. Hannah begins to disintegrate slowly but surely and refuses to believe that he won't be back. She begins to search for him. While she is pursuing him she is also being gas-lighted and believes that it is Matthew who is doing this to her. Lots and lots of psychological tension in a well thought out plot. Telling more about it would lead to spoilers, but it will keep the reader engrossed. Thanks to Net Galley and Berkeley for an ARC for an honest review.

When I read mysteries, I typically read historical mysteries but from time to time, a modern psychological thriller captures my eye and I pick it up but I kind of have to be in the mood.

Well the mood struck me when Gone Without A Trace came up for review. So what caught my eye about this one? Well I liked the tag line ‘no one disappears completely’. One of my favorite shows on ID TV is Disappeared, so books that deal with disappearances intrigue me because that tag line is so true and the not knowing drives the interest for me.

Gone Without a Trace is a compulsive thriller about a woman who returns from work to find her boyfriend has vanished.

No one ever disappears completely…
You leave for work one morning. Another day in your normal life. Until you come home to discover that your boyfriend has gone.

His belongings have disappeared. He hasn’t been at work for weeks. It’s as if he never existed. But that’s not possible, is it? And there is worse still to come. Because just as you are searching for him, someone is also watching you (summary from Goodreads).


This book is told in the first person which I thought worked well for the story and a point of view that I think typically works well within suspense or thriller novels. For me though, Hannah as a main character was at times a little over dramatic and that kind of bothered me. I prefer my main characters, especially women leads, less drama. I think what bothered me the most was at first she had questions but when things started to look like he simply left her, why keep beating a dead horse so to speak? I don’t know, had it been me I would have been like fine you left me, your loss and move on.

Finding Matt becomes an obsession for her in a way that I couldn’t necessarily relate to as a reader. While at times she seemed justified in her frustration and obsession, I just had a hard time relating to her. After a while I did start questioning her reliability as a POV character which ultimately became the driving force for me to continue reading this one.

Something about this book just fell short for me. It was a little slower paced that I expected for a book that’s supposed to be a thriller and the plot wasn’t exactly ‘fresh’ in my opinion. With the success of books like Gone Girl, I think this book tried to capitalize on that trend, but for me it feel just in the middle of the road (as did Gone Girl in my opinion).

That said, I did enjoy the whole unreliable narrator piece and as I mentioned earlier, I like books about disappearances so that kept me reading. I had to know what happened to Matt. While not as obsessive as Hannah, I was intrigued nevertheless and wanted to know what happened to him. I was ultimately invested enough in the story to keep reading and find out what happened to the characters but at the same time I wasn’t desperately trying to finish the book as fast as I could to find the resolution.

The other suggestion I had was adding more substance to the summary. For me, it wasn’t enough to garner any attention. It was bland and not appealing. Had I not been in the mood to read a psychological thriller, I probably would have passed on this one based on the summary. It was worthy of a more detailed synopsis.

On the whole, it earned three stars from me. Ok, but not mind blowing.

Challenge/Book Summary:

Book: Gone Without A Trace by Mary Torjussen

Kindle Edition, 352 pages
Published November 3rd 2016 by Headline
ASIN B01D8ZE2QG
Review copy provided by: Publisher/Author in exchange for an honest review
This book counts toward: NA

Hosted by: NA
Books for Challenge Completed: NA
Recommendation: 3 out of 5

Genre: Psychological thriller, thriller, mystery, suspense

Memorable lines/quotes:

Mary Torjussen answers a thought-provoking question: How far would you go to find your loved one if they disappeared without warning? Gone Without a Trace is an imagining of such a case when Hannah comes home to find her boyfriend of four years has moved out. Gone are all his belongings and even the memories that should have been left behind from text messages and emails have been erased. Add to the surprise of finding the love of her life could just leave her, someone seems to be following her and sending messages that she believes are from Matt.

I was hooked from the blurb. When I finished the story I was amazed by the depth of plot and characterization. I half believed that Hannah was crazy from the start and would realize that either she imagined the last four years of being in a relationship with Matt, or something happened to him and someone went to the extreme to remove his existence. Turns out I was right on both accounts, but in what way is for the reader to experience for themselves. This is a story that makes an impact from the charged emotions to the subtly placed clues. It takes on more than Hannah's search for Matt and explores toxic relationships and how they affect one's sense of self and actions. Hannah's childhood and friendships played major roles in the outcome of this story. I admire Torjussen's ability to layer the plot with intense themes while also keeping the reader just out of reach of the answers. Readers aren't left in a lurch by the conclusion which shows that Torjussen though long and hard about how to portray Hannah's story. No detail is left unresolved or questions unanswered.

Mary Torjussen takes readers on a ride that gets more intense as it progresses. Hannah begins her story in a haze of uncertainty and suspicion. As her tale continues she becomes clearer and walks into a new light that is unexpected but gives Gone Without a Trace an edge in psychological thrillers. It's not the typical thriller I was expecting but something much more gratifying!
*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review*

The twists and turns are not gone without a trace in this novel from Mary Torjussen. They are around every corner.

Hannah Monroe's boyfriend, Matt, is gone. His belongings have disappeared from their house. Every call, text, photo and sign of him in her life has vanished. It's as though their years together never happened. Hannah struggles with humiliation, but she knows she'll do whatever it takes to find him and get answers. And she sets out to do just that.

While there were times when the details of Hannah’s days felt like they were bogging down the story, it didn’t outweigh my need to know what happened to Matt. I desperately needed to know if he was okay. Torjussen does an excellent job of building suspense and making the reader think the solution could be this. But wait! Was it this? Or this? Or this? The possibilities seemed endless and this reader didn’t come close to figuring out what was happening.

Where was Matt? The solution was a huge surprise as this book took on an everyday occurrence from an angle not often explored. It was a shock to me and something I don’t remember ever reading in a book before. I won’t say anything else for fear that I’ll give too much away. I’ll close with the recommendation that you read this book. It’s one of my favorites in genre so far this year. It was a story that I think will stick with me for quite some time.

OH MY GOODNESS!! This book kept me reading far into the night. I thought I had it figured all out then BAM! I was totally blown away by the ending. This is a page-turning mystery you wont want to miss.