I applaud the author for relating a story of a female abuser of a male partner. I think it more prevalent than is related through media and stories. Perhaps we just don't want to look at women as abusers or men don't want to seem weak in a relationship. Although Hannah had grown up in abusive relationship I feel her basic personality must have lent itself to fulfill her role as abuser. Abandoning her mother and justifying her actions speak to some mental confusion needing treatment much before the tragedy occurred. It was also concerning that close friends avoided direct confrontation of the problem until it was too late.

I thought the ending appropriate. This behavior is not something that is easily fixed and manipulation by the abuser is frightening. This could almost be promoted as: "Can you see yourself as one of these characters?" A self help read as what to look for and what not to do dealing with an abusive person! Rather frightening story.

The concept & description of the book was great - a boyfriend goes missing without a trace & his girlfriend sets out to find him. But it took forever to get to where the story finally took off - the last 50 pages!

Gone Without a Trace messed with my head so bad! Mary Torjussen starts off with a protagonist who comes across as being a shallow, one-note daddy's girl in the initial pages, to being an emotional basketcase after her boyfriend leaves her in the cruelest, most heartless way possible, to being...something else entirely. Such a complex character. The reader is quickly obsessed with the central question. Why would he do such a thing? Was he kidnapped? Then you make assumptions, because you are in Hannah's corner. What a horrible person! It's a good thing she has such a good girlfriend (name escapes me)! And a supportive father!

Oh, wait. Wait. A. Minute.

This novel turns on a dime so many times and it is absolutely awesome to experience. I try to reserve five-star ratings for books that hit me on an emotional level as well as entertaining me but this one gets it for pulling the rug out from under me so completely.

I will definitely buy this for the library and display it at the front desk.

I can't want for more Mary Torjussen novels. I really had no idea what could be happening all throughout the novel and when we finally find out it is SHOCKING. Wow! Such an original story and so much more than I expected.

Hannah's on the fast track to success. She's about to be named director of the accounting firm where she works, and she can't wait to tell her best friend and romantic partner, Matt. But when she gets home Matt isn't there, and does not come home that night at all. In fact, he seems to have vanished into thin air. Not only is he gone, but all traces of their life together have disappeared as well. No pictures, no texts, no old phone messages, and even all his social media accounts have been deleted. With her own hopes and dreams on the verger of disappearing as well, Hannah fights to make sense of her new reality even as the awful truth begins to unravel.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This book is billed as a chilling, twisty, compulsive thriller. Unfortunately, it missed the mark for me. It is chilling at times, but the twists don’t come until you have read at least three-quarters of the book, and the story is dragged out so far that there is no compulsion to keep reading. The story is good, and there is a twist at the end, but it would have been much better as a novella. I kept turning the pages, but quickly as I skimmed through the story, as I couldn’t take another five or six pages of the main character, Hannah, in her drunken state moaning about her fate.

Hannah and her boyfriend, Matt, live together for four years and one day she comes home to find him gone. Not just gone, but erased. All his things are gone, and her belongings are back in their place, as it was when he moved in. In addition, he is erased from Facebook, Instagram and every other social media. His phone number, call history and e-mails are erased. She begins searching for him in the likely places, but he has quit his job and his mother has moved. Then strange things begin happening. Someone is watching Hannah, entering her home when she is at work, sending message she thinks are from Matt.

It’s a great plot line, and there is a twist at the end. However, the repetition of Hannah’s inability to cope, turning to drink, being hungover, attempting to work, coming home to an empty house, etc. is tedious and boring. I couldn’t quite work up any sympathy for her either (that sounds so terrible), as Hannah wasn’t a nice person to begin with. While Matt’s disappearance is certainly intriguing, you just know it has something to do with Hannah.

I would have given it 1 star if it weren’t for the ending. Still, I don’t think I’d recommend anyone read it just for that.

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.

This was a wonderful suspenseful mystery! It is gripping from the very start with great twists.

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.

Gone Without A Trace

By Mary Torjussen

Berkley

April 2017

Cover Art by TK

In Mary Torjussen’s thriller “Gone Without A Trace,” Hannah feels confident that her training course in Oxford will lead to a promotion. She’s currently a senior manager for a sizable accounting firm. While it may be too early to celebrate, she can’t wait to tell her boyfriend Matt the news.

After a 200-mile drive back to her home in northwest England, she is stunned to find not a single possession of his in the home they shared. There is no "I'm leaving you" note. There was no phone call detailing the reasons why he wanted to leave her. Nothing. The only thing she can do is find him. Find out if he had another life elsewhere. This is where her obsession evolves. She becomes hyperaware of every little clue and they are barely visible that even the reader begins to search the rooms with her. She knows a person can not simply disappear. Her obsession begins to alter her appearance, her ability to focus at work, take care of her home, and her health.

There are only a few people she dares tell what she's experiencing: her co-worker, Sam, her friend Katie and former lover, James, who is Katie's boyfriend. Their texts and phone calls make her feel like she's going crazy. That she should simply accept what happened and move on with her life. But she can't and everything she learns merely pushes her closer and closer to the edge.

GONE WITHOUT A TRACE is a psychological thriller that flows so well from chapter to chapter that you are compelled to read more. I found that you are trapped by Hannah's obsession. It drags you so completely into her POV. When things begin to take an intentional path. You begin to wonder who is after her and why. I was caught off guard by the "who" and shook my head at the end. Don't people learn their lesson? At the heart of it, that's the part that scares you.

five post-it notes out of five

Denise Fleischer

gottawritenetwork.wordpress.com

February 25, 2017

Gone Without A Trace by Mary Torjussen is one of those books that once you start reading it you won't be able to put it down until you've reached the very satisfying conclusion. Hannah comes home from work one day to discover that her boyfriend, Matt, has disappeared. She becomes consumed with finding out where he has gone to and this obsession leads to problems with her career, friends, and family. She just can't let Matt go without finding out why he so suddenly left her. This book leaves you in suspense the entire time you are reading it. A very thrilling read! Enjoy!

I had all sorts of theories going into this book, none of which were correct. I love a mystery that subverts my expectations and keeps me guessing, and this book certainly did its job. The first third of the book does lag quite a bit, but once you get through it to the meat of the story, the payoff is totally worth it.

The definition of a page-turning thriller.

I really enjoyed this book. There were parts at the beginning that seemed slow or drawn out, but the last half of the book was amazing, Completely worth the read!

I went back and forth between 2 and 3 stars on this one (literally clicking the rating thing half a dozen times in my indecision). I mean, the concept was great, and the suspense is pretty subtle, because you start feeling stressed along with Hannah as everything seems to be conspiring against her in her personal and professional lives. The answer to the mystery of why Matt left is incredibly original and particularly well executed if you are a clever reader who can pick up on the understated clues. And I thought the subject was handled pretty well. The big caveat is that I just think too much other stuff was piled on top of Hannah's central problem. Despite the slow build, the ending was quite dramatic and satisfying overall. So if you can overlook Torjussen piling it on a bit thick, this is an entertaining read.

Great read! Suspenseful from the beginning with great plot twist at the end. Definitely recommend!

Surprising look at lasting effects from childhood trauma.

DNF at 80% I just could hang anymore.

Gone Without a Trace was very intriguing at first. How could you not be interested in a book with that suspenseful blurb!?! Unfortunately, this book fell very flat.

It started off very good. One day Hannah Moore, who is on top of the world in both her professional and personal life, comes home to find her boyfriend has disappeared. All of his stuff is gone, every last trace of him. Then, strange things start to happen. Someone is following her, entering her house when she isn’t there. Sending her notes and presents. She determines to find her missing boyfriend no matter the cost!

It started to drag on a bit, with very small things that would somewhat catch my interest and then die out with no information. I found myself getting frustrated, and just needing the book to come to some kind of end, or at the very least find the guy! Every scenario I could imagine as to why her boyfriend took off, and the way he did kept running through my head; it was pretty much what kept me going.

Finally, that moment came, and let me tell you! It threw me for a complete loop! Not in a good way. I still don’t understand exactly what happened or why for that matter. The author just took the whole first half of the book and basically threw it out the window! I was so frustrated with this twist and felt like the whole beginning and middle was pretty, much a waste of time.

I think it is a very interesting direction to take, however maybe a little more clues in the beginning to prepare ourselves not to trust the main characters side of things, would have made it easier to swallow.

I received this book through Netgalley and the author for free in exchange for a review for the Mystery Thriller Event. This in no way affects my opinions, they are my own.

Hannah Monroe comes home from work that not only is her boyfriend Matt gone, so are all of his belongings gone and her house put back like it was before she moved in. Not only that, all of his calls, texts have disappeared as well as anything she ever posted about him on social media. Her obsession with finding out what happened to him begins to endangers her health and her successfully position at work where she had been about to be promoted.

While I loved the premise of this book and was anxious to find out what happened to the boyfriend, the writing and story was pretty much the equivalent of a made-for-tv movie. This was yet another Gone Girl/Girl on the Train wannabe that doesn't measure up.

Gone Without a Trace is a compelling psychological thriller and a terrific read.
Gripping from the beginning, cleverly plotted & with lots of twists and turns, I finished it in three days as couldn't wait to find out what happened.
Highly recommended and I would read more by this author.

Thank you!